The Seven Ages of Man, c. 1882. Printed and painted ceramic tiles in a wooden frame, each tile 6 inches (15.2 cm) square. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Marks initially designed this, his most famous tile series, for Mintons in 1873. It features Shakespearean figures from As You Like It illustrating the various stages in a man's life. The series was inspired by Jacques' famous speech "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players." Marks devised many alternative designs for this series. The designs were used for circular 20 inch wall plaques with gilt backgrounds, rectangular tile panels, square 6 inch tiles, and moon flasks.
The Lover "sighing like a furnace."
Mintons displayed The Seven Ages of Man panels at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873. When The Art Journal reviewed the exhibition it singled out Mark's designs for this series for particular praise:
Here again, a lesson might be gained from a neighbouring stand, Messrs. Minton's, where English workmanship is allied with English Art in the person of no less distinguished a professor than H. S. Marks, A.R.A…. Having mentioned Mr. Marks in connection with Messrs. Minton's Art-manufacturers, we shall give the place of honour to his Seven Ages, distinguished for all the Touchstonish humour in which his brush loves to revel, and for all his wonted mediaeval lore, the gilt background aiding the pictures à merveille. The "Lover sighing like a furnace"; "The Justice," with the inimitable expression on the faces of the two yokels; and "the lean and slippered Pantaloon," who seems forgetful of the fact that "crabbed age and youth cannot live together," seem to us, though all are admirable, as about the best of the series." [279]
An early set of the large circular plaques was hung in an inglenook in the library at Eaton Hall, the Duke of Westminster's country house in Cheshire.
A happy ending for the Lover — and the cycle begins again.
Marks also designed other tiles, including series illustrating the Signs of the Zodiac and Aesop's fables, for Robert Minton Taylor. Minton's bought out Taylor in 1874 and they subsequently produced these tiles.
Link to Related Material
Bibliography
Austwick, Jill and Brian Austwick. The Decorated Tile. London: Pitman House Ltd., 1980. 101.
Lockett, Terence A. Collecting Victorian Tiles. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club Ltd. 1979: 135-37.
"Henry Stacy Marks for Minton, 1829-1898." Sotheby's. Web. 26 October 2023.
"The Universal Exhibition at Vienna." The Art Journal New Series XII (1873): 277-79.
Created 26 October 2023