Third Day of Creation

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
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

Dimensions: 8.2 x 22.8
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C174
Maker: Martin, Robert Wallace (1843 - 1923)
Credit notes: WMG purchase, 1968

Details

Dimensions: 7.6
Object Type: ceramic
Material: earthenware
Catalogue number: C99
Designer and maker: Martin, Robert Wallace (1843 - 1923)
Credit notes: Miss E Pugh bequest, 1963

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: 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
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
Retailer: Morris & Co.
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L Hitch, 1954

Details

Dimensions: 3.3 x 8.3 x 8.3
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C39
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1875
Dimensions: 24.1 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C36
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 21.5 x 22.8
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C35
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.4
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C34
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 18.5 x 15.2
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C33
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1893
Dimensions: 33 x 12.7
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C32
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 22.8 x 19
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C31
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

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: stoneware
Catalogue number: C28a
Designer and maker: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

Details

Date: 1886
Dimensions: 38.1 x 21.5
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C29
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: 1874
Dimensions: 23.6 x 10.1
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C27
Designer: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo bequest, 1942

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
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: C82e
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner) | Lucy
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: C82d
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner) | Lucy
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: C82c
Designer and maker: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner) | Lucy
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: C82b
Designer: Burne-Jones | Edward Coley | Sir | 1833 | 1898
Painter: Orrinsmith (née Faulkner) | Lucy
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
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
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs L. Hitch, 1954

Details

Date: 1887
Dimensions: 29.2 x 34.3
Object Type: ceramic
Material: stoneware
Catalogue number: C30
Designer: Martin, Robert Wallace (1843 - 1923)
Manufacturer: R W Martin, London and Southall
Credit notes: Mackmurdo gift, 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. However, despite the Martins’s success, they never made large profits and were only able to fire the kilns once or twice a year and the brothers lived in relative poverty. So-called ‘Wally bird’ tobacco jars such as this one were extremely popular. Similar examples exist in the British Museum and V&A.

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 gift, 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. Birds similar to those depicted here can be found throughout his design sketchbook, now held at the V&A Museum.

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.

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
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).

Object Type: ceramic

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