Tile Stove
Tile stove formed from a cornice, intermediary and base molding with squared tile decorated with a rosette in the center and fleur-de-lis on each corner, standing on a wooden platform supported by four square molded ceramic legs. The fire box is reached thru an iron door at one end. The whole stove is “decorated with underglaze sponging and painting of copper and manganese over white slip.” (Bivins p.20) This pattern is called the “patera shell” pattern.
“Memorabilia, or annual diary of outurned affairs, 1756 – [Br. Aust burned stove tiles, and when they were ready he set up stoves in the Gemein Haus and the Brothers House, probably the first in Carolina.] “It is evident that tile stoves were not common anywhere in American during this period;…Obviously, the tile stove was a far more efficient heating device than an open fire, because of its large radiant area,…Another obvious advantage of the ceramic stove was that each room of a house did not require a fireplace because the stoves used a sheet-iron stove-pipe which could be routed through the walls, greatly saving on the amount of brick masonry needed in the construction of a building.” (Bivins p.20))