Tile with the House of Bourbon’s coat of arms

An azulejo de propio, the name given to tile house markers, that represents the House of Bourbon coat of arms, surrounded by the golden fleece and framed by a smooth painted bordure. Cobalt blue, ochre, yellow and black are used on a white background.

After a period of major decline in the second half of the 17th century, tiles enjoyed a renaissance in the 18th century with new iconographic styles and innovations. In addition to their main use as wall plinths, among the most common uses for flat painted tiles at this time were these tiles that were used on façades, to mark neighbourhoods and streets and as risers on staircases.

The tiles known as "azulejos de propio" were intended to mark the ownership of property and were therefore placed on building fronts. When making an inventory, the large owners, usually religious institutions, commissioned a complete order of these tiles to a tile-maker who repeated the emblem of the institution or the family insignia. Sometimes he would add a brief text and the officially registered number of each of its properties. The most numerous examples date from the 17th and 18th centuries, although they must have been made in the same way before and after these dates.

This tile shows the coat of arms of Philip V (1700-1759) and maintains all the features of the previous shield but with changes to the design and the layout: the arms of Flanders and Tyrol now appear in separate quarters, at the point of the shield in lieu of the previous escutcheon; a new central escutcheon is added with the Bourbon fleur-de-lis with the bordure in gules, used by the Dukes of Anjou, which then differentiated it from the French motifs. It continues to use the Golden Fleece (since it considers being at the helm of the Order as its right, which caused the schism in it); to this it adds that of the French Order of the Holy Spirit. The design of the crown is updated and adopts the current form of eight fleurons (five exposed) and reserves the four fleuron crown (three exposed) for the Prince of Asturias.

As its number indicates, the piece is from house number 83 of the city properties of the royal palace in the Royal Alcázares of Seville.