John Moyr Smith for Mintons 8" tile, Idylls of the King, c1876

Size:  203mm square (8 inches)

Condition:  Very good condition - some small edge chips, one just into the border, which would be covered by a frame.

This large format version of a tile from the famous Idylls of the King series is considerably rarer than the usual 6 inch version, and the border means that it displays particularly well in a frame.

John Moyr Smith is one of the best designers on the late 19th century associated with Arts and Crafts, although his work was broader than that movement and included working with Christopher Dresser and in the Aesthetic style.

Moyr Smith's first designs for Minton tiles were for the Shakespeare series.  The success of that led him to design, in 1876, the Idylls of the King series, based upon the poem cycle of that name by Alfred Lord Tennyson.  There were twelve tiles, reflecting the 12 poems of the cycle, and this one is Guinevere, and shows the Queen prostrate, with King Arthur grieving while reproaching her for her affair with Lancelot.

The tile has the Minton's China works stamp on the back, and Moyr Smith's name is in the design (at the base of the right hand pillar).