Medieval; Late Thirteenth Century Inlaid Floor Tile; France.

Medieval; Late Thirteenth Century Inlaid Floor Tile; France.

This inlaid floor tile with its strutting stag is perhaps one of the more iconic animal designs popularised by the tile makers of the Middle Ages. Often associated with hunting; the stag also combines symbolic attributes of nobility and wildness.

This evocative example dating to the end of the thirteenth century is a nice and early rendition. Manufactured probably in northern France, it’s tiles like this that exemplify the ‘French connection’ - with this stag design being copied into the English repertoire at Clarendon and Bawsey.