拍品专文
Among the products advertised in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.'s circular of 1862 is listed "Painted Earthenware, including wall tiles with pictured subjects, figures or patterns". The firm's most important commission for narrative tile panels dates from 1863-65, when the watercolourist, Birket Foster ordered three such panels, depicting 'Beauty & the Beast', 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty' for his house at Witley, Surrey. Burne-Jones' account book has an entry for 26 July 1863 "set of subjects for tiles - Beauty & the Beast" and below, "ditto - two extra - #2" which refers to the designs for the panel for Witley, which is now in the collection of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. Of the other two panels, the 'Sleeping Beauty' is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and 'Cinderella' in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The sketches by Burne-Jones for three of the Beauty & Beast subjects are in the Tate Gallery collection, London (cat.no.4351[1]).
The surviving examples of Morris & Co. tiles from the 1860s vary in details of colouring and in the tiled surrounds with inscriptions. For the latter, two principal types seem to have been designed. The first, used for the Witley panels, consists of tiles with the 'Swan' pattern designed by Philip Webb. The second, as used in the example offered here, incorporates more prominent lettering and floral borders designed by Burne-Jones. The version of the 'Cinderella' panel now in the Berger Collection, California, has this sort of treatment, in which the narrative subject tiles are more integrated with the surrounds tiles than the versions with the 'Swan' surrounds.
In the early years of the Morris firm, the tiles were painted by Charles Faulker, his sisters, Lucy and Kate, Georgiana Burne-Jones and the firm's foreman glass-painter, George Campfield. The best examples seem to have been painted by the Faulkner sisters and some are signed with Lucy's 'LJF' monogram. These are seen on both this example of Beauty & the Beast and that from Witley. With only a few exceptions, the early tiles were painted in low-temperature-firing enamels on Dutch glazed white blanks. In the case of several surviving tile panels, the enamels have deteriorated badly because of defective firing or problems inherent in the somewhat vulnerable process of over-glaze decoration. However, this example of Beauty & the Beast is in exceptionally good condition and shows no signs of deterioration either in the colours or in the 'relief' patterns used on some of the tiles.
Interestingly, the panel differs somewhat from the panel of the same subject from Witley, at the William Morris Gallery. In the latter, the sequence of six two-tile scenes begins with 'Beauty and her sisters in an interior with their father' and ends with 'Beauty kissng the Beast who is transformed thereby into the Prince'. In this example offered, the sequence begins with 'The father confronting the Beast in his garden' and ends with 'The marriage of Beauty and the Prince'. This marriage scene seems to have been designed originally as part of the 'Sleeping Beauty' sequence and is used as the final scene in the Victoria & Albert panel from Witley.
We are grateful to Peter Cormack of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
The surviving examples of Morris & Co. tiles from the 1860s vary in details of colouring and in the tiled surrounds with inscriptions. For the latter, two principal types seem to have been designed. The first, used for the Witley panels, consists of tiles with the 'Swan' pattern designed by Philip Webb. The second, as used in the example offered here, incorporates more prominent lettering and floral borders designed by Burne-Jones. The version of the 'Cinderella' panel now in the Berger Collection, California, has this sort of treatment, in which the narrative subject tiles are more integrated with the surrounds tiles than the versions with the 'Swan' surrounds.
In the early years of the Morris firm, the tiles were painted by Charles Faulker, his sisters, Lucy and Kate, Georgiana Burne-Jones and the firm's foreman glass-painter, George Campfield. The best examples seem to have been painted by the Faulkner sisters and some are signed with Lucy's 'LJF' monogram. These are seen on both this example of Beauty & the Beast and that from Witley. With only a few exceptions, the early tiles were painted in low-temperature-firing enamels on Dutch glazed white blanks. In the case of several surviving tile panels, the enamels have deteriorated badly because of defective firing or problems inherent in the somewhat vulnerable process of over-glaze decoration. However, this example of Beauty & the Beast is in exceptionally good condition and shows no signs of deterioration either in the colours or in the 'relief' patterns used on some of the tiles.
Interestingly, the panel differs somewhat from the panel of the same subject from Witley, at the William Morris Gallery. In the latter, the sequence of six two-tile scenes begins with 'Beauty and her sisters in an interior with their father' and ends with 'Beauty kissng the Beast who is transformed thereby into the Prince'. In this example offered, the sequence begins with 'The father confronting the Beast in his garden' and ends with 'The marriage of Beauty and the Prince'. This marriage scene seems to have been designed originally as part of the 'Sleeping Beauty' sequence and is used as the final scene in the Victoria & Albert panel from Witley.
We are grateful to Peter Cormack of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.