'Beauty and the Beast' tile panel

This tile panel depicts the children's fairytale 'Beauty and the Beast'. It was originally installed above a fireplace in the bedroom of the artist Myles Birket Foster, at his home ‘The Hill’, Witley, Surrey. The scroll on the surrounding Swan tiles is inscribed with a description of the story, 'How a Prince who by enchantment was under the form of a beast became a man again by the love of a certain maiden'.

The panel was designed by Edward Burne-Jones. The beast, which takes the form of a bear, was based on sketches specially drawn for him by Philip Webb, who probably observed the animals at Regents Park Zoological Gardens. Lucy Faulkner, the sister of Charles Faulkner, one of the partners of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., painted Burne-Jones’s designs by hand onto the tiles.

Burne-Jones also designed a similar panel of 'Sleeping Beauty' for Birket Foster's house, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.