Tring Tiles
***BREAKING NEWS*** What would the stories of the Tring Tiles be like if retold in a book? Well you don't have to wait long to find out, it should be in the Tring Museum shop along with a new exhibit of my tiles by November 2024, along with some of my tiles and the tiles from the V&A museum.
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Book blurb "What would Jesus be like as a child?
What would any child be like with the power to strike enemies dead, and dumbfound teachers and perform miracles rather than do hard work?"
What is this all about? I have made reproductions of the "cartoon strip" style of Medieval tiles, found probably in Tring, telling the stories of the childhood adventures of Jesus, according to the Apocraphal Gopsels of James, Thomas, Pseudo-Matthew and the Arabic Infancy Gospels.
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I have become somewhat obsessed with these marvellous images, and have started to recreate a full storyboard. This has meant re-creating the missing images using the Selden Supra 38 manuscript for inspiration. All the colour tile images are ones I have made. If they do not refer to the V&A or British Museum, then they are my own design.
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To buy the book - click here to print on demand to Blurb, or contact me directly to order a £15 signed copy including postage to the UK and faster delivery!
And a dove lands on Joseph's rod, so he is to marry Mary
Mary is worried, Joseph snoozing and Jesus chilling with the animals
After a bed chat with an angel, the three kings ride weirdly legged horses
The kings leave whilst Herod instructs knights - based on fragmetn tile in V&A museum
whilst Herod's knights massacre innocent children
The family meet lions, panthers and cave dragons along the way
resting in the desert the tree stoops to provide shade and fruit. Idolas fall and devils flee on the arrival in Egypt.
Mary persuades Jesus to resurrect him - with a kick in the bum. Based on British Museum tile.
And another bully attacks Jesus and dies The miracle of the clay birds coming to life is repeated in many Gospels and the Qu'ran and Jewish secular text Seferet Toledot Yeshu
Parents complain that Jesus has killed another child. Joseph uses Mary as a human shield whilst Jesus is persuaded to resurrect the boy by pulling his ear. The tile design is based on the top corner fragment held at the V&A Museum.
Parents complain to Joseph and Jesus resurrects the boy. Based on British Musuem tile.
Jesus smaertmouths a teacher, who strikes him. Jesus stands back astonished in the same frame. Jesus then heals the cripples to spite the teacher. Based on a British Museum tile.
Jesus resurrects Zeno so he can tell the parents that Jesus didn't casue him to die
Boys playing with him copy him and fall to their deaths
And they go to collect water. Based on a tile in the V&A
Other boys try the same but their pitchers fall and break. Jesus makes them whole again. Then Jesus then slides down a sunbeam - other boys copy him and die
Parents again complain that Jesus has caused the death of their children. Jesus again resurrects his dead playmates. Based on a V&A tile
So the son can't play with Jesus. Jesus pulls him out through a crack in the wall
The Jesus sows his mother's corn. Based on a fragment tile in the V&A museum
The corn multiplies and is collected. Then Jesus questions parents hiding children, who lie and say pigs are in the oven Based on a British Museum tile
Both the stories and the tiles are not well known. But they are delightful. Jesus gives his teachers some cheek, and when he gets slapped, the teacher "drops dead". In fact, so many people "drop dead" and then, after complaints from the villagers, Jesus is pressured into resurrecting them, sometimes with a yank on the ear or a kick up the arse. It's just so wonderfully human.
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So far, eight complete tiles are in the British Museum, two in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and both have some fragments. There is always a chance that more tiles may yet be discovered. The tiles have such a charming character, I couldn't resist redrawing them as a set of drawings that I donated to the poor Tring Museum (who have reproductions as the big museums have all the originals). That way, kids could use them for colouring in.
After analysing the known tiles, I looked into the Seldon Supra 38 Manuscript held in the Bodlein Library in Oxford, which has similar themes , and ended up drawing out all the connecting images to link the stories together. The numbers follow those given by Montague Rhode James (yes, he of the ghost stories) to the Manuscript images. Most tile images here are from my imagination, but I have noted where they are from the British Museum or Victoria and Albert Museum originals.