Humpty Dumpty:

'All the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty together again!' Luckily for this Humpty Dumpty he was saved by the museum. Humpty was rescued prior to the demolition of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Ealing, in the early 1980s. He was located in the Princess Elizabeth children's ward and was made by Carter & Co of Poole in 1935. Nursery rhymes and similar colourful decorations were used extensively to make the atmosphere as relaxed as possible in children's wards, making nursery rhyme characters such as Humpty the Power Ranger's or Lego of their day!

Mysore Palace Peacock:

Jackfield decorative tiles were amongst the finest in the world. The Peacock in our museum entrance is a replica of just a part of an elaborate tiled floor in the Mysore Palace, India. It still survives today. The design was produced by a local designer named John Bradburn whilst working for Maw & Co in the early 1900s. The panel was reproduced from the original moulds held in the museum collection and manufactured on-site by Craven Dunnill & Co. continuing the ceramic tradition that put Jackfield on the map.

The Carousel:

This Carousel tile picture originally adorned a children's ward of the Middlesex Hospital. It is not only a fine example of the scale achieved by some decorative tile schemes but also has a moving history behind its creation. The work was the result of a competition to find the best design for the ward. It was won by Haydn Jensen. In 1995 Mr Jensen's widow visited the Jackfield Tile Museum to see the panel that her husband had laboured over designing in their spare bedroom between 1927 and 1928. Mrs Jensen believed that the panel had been destroyed during the Second World War and it was only when a friend sent her a postcard of the design that she realised it was still in existence. The winnings from the panel design actually paid for the Jensen's wedding!

Butchers Shop:

The replica butchers shop interior is typical of many constructed across the country from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. This interior has been put together using butchers shop tiles from various locations. The frieze of pig swags are originally from Rochdale whilst the central tile panel depicting various animals came from Ripon. This display not only recreates a once common site still fresh in the popular memory but is also a perfect example of the versatility of tiles. What better interior to illustrate both the decorative and hygienic 'easy to clean' qualities of tiles?

Jousting Nights Slab Fireplace:

Slab fireplaces were a common feature in most houses built between the 1930s and 1960s. However house renovations and redecorations have resulted in a once ubiquitous interior fitting becoming increasingly rare. Most visitors to the museum will be able to recall a slab fireplace from some point in the not so distant past. This example however is a little out of the ordinary. Little is known regarding the creation of the Jousting Nights fireplace although it is suspected that it was made for some sort of 'ideal home' exhibition. It was manufactured by Craven Dunnill on this site sometime during the 1930s and represents slab fireplace art at its zenith!

Brick with child's hob-nail boot print:

Life in the ceramics industry was often tough but it could be particularly terrible for children. Jackfield was home to many large brick and tile works where children were employed as cheap labour in a variety of dangerous manual jobs. On 21st March 1896 the Wellington Journal reported a serious accident that occurred at Exeley's tile works in Jackfield 'to a youth named Potts aged 16 who was badly crushed in the batting machine. His arm, leg and head being severely bruised'. The young child's boot print in this local brick came from a wall of Jackfield School just opposite the museum. Was it made by a pupil skipping class?

Doulton Frieze:

The Doulton frieze originally adorned the exterior of Doulton House on the South Bank of the Thames in London. The frieze on display at Jackfield is the smaller of two panels designed by Gilbert Bayes. In 1971 the building was sold and when demolition work began in 1978 the two friezes were threatened with destruction. Public pressure and funding from Royal Doulton allowed the museum to recover and remove them to Jackfield Tile Museum for restoration. In 1988 the larger of the two friezes was returned to London for permanent display in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The smaller one was retained for display at Jackfield.

Factory Mosaic Flooring and Trade Showroom:

When the Jackfield factory opened in 1874, Craven Dunnill encouraged customers to visit its Trade Showroom and choose schemes from the vast variety of available tiles. Although a reconstruction, the Trade Showroom would have looked not too dissimilar to how it does today. The mosaic floor in the stair well leading up to the Trade Showroom and first floor also provided the firm with an opportunity to promote the products of the factory. The mosaic floor here is an original feature and was probably produced on site in the Mosaic shop (now the Education workshops). Assembling mosaics was a skilled job and done by groups of up to six women working together. The mosaic pattern was first drawn full size onto a large sheet of paper. Tesserae were then selected for colour and shape and pasted face down onto the paper following the pattern. The complete section of pasted down mosaic was then transported to its destination where it was set into cement before the backing paper was peeled off to reveal the design. If you look closely at this mosaic it is possible to see where the separate pieces have been joined together.

Craven Dunnill Galleons:

The galleon panel was made in this factory by Craven Dunnill around 1910 in the 'Art Noveau' style. It is entirely made up of lustre glazed tile pieces forming a dramatic collage effect. The panel was removed when the site was owned by a foundry firm but rediscovered in a garage in Shrewsbury in 1989 and returned to Jackfield with the aid of funding from the Friends of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum.

Maw & Co. majolica tile panel:

This panel is a copy using original tiles of part the decorative scheme that adorns the interior of the Valley hotel in Ironbridge, the former residence of Arthur Maw who with his father and brother ran the Maw & Co. tile works. The design is made up of majolica tiles with relief decoration and the peacock is an early example of the work of J. Moyr Smith. The scheme was originally designed for display at the 1867 Paris Exhibition.

Palace Chambers Floor:

The encaustic flooring on the first floor of the museum is particularly important to the history of the site. The encaustic and geometric tiles were removed by the museum from the Palace Chambers building in Westminster (close to the Houses of Parliament) before its demolition in the 1980s. The tiles are some of the earliest known examples manufactured on this site and some of the first made by Craven Dunnill & Co. Other examples of floor tiles from Palace Chambers can be seen in the Trade Showroom.

Pugin wall tile from the Houses of Parliament:

The wall tiles designed by A.W.N. Pugin for the Houses of Parliament are amongst the earliest examples manufactured by the dust-pressing process. The technique was originally devised for the manufacture of ceramic buttons by Richard Prosser in 1840. It was not long before Herbert Minton, recognising the potential of the technique, adapted it for use in the decorative tile industry. In 1845 Pugin persuaded the architect for the new Houses of Parliament, Sir Charles Barry, to install Minton's tiling in many of the floors and walls. This example proudly acknowledges the pioneer of the technique with a back-stamp that reads 'Prosser's Patent'. Examples of Minton's encaustic floor tiles designed by Pugin for the Houses of Parliament are displayed in the Style Gallery.

Maw & Co. Tiled Washstand:

Most middle-class Victorian and Edwardian bedrooms would have contained a tiled washstand. The splash-back of this washstand contains some fine hand-coloured transfer-printed tiles manufactured by Maw & Co. Tiles were often used in furniture for both their functional and decorative qualities. They not only brightened up the piece of furniture, but as this fine washstand illustrates, also kept the wall free from splashes as well.