The Tring tiles

This is a panel of eight tiles in a series which depict the Miracles of the Christ Child according to the Apocryphal Gospels. Judging from their remarkable state of preservation and elaborate design these tiles were most certainly intended to decorate a wall rather than a pavement. This tile work is a remarkable and rare example of the graffiato method where the surface of the tile is first covered in white slip, then incised with a design after which the latter was scraped away from the entire background.