Forty ceramic tiles

These tiles were made by the Staffordshire firms of Minton and Minton, Hollins & Co, leading manufacturers of dust-pressed earthenware wall tiles, who employed the services of leading artists and designers during the second half of the nineteenth century. John Moyr Smith was a major but little-researched figure in the design reform movement whose work ranged from ironwork, furniture, pottery, wallpaper and lace curtains to carpets. The large number of designs he made for Messrs Minton included drawing on the metal plates for the following series of tiles: Shakespeare, Tennyson's Idylls of the King, Waverley, Thomson's Seasons, Old Testament, NewTestament, Fairy Tales, The Trades, The Months, Anacreon, English History, Music and Sciences. The tiles he designed for Messrs Minton, Hollins and Co of Stoke included the Historical Series, Authors and Their Works, Shakespearean Songs and Nursery Rhymes.