The Tring Tiles
- Gallery: Room 40
- Culture: Late Medieval
- Made in: Tring (?)
- Date: 14thC(early)
- Object type: tile
- Materials: earthenware
- Museum number: 1922,0412.2.CR
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
These "Tring Tiles" are striking examples of Late Medieval craftsmanship. You're looking at an earthenware tile, made from red clay, with a decorative technique called sgraffito. First, there's a layer of white slip applied over the surface, and then the design is cut through this with precise lines. The background is then gouged away, leaving the image in white against the red clay. The tile was then glazed with lead to create a shiny surface.
This particular tile shows a story from the Apocryphal Gospels describing the childhood miracles of Christ. On the left, a boy tragically falls from Jesus as they face a schoolmaster. On the right, the boy is revived and walks away—his body drawn upside down to show death, a striking artistic choice. These tiles were likely mounted as wall decorations rather than placed underfoot. They reflect a popular medieval fascination with stories of Christ’s childhood and were likely made in France using a method also used for tomb decorations.
See it in person
The Tring Tiles is on display in Room 40 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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