Collectable Tiles

Copeland Shakespeare 8" Gilt Tile Troilus and Cressida

Style/technique: Pictorial printed, painted and gilded

Manufacturer: W T Copeland

Pattern Name: Shakepeare series

Dimensions: 8" x 8"

Date: 1878

An outstanding example of the art of tile decoration in rapturous colour and brilliantly glazed and gilded. Absolute quality in all respects, super rich underglaze colours including red and pinks rarely found underglaze at this date and the background gilded and burnished.
The tile illustrates a scene from the Shakespeare play Troilus and Cressida and shows Ajax and Thersites who are in the Greek army camp during the Trojan wars. Prince Ajax berates the fool Thersites but it is left to the audience to judge who is really the fool. The play was controversial being based upon the entwined themes of sex and war, it is understood to be a criticism of war and has been most popular when citizens are war weary.

Austwick has a colour illustration from the series on page 57, Lockett has two drawings from the Copeland pattern book on page 137.

Plastic clay porcelain-like body verso combed and impressed with Copeland mark and date stamp.

The second image is with the tile tilted slightly so that the gliding catches the light.

Condition: Perfect
Price: £600 (approx $1180)
Ref: 02624

Extremely minor surface marks. The tiny black mark on Thersites gown is a print flaw.

UK Special Delivery £610

US and World Airsure £620

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The image is full size at 72 dpi (about 570 pixels wide) in maximum quality JPEG format. A larger 120 dpi image also in maximum quality JPEG format can be forwarded by email if required.

The image is a little oversize rather than cropped close to the edges so that the edges can easily be seen and any chips etc can be quickly spotted. Surface marks described are usually not visible at all when the tile is viewed straight as one normally sees it and can only be seen with a critical eye when the tile is tilted to catch imperfections in reflected light. For more details of how we describe marks see Condition.

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