s Set of Tiles by Maw & Company, Shropshire, c.1860 - Hull Museums Collections

Set of Tiles by Maw & Company, Shropshire, c.1860

This is one of a set of tiles showing four different tradesmen at work. They are all using their skills to make things by hand. The carpenter is shaping a piece of wood at his work bench. The stone mason is carving a block of stone for a building. The tailor is stitching buttons on a garment with a needle and thread. The navvy is pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks. Navvies were labourers who worked on projects like digging canals or building railways. These tiles are from a series showing 12 trades altogether. The tiles were printed in just two colours: black and grey on a white background. The grey colour is used to show shadows. The letters making up the names of the four men’s trades have been split up and placed in the tiles’ corners. The subject of ‘trades’ was a popular one for tiles. They were made right up to the end of the 1800s. The subject was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement’s idealisation of craft skills and handmade objects. Arts and Crafts was an important stylistic movement from the 1860s onwards. Towards the end of the 1800s, many designers valued things made by hand more than those made by machine. Some looked back to earlier times before the Industrial Revolution and believed medieval trades and crafts were superior. Some tiles were made showing tradesmen in medieval clothes to reflect this belief. Like Maw & Company, many other firms made tiles showing people. These included trades, but also subjects from books like scenes from Shakespeare and Aesop’s Fables. These tiles were used to decorate walls and furniture, such as wash stands, chairs and cabinets.