Saucer (used by William Morris)

Details

Date: 19th century
Dimensions: 3.2 x 15.3
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: H3b
Owner: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Presented by Professor and Mrs J W Mackail, 1938.

The cup and saucer was used by William Morris at The Grange, the Burne-Jones’ Fulham house, where he kept it especially for his own use when he dined there because he objected to the small size of the Burne-Jones’ coffee cups.
According to a handwritten note in the WMG file by J. W. Mackail, dated 11 May 1938 …”it was kept there and always used by him, and by no one else, either then or since.” The cup and saucer are described as Flemish by Mackail. (SH)
The cup does not exactly match the saucer.

Details

Date: 19th century
Dimensions: 6.7 x 11
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: H3a
Owner: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Credit notes: Presented by Professor and Mrs J W Mackail, 1938.

The cup and saucer was used by William Morris at The Grange, the Burne-Jones’ Fulham house, where he kept it especially for his own use when he dined there because he objected to the small size of the Burne-Jones’ coffee cups. According to a handwritten note in the WMG file by J. W. Mackail, dated 11 May 1938 …”it was kept there and always used by him, and by no one else, either then or since.” The cup and saucer are described as Flemish by Mackail. The cup does not exactly match the saucer.

Details

Date: c.1863-64
Dimensions: 60.5 x 127
Object Type: ceramic
Material: tin-glazed earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C75
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Maker: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG Purchase, 1953

This tile panel depicts the children’s fairytale ‘Beauty and the Beast’. It was originally installed above a fire place in a bedroom of the artist Myles Birket Foster, at his home The Hill, Witley, Surrey. The scroll on the surrounding Swan tiles is inscribed with a description of the story, ‘How a Prince who by enchantment was under the form of a beast became a man again by the love of a certain maiden’.

The panel was designed by Edward Burne-Jones. The bear was based on sketches specially drawn for him by Philip Webb, who probably observed the animals at Regents Park Zoological Gardens. Lucy Faulkner, the sister of Charles Faulkner, one of the partners of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. painted Burne-Jones designs by hand onto the tiles.

Burne-Jones also designed a similar panel of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ for Birket Foster’s house (now in the V&A Museum, London).

Details

Date: 1861-62
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C78
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Hitch, 1954

Tile with flying duck above water, painted in blue on a white background. The bird appears dynamic, with its wings spread wide and its beak open. Its feathers are detailed with expressive brushstrokes, and the body features a crisscross pattern. Below the bird, wavy lines suggest water. This design is part of a series of bird-themed tiles attributed to Philip Webb, a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement and a close associate of William Morris. The design dates from the early 1860s and reflects the hand-painted tradition employed by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. These tiles were likely produced for fireplaces and architectural decoration, with similar designs appearing in stained-glass panels.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82c
Designer and maker: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

This series of 7 tiles depicts the story of Cinderella. It was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner. Burne-Jones account book for September 30, 1862 refers to : “10 designs for tiles, Cinderella paid £7.10s” which may well be the set made for Myles Birket Foster’s house, The Hill at Witley Surrey. The tiles were intended for an overmantel panel and four two tile figures, the original designs are in the V&A and Fitzwilliam. This set shows the colours having run during the firing, suggesting they were either trial samplers or rejects and kept by Lucy Faulkner. Other sets exist in the Gallery’s collection (WMG202), the Walker Art Gallery and the Sanford and Helen Berger Collection, The Huntington Library in California.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82d
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82e
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82f
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Catalogue number: C82a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Date: 1876
Dimensions: 167.6 x 91.4
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: slip-covered and hand-painted
Catalogue number: C176
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: Architectural Pottery Company, Poole
Credit notes: Purchased with a grant-in-aid from the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1974

William Morris’s design for this tile panel (A31) is also in the collection and is inscribed along upper right edge, ‘Tiles for bathroom, Membland’. Membland Hall, near Plymouth, Devon was purchased by Edward Charles Baring (1829-1897) in 1877. Baring was a banker, created first Baron Revelstoke in 1885. He exployed the architect George Davey (1820-1886) to re-model the house and add wings and outbuildings. This ceramic panel was manufactured by William De Morgan, with Morris’s design being painted on blanks supplied by the Architectural Pottery Company, Poole, Dorset.

Membland Hall was sold in 1916 and, prior to its demolition in 1928, a series of six sets of these tiles were found in a cupboard and had apparently never been mounted. One of these sets was presented to the V&A (C.36-1972) and another panel was with the Fine Art Society in 1972. The Museum for Applied Arts in Cologne acquired a panel of this design in 1978 (E04941). Tile panels of the design used at Membland appeared in the Morris firm’s stocklist as late as 1913 and were presumably available on commission until that date. In 1899 Lewis Day attributed the design and its execution to the year 1876 (William Morris and His Art, Art Journal Supplement 1899, p.19).

