Features of microstructure and composition of 18th century dutch tiles revealed by SEM, XRF, XPS, and TOF-SIMS

• Main Authors: Wainstein, D., Vakhrushev, V., Kovalev, A., Konovalov, E., Volkov, A. N., Kologrieva, U., Mukhsinova, A., Shlykova, T., Leonidova, A., Shipova, M.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: 18th century; Composition; Dough; Ions; Microstructure; Photoelectrons; Scanning electron microscopy; Spectrum analysis; Tiles; X ray fluorescence analysis; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0143537

Partially fragmented faience tiles made of ceramic dough of light yellow color with a fine texture, covered with a white glaze (enamel) and decorated by blue and brown ornaments in an underglaze technique were visually estimated by art history expertise as Dutch ones fabricated in the 18th century. Several fragments of the tiles with blue and brown paintings with dimensions less than 20x20 mm were selected for instrumental studies. The paper presents results on microstructure of the tiles’ obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and composition of glaze and douhg measured by the set of methods with different spatial and depth resolution: X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and time-of-flight mass-spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS). The obtained information was compared with literature data describing features of microstructure and elemental composition of attributed Dutch tiles fabricated in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Harlinger. It was found that investigated sample with blue painting can be attributed as Dutch one fabricated in the beginning of 18th century while fabrication date and place of brown samples should be should be clarified by further literature analysis.