Morris first became interested in producing ceramic tiles when he included them in the decorative scheme for Red House in the early 1860s. Most of the firm's tiles were used as either decorative panels for furniture or as wall decoration. In 1862, the firm received a commission from the painter Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899) to decorate his new Tudor-style house at Witley in Surrey. The commission included several pieces of furniture, stained glass, wallpaper, and this overmantel illustrating the story of Cinderella along with two other tile panels of fairy tale narratives. Because tile production was a novelty with the firm at this point, the tile patterns are sometimes blurred, and the figures, though charming, are slightly crude. The firm would continue to produce and retail patterned tiles, but the ceramics sold by their shop in Oxford Street were largely supplied by William De Morgan and tiles imported from the Netherlands. - Huntington Label