Portfolio > Hidden and Not So Hidden Gems of Berkeley

Chaucer's Merchant
Chaucer's Merchant
Digital Print
Sizes vary
2011

Among the many examples of tile and ceramic art found around the city, one of my favorite collections is a series of characters from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. We have here a bold Knight, a saintly Prioress, a sturdy Merchant (complete with money bag), and the proto-feminist Wife of Bath who outmaneuvered and outlived five husbands. They can be found on the hills a little below Grizzly Peak on Poppy Lane, together with a set of animals (not pictured) that also appear to be mediaeval-inspired—squirrel, lamb, and rhinoceros—and a sweet angelic harpist.