Medieval; Heraldic Encaustic Tile, Wales, Circa 1500.

Medieval; Heraldic Encaustic Tile, Wales, Circa 1500.

This early Welsh encaustic tile belongs to the ‘Cardiff Series’ - a group of heraldic pavement tiles that are believed to have been commissioned for the Cardiff Blackfriars at some point during the second half of the fifteenth century.

The bold slip design of three swans within a shield can be identified as the heraldic arms of the Bawdrips of Penmark. It would have sat graciously aside similar tiles representing local family arms that formed the Blackfriars pavement of which the families were probably the benefactors of.

Excavations in 1892 at the Lloyds Bank site on Cardiff High street unearthed a quantity of Cardiff series tiles; which we think ours was part of. These tiles are thought to of been salvaged from the Blackfriars after the dissolution, and placed at this site, which was probably an affluent medieval house.

A further clue to the tiles provenance lies in a small pen inscription on its side ; ‘ PB CHATWIN CARDIFF’.

It is recorded that a dozen of these tiles went to a Birmingham archaeological association- The celebrated architect PB Chatwin was indeed an active archaeologist and antiquarian at this period in Birmingham; thus we are confident it is highly likely this tile ended up in his possession at the turn of the 20th century.

Ref.Literature; The Medieval Tiles of Wales; JM LEWIS.