The Tring Tiles
- Gallery: Room 40
- Culture: Late Medieval
- Made in: Tring (?)
- Date: 14thC(early)
- Object type: tile
- Materials: earthenware
- Museum number: 1922,0412.4.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.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you are "The Tring Tiles," a remarkable pair of medieval earthenware tiles. Crafted from red clay with sgraffito decoration and a lead glaze, each tile tells a story from the Apocryphal Infancy of Christ. On the left, a scene shows Jesus’ face being slapped by a schoolmaster with exaggerated expression and line work. To the right, Jesus is shown healing two cripples, again with a lively and almost comical style.
These tiles are rare for their vivid and detailed storytelling, which is uncommon in medieval tile art. The scenes closely mirror those in a 14th-century manuscript now at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, suggesting a shared artistic vision.
Made around the early 14th century, the tiles were likely placed as a decorative frieze rather than laid in a floor. Expertly hand-carved using the sgraffito technique—where white slip is cut through to reveal the red clay beneath—they reflect a complex and labor-intensive process, possibly influenced by French craftsmanship. Their survival and preservation offer a glimpse into the devotional life of a medieval parish church.
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.
New, in beta. British Museum support has just launched and is still improving: over 1,000 objects so far, with more added all the time.