Details

Date: c. 1875-80
Dimensions: 13 x 13
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C208
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1993

The raven tile was designed by Philip Webb, probably designed in 1868. The design appears to have been intended for production in Holland from the outset, and finely painted examples such as this were likely prototypes or showroom samples retained by the firm. Dutch tiles were produced for the Morris firm from three of Webb’s designs of about 1868–69. All three Dutch versions were used, together with the Scroll, Artichoke and ‘Webb Sunflower’ patterns, for a fireplace in a house in East Anglia where Webb undertook alterations in the early 1870s. The Dutch adaptations, often incorporating a characteristic Delft-style landscape background, demonstrate the freedom with which the tileries modified Webb’s original designs. Webb later reused his hare and raven motifs as studies for the animals in the Morris & Co. tapestry The Forest (Victoria and Albert Museum), designed in collaboration with William Morris and J. H. Dearle and woven at Merton Abbey in 1887.

Details

Date: c. 1875-80
Dimensions: 13 x 13
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C207
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1993

The cock tile was designed by Philip Webb, probably in 1868. The design appears to have been intended for production in Holland from the outset, and finely painted examples such as this were likely prototypes or showroom samples retained by the firm. These Dutch tiles were produced for the Morris firm from three of Webb’s designs of about 1868–69. All three Dutch versions were used, together with the Scroll, Artichoke and ‘Webb Sunflower’ patterns, for a fireplace in a house in East Anglia where Webb undertook alterations in the early 1870s.

The Dutch adaptations, often incorporating a characteristic Delft-style landscape background, demonstrate the freedom with which the tileries modified Webb’s original designs.

Details

Date: 1875-1880
Dimensions: 13 x 13
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C206
Designer and maker: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1993

The hare tile was designed by Philip Webb probably in 1868, although entries in Philip Webb’s accounts date from late 1869 and early 1870. The design appears to have been intended for production in Holland from the outset, and finely painted examples such as this were likely prototypes or showroom samples retained by the firm.

These Dutch tiles were produced for the Morris firm from three of Webb’s designs of about 1868–69. All three Dutch versions were used, together with the Scroll, Artichoke and ‘Webb Sunflower’ patterns, for a fireplace in a house in East Anglia where Webb undertook alterations in the early 1870s. The Dutch adaptations, often incorporating a characteristic Delft-style landscape background, demonstrate the freedom with which the tileries modified Webb’s original designs. Webb later reused his hare and raven motifs as studies for the animals in the Morris & Co. tapestry The Forest (Victoria and Albert Museum), designed in collaboration with William Morris and J. H. Dearle and woven at Merton Abbey in 1887.

Details

Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C272
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Maker: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Credit notes: Presented by Mr Anthony Marlow, 2013

The Tulip & Trellis tile was designed by William Morris in the 1870s and produced by Morris & Co. It is decorated in blue overglaze on a 6-inch tin-glazed tile; a polychrome version is also recorded. The design is structured around tulip stems that form a series of parallel vertical curves. When repeated, the pattern creates a flowing linear rhythm across the surface.

The tile forms an evolutionary link with Morris’s earlier quartered designs, but unlike most related patterns in this group, it does not depend on alternating mirror-images in two dimensions. Instead, its sinuous stems anticipate the ‘turnover’ patterns that became characteristic of Morris’s later wallpapers and textiles.

Details

Date: c.1862
Dimensions: 12.8 x 12.8
Object Type: ceramic
Material: tin-glazed earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C178a
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Alan Green, 1976

This design of alternating swans and leaf scroll motif is attributed to William Morris c.1862. The tiles were decorated in Morris & Co.’s workshops on an imported Dutch tin-glaze tile. Morris later transferred production to the Netherlands, those tiles are slightly smaller and decorated using the more durable ‘in-glaze’ technique, as opposed to the hand painted ‘on-glaze’ technique of this earlier tile.

Details

Date: c.1870s
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C189
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Gift of Arthur Halcrow Verstage, 1957

Tile with sixteen squares of alternating patterns of sunflowers and daisy clumps; no other examples of this tile design have been found. In technique it is comparable to tiles painted by the Morris firm in the early 1870s, but the design more closely resembles designs by William De Morgan. One possibility is that it was designed by De Morgan in the period from the late 1860s-1870s, when he was doing occasional work for the Firm.

Details

Date: c.1870s
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C268
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Manufacturer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2010

William De Morgan’s sister-in-law Mrs A.M.W. Stirling recalled that he had said, ‘Morris never made but three designs for my execution, the Tulip and Trellis, the Poppy and another – I forget the name. I never could work except by myself and in my own manner.’ The ‘Tulip and Trellis’ design was, in fact, produced concurrently by both Morris’s firm and De Morgan. The Morris & Co. version was, however, painted solely in blue.

