It is the childlike part of us that produces works of the imagination. When we were children time passed so slow with us that we seemed to have time for everything. ~William Morris

The Victorian Nursery

Like many Victorian parents, Voysey took his job as a parent as a God-given trust: He believed that what a child sees in those early years goes into the child — not as a theory, but as a conviction — and that the domestic room was therefore serious work. Victorians cherished the concept of a childhood of innocence, as you can hear in the Morris quote above. Yet the childhood for most Victorian children was closer to an occupation: The job of a child was to grow up, to become a God-fearing and productive member of society. Working class children were early assigned a trade and were often competent before reaching puberty. Upper class children had it little better: A series of nannies, tutors, and private schools. The finer things were indeed a requirement: A young lady should be able to play a musical instrument, be competent in drawing, her handwriting must be both legible and beautiful.

By most accounts, C.F.A. Voysey was a severe man, doctrinaire about his faith and uneasy with the socialism that ran through the Arts & Crafts movement he helped define. His tiles for children appear warmer than he was and yet, for his own nursery, he choose Rook and Holly - somber, serious tile, more Victorian Gothic in tone than Arts & Crafts.

The more popular Hey Diddle Diddle is a classic Victorian Nursery style that Diddle Diddle actually predates Voysey by centuries. Indeed, the image was made for his hand: a cow in silhouette against a moon, flat and clear, the kind of shape that reads from across a nursery and stays.

Hey Diddle Diddle (cat lady version, 4 tiles)

Additional Victorian Nursery Tiles