Do you know what? The Bellesguard tile, part II

By Ferran Garcés

Last week we discussed the tile we find in the lobby of the Torre Bellesguard, built between 1900 and 1909, a period of great change for Barcelona. Its manufacturer could have been either of the two big factories of the time, Orsola i Solà, or Escofet. Which one was it? To answer the question, it doesn’t take much research. We just need to flip one of the pieces over. It’s the image we’re using as the header for this article. In it, we see the characteristic Orsola i Solà seal: an eight-pointed star, a symbol we can distinguish in an advertisement for the brand created by Alexandre de Riquer, a well-known artist of the time.

On the hunt for the tile! Are you in?

Torre Bellesguard wasn’t the only place where the featured tile in our article was installed. To be precise, it’s number 954 in the Orsola i Solà catalogs. Around the 1920s, its trace was lost, but, with luck and perseverance, we can discover other areas of Barcelona where it has survived.

Would you like to help us find more? If so, you can send us a photo of your discovery, and as a thank you for your effort, we’ll give you a free tour (link to some kind of “contest rules”). So far, Carles Salillas, manager of Bellesguard, has already “found” two locations:

Anmi parking lot next to the current Tàpies Museum, and, in the past, the headquarters of Montaner y Simón Publishers, built by Lluís Domènech i Montaner between 1880 and 1882. The parking lot also borders the One Shot hotel, which was originally a house built in 1900 by Salvador Andreu, the well-known creator of a popular cough lozenge at the time and the main promoter of the legendary blue tram and Tibidabo funicular. Unfortunately, as you can see, the condition of the pavement is very poor.

The parish of Santa Teresa of the Child Jesus in Barcelona, at 29 Benet Mercadé street, near Gal·la Placídia square. The date of construction is between 1932 and 1940. Fortunately, here the ground is better preserved (1).

Thanks to the website “El mosaic del meu barri” we know of another location at 23A Carmel Road, in the flooring of a room in the old Josep Pardo house, now the Gaudí House Museum (2). This building was designed between 1902 and 1904, at the beginning of the Torre Bellesguard period, by Francesc Berenguer, Gaudí’s right-hand man at the time, although the plans are signed by Gaudí. Around 1904, Gaudí also designed his famous Gaudí tile, also hexagonal (3). In 1906, Gaudí moved to this house, where he lived until 1925, a year before his death.

“The little dog tile”

Earlier this year, Joan Moliner, a tile enthusiast from Barcelona, visited us and, of course, he is familiar with the lobby tile of Torre Bellesguard. He himself has found a sample in Gracia, which we can date around 1900 (link). From his Instagram profile, like us, Joan Moliner also asks if anyone else has seen this tile anywhere. Will you help us find more?

We are very grateful to Joan Moliner because he has shared with us some very interesting information. For example, according to him, there is a likely precedent of the Bellesguard tile, number 819 in the Orsola Solà i Cia catalog. As you can see in the following image (lower left margin), it’s not the same but resembles the one we already know from the Torre Bellesguard lobby. The photo is from an 1898 catalog, recovered thanks to architect and interior designer Natàlia Gonzàlez-Novelles Farrús, a specialist in the study of the Orsola Solà i Cia company (4)

Another day, Joan Moliner shared with us a catalog published in January 1911 by Orsola Solà i Cia. This is quite a curious sample because, at some point, someone used it as a drawing notebook. On one of its pages, the anonymous artist sketched the shape of a dog over the forgotten tile. Well, until now. With luck, and with your help, we can find more places where it has survived. On the hunt for the tile! Are you in?

Notes

(1) More information: Editorial Team (consulted on 09/28/2024), “Carrer de Benet Mercadé, 29. Parròquia Santa Teresa del Nen Jesús”, El Mosaic del meu barri website, Barcelona City Council.

(2) Editorial Team (consulted on 09/28/2024), “Carretera del Carmel, 23 A. Casa Museu Gaudí, pavement with rhombuses”, El Mosaic del meu barri website, Barcelona City Council.

(3) It’s a design used for the first time at Casa Milà, in 1906, although it was a model originally intended for Casa Batlló, started in 1904. Editorial Team (09/03/2019), “The true history of the Gaudí Tile,” Escofet company blog.

(4) Gonzàlez-Novelles Farrús, Natàlia (October 2010), “The hydraulic mosaic and the Orsola Solà i Cia company,” Final Degree Project, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, p. 46