Page 80 - Bulletin 9 2005

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form of architecture suited to her individual needs. The Italian and Spanish types of building,

with their gay colour decoration, Della Robbia and brilliantly painted tiles, are undoubtedly
more suited to South Africa, with its constant sunshine, than the

severer architecture of England and Holland, on which we have modelled our houses in the
past. This need is being felt by the architects of South Africa, for there is a growing demand

for architectural faience.” Later she discusses the recent establishment of the Ceramic Studio
at Olifantsfontein and mentions that its products at that stage consisted of “decorated tiles,

modelled faience, and colour-glazed garden ornaments”.

Decorated tiles: pictorial style and content

Architects soon began to take an interest in the products of the studio and commissions
followed. In 1928 the studio secured what was to be its single largest commission: 11 000

individually decorated tiles for the public tea room, bar and waiting room of Johannesburg’s
new railway station designed by Leith and Moerdijk. The latter wanted the tiles in the tea

room to resemble delftware, and the walls and pillars were thus clad up to picture-rail height
in blue and white tiles depicting a wide variety of South African subjects including fauna,

flora, historical events and people, buildings, ships, topographical scenes, and copies of San

rock paintings. Audrey Frank and Thelma Currie spent an entire year researching the pictorial
content of the tiles and painting the designs. During their research they not only consulted

reference books but in the interests of accuracy also undertook field trips to sketch certain
subjects. Although this magnificent room is now closed and sadly neglected, the massed tiles

still create an extraordinary impression.

In the station bar the tiles are entirely different: inspired by the Alhambra in Spain (Gladys

Short had travelled to Granada specifically to examine the architectural ceramics there), they
consist of interlocking geometrical shapes glazed in bright, contrasting colours, creating an

extremely rich and decorative effect. Similar designs painted on 6 x 6 inch tiles were later

used for domestic commissions. In the station waiting room there are panels with Dutch
proverbs in Gothic lettering (the tea room also has three such panels), which were traced from

canvas panels which had been imported from the Netherlands to decorate the earlier railway
station.

The designs for the station tiles were also offered to other clients: thus, for example, the