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C83a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Illustrator: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Retailer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L Hitch, 1954

Edward Burne-Jones designed the Sleeping Beauty tile series in 1863-4 for Myles Birket Foster’s house The Hill at Witley. The decoration of the house was one of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.’s first commissions. This pair (see C83a) of rejected, misfired tiles were perhaps intended for the overmantle at The Hill, however they remained in the personal collection of Lucy Orrinsmith who decorated them. A finished complete panel of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is in the V&A (CIRC.520-1953), it is similar to another panel of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in the William Morris Gallery’s collection (C75), also from The Hill.

The composition is similar to a later watercolour by Burne-Jones- the first painting of the very first series of the ‘Legend of the Briar Rose’ (another title for ‘Sleeping Beauty’) that he executed between 1871-73 (now in the Museo de Arte, Ponce, Puerto Rico).

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware tiles painted in enamels
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C83
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Illustrator: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L Hitch, 1954

Details

Date: c. 1870-72
Object Type: ceramic
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C271
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Donor: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2010

This Sunflower tile was produced around 1870–72 and decorated in red lustre on a 6-inch tile. The design is attributed to William Morris or William De Morgan, who created a number of variations of the pattern during this period. Examples were made on both Dutch tin-glazed and English lead-glazed blanks. The dense silhouette version is thought to be among the earliest, while the red-toned type, as seen here, became the most commonly encountered. The bold sunflower head, enclosed by scrolling foliage, reflects the strong, flattened forms characteristic of Morris & Co. decorative design of the early 1870s.

Details

Dimensions: 15.3 x 15.3
Object Type: ceramic
Catalogue number: C180
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Credit notes: Presented by Alan Green, 1976

Tile has a design on a standing heron in blue on a white ground with a blue outline border. This design is part of a series of bird-themed tiles attributed to Philip Webb, a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement and a close associate of William Morris. The design dates from the early 1860s and reflects the hand-painted tradition employed by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. These tiles were likely produced for fireplaces and architectural decoration, with similar designs appearing in stained-glass panels. Records suggest they were used in notable Morris-designed interiors, such as Red House and Standen.

Details

Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Technique: hand-painted
Catalogue number: C77
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Hitch, 1954

This cockerel tile is one of a group of bird designs — including Cock, Duck and Goose — probably designed by Philip Webb in the 1860s for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. The series also included Heron, Hen and Chick, and Magpie. The tiles are hand-painted in blue overglaze on 6-inch tiles.

The bird designs were also adapted for stained-glass quarries in the first two houses designed by Philip Webb: Red House, Bexleyheath (1859–60), built for William Morris, and Sandroyd, Surrey (1860–61).

The tiles formerly belonged to Lucy Orrinsmith (née Faulkner) and were almost certainly painted by her or by her sister, Kate Faulkner.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 36.5 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C28a
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Robert Wallace Martin was one of four brothers who ran the Martin Brothers pottery in Fulham (1873-7) and Southall (1877-1915). He was part of a movement of Arts and Crafts potters who, inspired by the simplicity and rustic appearance of medieval European and Japanese stoneware (a hard, dense kind of pottery), created salt-glazed stoneware, a strong, non-porous pottery with a distinctive ‘orange-peel’ texture. Martin’s output is characterised by groteque animals, vessels with faces, and rustic sculptural forms. Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo were all avid collectors of Martinware.

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 38.1 x 21.5
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C29a
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 36.5 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: salt-glazed stoneware
Catalogue number: C28
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1875
Dimensions: 13.9 x 8.8
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C97
Designer: Martin, Robert Wallace (1843 - 1923)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1962

Details

Date: 1888-1907
Dimensions: 17.8 x 12.1
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C5
Artist: De Morgan, William (1839 - 1917)
Manufacturer: De Morgan, Sands End Pottery, Fulham, London, England
Credit notes: Mackmurdo Bequest, 1942

William Morris met William De Morgan in 1863, and their friendship and professional association would last until Morris’s death. There was a large degree of overlap in their design, production and sale processes. The Firm sold ceramic products of its own design and also those by De Morgan; by the 1880s De Morgan was the main supplier to the Morris shop. De Morgan also made tiles after designs by Morris. From the 1870s Morris & Co. relied on De Morgan to supply high quality coloured enamels, as commerical products contained high levels of borax which compromised the colouration and durability of the tiles. From 1882 – 1888, William De Morgan moved his premises to Merton Abbey, to be closer to Morris, who already had works there, on the banks of the River Wandle. In 1888 he moved to Sands End in Fulham, where this bottle was produced.

De Morgan regularly used motifs of animals to create densely decorated objects. This vase features cranes and snakes. Birds similar to those depicted here can be found throughout his design sketchbook, a pricked design of the bird is at the V&A Museum (E.1428-1917).

