Introduction
From our personal archives, this original reduction lustre tile by the late Marjory Clinton captures the true magic of lustreware - a deep midnight ground animated by flashes of metallic light, born from glaze chemistry and an oxygen-reduced second firing rather than anything applied on top.

This piece reads like a painter’s surface first and a tile second, which makes perfect sense given Clinton’s early training in painting. The composition is unapologetically expressive - an inky blue field with drifting, cloud-like eruptions of pale gold lustre that shift as the light moves.

Reduction lustre firing is notoriously sensitive, and that is part of the appeal here. The metallic sheen sits within the glaze as a thin, iridescent skin, giving the surface depth and a slightly mysterious, changeable quality that photography never fully captures.

Presented within our collection as a homage to Marjory Clinton, this tile is less about uniformity and more about presence. It works beautifully as a framed object, a study piece within a display niche, or as a singular accent where you want the story, the hand, and the kiln to be visible.