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Briar Rose Border Tiles

Edward Burne-Jones, Briar Rose, Panel 2: the Council Chamber

The fairy tale journey may look like an outward trek across plains and mountains, through castles and forests, but the actual movement is inward, into the lands of the soul. ~Terri Windling

The Signature Myth of Edward Burne-Jones

Burne-Jones revisited the theme of Briar Rose over half his lifetime. These Briar Rose border tiles based on the series by paintings Edward Burne-Jones. In addition to paintings, Jones also designed a series of nine two-tile Sleeping Beauty panels for a bedroom fireplace at 'The Hill', the home of painter Myles Birket Foster in the early days of Morris, Marshall, and Faulkner.

From Sleeping Beauty to Briar Rose

Unlike the fairy tale tales painted for 'The Hill', the Briar Rose series does not tell a sequential story but shows the sleepers as seen by the prince as he makes his way through the castle to The Rose Bower.

Morris and Co. designs often were created for one medium and then adapted and modified for another. Ten years after the initial fireplace tiles, he began a series of three small but haunting paintings, and then four larger works that he worked onintermittently from 1870 to 1890. The series was displayed with verses by William Morris.

Beautiful Knights

Scene 1: The Briar Rose: The Briar Wood

In the original study for The Briar Wood some of the knights appear to be more feminine than masculine. Burne-Jones modelled the knights from women: Jane Morris, Georgiana Burne-Jones (Ned's wife), and Maria Zambaco, the Greek beauty who later became his paramour, an ill-fated tragedy of a chapter in his life, characterized by madness, tears, and even suicide threats.

Briar Rose: The Prince Enters the Briar Wood

The fateful slumber floats and flows
About the tangle of the rose.
But lo the fated hand and heart
To rend the slumberous curse apart.
~William Morris

The Collective Unconscious

Scene 2: The Briar Rose: The Council Chamber

Briar Rose: The Council Chamber

The threat of war, the hope of peace
The Kingdom's peril and increase.
Sleep on, and bide the latter day
When fate shall take her chains away.
~William Morris

The Garden Keepers

Scene 3: The Briar Rose: The Garden Court

Briar Rose: The Garden Court

The maiden pleasance of the land
Knoweth no stir of voice or hand,
No cup the sleeping waters fill,
The restless shuttle lieth still.
~William Morris

Love is the Key

Scene 4: The Briar Rose: The Rose Bower

Briar Rose: The Rose Bower

Here lies the hoarded love the key
To all the treasure that shall be.
Come, fated hand, the gift to take
And smite the sleeping world awake.
~William Morris

Briar Rose Border Tiles Pricing and Specifications

Tile Specifications

Title: Edward Burne-Jones Briar Rose Tile Panels

Tile: Ceramic

Panels: 8 tiles, in 4 two-tile panels.

Size: 6 inch square tiles (15.4 cm), or 8 inch 20.3 cm)square tiles

Thickness: 3/8 inch (1 cm)

Weight: 11.5 ounces (326 grams) each six-inch tile

Pricing

Six-Inch tiles

One panel (2 tiles) $185

Four panels (set of 8): $700

Eight-Inch tiles

One panel (2 tiles) $225

Four panels (set of 8): $880

Minimum Order: One panel

How to Order Tiles

Briar Rose Panel Installations

Burne-Jones Briar Rose story tiles, The Sleeping Court, installation in guest house Burne-Jones Briar Rose story tiles, The Sleeping Princess, installation in guest house

Briar Rose story tiles installed in guest house

Briar Rose and Willow bath