Details

Date: 1862
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7 each tile
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C216
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Designer: Morris, William (1834 - 1896)
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Designer: Rossetti | Dante Gabriel | 1828 | 1882
Designer: Brown, Ford Madox, 1821, 1893
Designer: Webb | Philip | 1831 | 1915
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the V&A/MGC Purchase Grant Fund, National Heritage Memorial Fund, Friends of the William Morris Gallery and Walthamstow Historical Society, 1995

The figures in these tiles each symbolise a month of the year and depict a relevant seasonal activity or pastime. The ‘Labours of the months’ was an artistic theme that featured in medieval and early-Renaissance art. The rural activities were, as they are here, also sometimes paired with the signs of the zodiac.

This panel was created in the very early days of Morris’s company. A similar series was commissioned for the firm by G.F. Bodley in 1862 for the over mantel in the Dining Hall of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Although substantially the same, there are several differences: at Queens’ the figure symbolising June is a man with a scythe (by Morris or Madox Brown) rather than Madox Brown’s Sheep-Shearer; the Queens’ tiles lack the small inset pictures of zodiac symbols designed by Webb; and at Queens’ 6-inch rather than these 5-inch tiles are used.

These tiles were all painted by Lucy Orrinsmith nee Faulkner (the February tile is signed with her LJF monogram in the lower right yellow border) and designed by Morris and friends. Some of the artists are known, yet there is uncertainty as to the precise attribution of all the figure panels:

January- Possibly Morris/Burne-Jones or Webb
February- Burne-Jones
March- Madox Brown
April- Morris
May- Madox Brown
June- Madox Brown
July- possibly Morris
August- Rossetti
September- possibly Rossetti
October- Burne-Jones
November- Madox Brown
December- Rossetti

Like a number of other tiles from the 1860s, this series of The Labours of the Month seems to have been acquired for display in Morris & Co.’s shop in the early twentieth century, when the subjects April (Flower-bearer) and May (Falconry) were set in the incorrect sequence. Their earlier history is unknown.

Details

Date: c.1862
Dimensions: 12.7 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C175a
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Artist: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner), Lucy (1839 - 1910)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1970

This tile, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and painted by Lucy Faulkner, shows Alceste, a character found in Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’. Tiles were a popular and financially important aspect of Morris and Co.’s early output and were often influenced by medieval and Renaissance sources. Despite Morris’s belief that works of art should, as far as possible, be designed and executed by a single craftsperson, the tiles created by Morris & Co. were part of a more complex chain of production: blank tiles were purchased from the Netherlands and were then painted by members of Morris’s workshop (including regularly by sisters Lucy and Kate Faulkner) to designs by Morris, Burne-Jones and others.

This depiction of Alceste is one of a series of designs based on ‘Legend of Goode Wimmen’ and is typical of Burne-Jones’s use of combining ceramic tiles in the creation of pictorial decoration.

Details

Date: c. 1862-63
Dimensions: 15.2 x 15.2 each tile
Object Type: ceramic
Material: hand-painted overglaze earthenware
Catalogue number: C257
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Manufacturer: Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Credit notes: Purchased with assistance from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Art Fund and Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2006

Early in 1862, Edward Burne-Jones recorded in his account book (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) a series of designs for painted tiles with subjects from Greek mythology. The Judgement of Paris depicts the episode from the Greek legend when Paris, Prince of Troy has to chose the most beautiful of the three godessess and presents an apple to Venus, thus setting in train the Trojan War. The Latin inscription translates as ‘The Judgment of Paris on great Mount Ida’.

Painted in the Red Lion Square workshops of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.- of which Burne-Jones was a founder-partner with Wiliam Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown et al.- the tiles are an early and delightful example of the Pre-Raphaelite taste for depicting classical scenes in medieval guise. Paris is shown in cross-gartered leggings and huntsman’s cap, while the three godesses are distinctly late-Gothic in their bodily proportions. Identified by their named scrolls, the four figures stand in an enclosed, stylish landscape in the manner of a medieval tapestry or manuscript illumination.

Handpainted tiles were an important product of the Morris firm from its establishment in 1861 until the mid-1870s. Some were used as overmantels but others, as in this case, were intended to be framed and diplayed as pictures in their own right.

The only other known version of the tile panel is at Kelmscott Manor and differs in several details, notably that the scene is painted on 5-inch square tiles bordered with 12 blue tiles painted with an inscription by William Morris in black. It has been suggested that the Kelmscott Manor panel was to be shown at the International Exhibition at South Kensington later that year but was withdrawn from Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co’s exhibit when the ‘decorative value of verses’ was criticized by William Burges, one of the judges. If so, it is possible that this version, omitting Morris’s verses and with an integral simple inscription, was the version shown by the Firm at the Exhibition.

Object Type: ceramic

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