The Tring Tiles
The Tring Tiles
From church wall, scrap merchant, obscurity then on to the wall inside the Medieval galleries of the British Museum, the Tring Tiles tell a very different childhood story.
Imagine my surprise when browsing the Medieval galleries in the British Museum (BM), when I spotted a tucked away cabinet of intriguing cartoons. I love ceramics so had to take a closer look.
Mischief and miracles
The cabinet contains eight fine clay tiles with yellow cartoon figures that depict the boy Jesus struggling to control and contain his divine powers; leaping figures, youthful miracles, death, lion cubs, mischief, a family feast and children shut in an oven to stop them playing with Jesus. These were not the bible stories I grew up with!
These 14th century lead-glazed earthenware tiles covered with a white slip, are incised and carved with scenes from the stories told in the Apocryphal Infancy Miracles of Christ, very popular in the fourteenth century apparently. I’d never heard of these gospels and didn’t know they were produced to satisfy a huge demand for details about Jesus’ boyhood, but never actually included in the Bible. Text yes, but tiles, hardly ever. These unique Tring Tiles are incredibly rare.
The Chilterns were once a national centre for tile making with some of the finest medieval floor tiles coming from Penn in Buckinghamshire. This style however, was widely used in France and is thought that is where they were made.
These tiles are a curiosity, each telling a story of mischief and miracles. You can read the curators comments from the British Museum here.
Under the counter to Chelmsford
The eight tiles in the BM were saved during building work in the mid-nineteenth century as the Victorian’s got to work renovating St Peter and St Paul on the High Street in Tring. All things Medieval were out of fashion and did not suit Victorian tastes as they got to work up and down the land ‘improving’ or destroying earlier crafts and religious decoration. From the church, they ended up in a local shop - the owner refusing to say how he came by them. They were bought for a few shillings and years later formed part of a job-lot sold for £17. The Chelmsford art dealer quickly realised what they were and promptly sold them on through Sotheby’s to the BM for a staggering £1,400. Two additional tiles were presented to the Victoria and Albert Museum by a local resident in 1927 and along with some broken pieces of other similar tiles. How many tiles were there?
What an intriguing 700-year old tale depicting a boyhood told in the Infancy Gospels from the 2nd century. It could have been coincidental that they turned up in Tring, but I like to think there was this local link and relationship with a minor Hertfordshire parish church and France, then Essex and now on display at the British Museum for everyone to see. I wonder what other local treasures are on display in regional and London museums?
Room 40
From Tring to London Euston is 40 minutes on the train and then another 20 minutes on foot to the British Museum. Head up into Room 40 in Medieval Europe to see the tiles displayed on the wall in the corner. The two tiles in the V&A are not on display.