Tile with a design of a flying bird within a roundel, framed by foliage in the corners, painted in blue on a white ground. This tile was produced in the Netherlands in the 1870s, probably by the Ravesteijn tilery. The bird motif is almost certainly based on a traditional Dutch design of the 17th or 18th century. It is hand-painted in blue glaze on a 5-inch tile.
In 1863, 181 tiles of an almost identical pattern were supplied by the firm to Edward Burne-Jones and were likely used to create a tiled seat in the garden of his house, The Grange, in Fulham. The seat appears in a series of photographs of the Burne-Jones and Morris families taken by Frederick Hollyer on 16 September 1874.
Purchased by the William Morris Gallery in 1993.
