Tile panel, hand-painted tin-glazed earthenware, England, 1862-1865
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1862-1865
Hand-painted tiles became a popular feature of artistic interiors from the 1860s onwards. Such tiles appear regularly in houses decorated in the Arts and Crafts style, and were used widely by exponents of vernacular architecture such as Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912). The most common setting for such tiles was in and around the fireplace. Commissions
This panel, depicting the story of Sleeping Beauty, is inscribed 'of a certain prince who delivered a King's daughter from a sleep of a hundred years, wherein she and all hers had been cast by enchantment'. It is one of three narrative panels, produced as overmantels for bedrooms, that were ordered from Morris & Co. in 1862 along with stained glass and other tiles and furnishings, by the painter Myles Birket Foster. The various items were destined for Foster's new house, The Hill, at Witley, Surrey, where the artist was a neighbour of Henry Cole (1808-1882), first Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The additional two panels depicted Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 3
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
Made for The Hill, Witley, Surrey. Designed by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (born in Birmingham, 1833, died in London, 1898); possibly painted by Lucy Faulkner (born in 1839, died in 1910) for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., London; the blank tiles supplied from The Netherlands
One of three narrative panels, overmantels for bedrooms, ordered, with stained glass and other tiles and furnishings in 1862 by the painter Myles Birkett Foster for his new house, The Hill, at Witley, Surrey. There he was a neighbour to Henry Cole, first Director of the South Kensington Museum.
This panel was purchased by the Museum following its loan to to the exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Arts held in the Museum in 1952. Birket Foster left The Hill in 1893 and the lender bought this panel and 'Beauty and the Beast', which is now in the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, and stained glass from the last owner of the house. The third panel, 'Cinerella', is now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- Hand-painted on tin-glazed earthenware tiles
- Dimensions
- Height: 76.2 cm; Width: 120.6 cm (* Quite heavy Dimensions checked: Measured; 07/07/1999 by Terry)
Technical characteristics
- Maker recorded
- Burne-Jones, Edward Coley (Sir); Faulkner, Lucy
- Place recorded
- England, Netherlands
Design
- Marks and inscriptions
- 'Of a certain prince who delivered a king's daughter from a sleep of a hundred years, wherin she and all hers had been cast by enchantment'
Identification
- Source note
- Transcribed from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London collection record for this single object (sentences kept verbatim apart from removed sale or rarity wording); how far it represents a wider collectible type has not been independently verified.
- Candidate id
- vam-O8053
- Museum object name
- Tile panel
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Museum object number
- CIRC.520-1953
- Museum system number
- O8053
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and dating against a specialist reference; this entry documents one recorded example.