Edward Coley Burne-Jones, The Legend of Goode Wimmen 'if hope were not, heart should break', c. 1860s
Hand painted tin-glazed tiles, 26 x 13 cm approx. Society of Antiquaries of London, Kelmscott Manor. Photo © Society of Antiquaries of London/John Hammond
One of the early specialities of William Morris’s firm was the manufacture of hand-painted glazed tiles for use either in fireplaces or as decorative panels. Morris himself made a number of designs for tiles with floral or conventionalised ornament, while Edward Burne-Jones supplied the drawings for figure subjects drawn from literature and romance.
The designs were mostly painted onto the tile blanks by the firm’s women associates, such as Lucy and Kate Faulkner, before firing.
These tiles, designed by Burne-Jones, come from a series depicting heroines from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Legend of Goode Wimmen, a poem recounting stories of virtuous women from classical antiquity who suffered or died through love.
They were among the firm’s most popular designs, being used in several commissions with varying tile sizes and different border treatments and also adapted for stained glass and embroidery.
This panel comes from a set of seven on display at Kelmscott Manor.
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This text is abridged from the exhibition catalogue Making History: Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (introduction by David Starkey), available from the RA Shop.
