This is our 100th post – and we’re turning to one of our favourites – artist & illustrator, Kenneth Townsend. In particular we’re focusing on his ‘Menagerie‘ series of tiles. These tiles received a Design Centre award.
The ‘Menagerie’ series featured over 20 different animal designs. He also produced the ‘Horoscope’ and ‘London’ tile series.
A new Flickr Group celebrating the works of Kenneth Townsend has just been formed. You’re welcome to join and add your own images or just come and have a look!
If you’re interested in starting your own collection, they’re often available in vintage stores. They also come up for sale on eBay quite regularly. Have a look at seller simoncurtis. He’s had quite a few of these tiles for sale recently – and has kindly allowed us to use some of his photos in this blog post.
Tags: Carter Tiles, Design Centre, Design Council, Flickr, illustration, Kenneth Townsend, Menagerie, tile
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I’m glad to see that Ken’s designs are gaining the recognition they richly deserve. many thanks for linking to my site (www.kenneth-townsend.co.uk) and I hope it proves helpful to readers.
Just one small point: Ken produced and sold these tiles independently. The link to Carter Tiles is spurious – the tiles simply had its name on the back – and that company did not market them in any way.
I will also be making an announcement soon regarding an exiting new development regarding Ken’s memorabilia.
Hope this helps.
Hi David,
Thanks for the lovely feedback. We’ve updated the post accordingly.
I managed to pick up three of these tiles (Tiger, Moose and Cow) for 20p at a church fete, I used them in my kitchen for putting hot pans on until I realised how important they were
Nooooo! Hope you didn’t scratch them up too much! Great find though!