Decorative relief carved Celtic Hounds ceramic tile

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6x6 relief carved Celtic Hounds Ceramic tile can be permanently installed or there's a notch in the back so it can easily be hung as artwork on its own.

Available to order from http://earthsongtiles.com

The life of the early Irish was filled with hunting and fighting, both of which master and hound alike excelled. Rarely parted they fed on the flesh and slept side by side on the skins of wild animals which together they had brought to bay. White seems to have been a favorite color for the Irish wolf hound of the heroic age and it was popular to dye the coats of both hounds and horses blue or leave them white with purple dyed ears. Their gigantic size along with their swiftness and courage brought forth much admiration from everyone who encountered them. In 1571 the Blessed Edmund Champion S.J. in his 'Historie of Ireland' describes the Irish Greyhound, as they were also known, as "higher of bone and limb than a colt" Comparisons were regularly drawn between great Hounds and their masters. It was writen in Camden's 'Brttania' (1594) that " In Ireland animals are smaller than in England except Men and those hunting dogs we call Greyhounds" Another writen account of this nature from 1681 maintains "All the breed of the Country of Ireland save Women and Greyhounds are less than the breed of England." They did impress people and between the 16th and 18th centuries there was a large export of Irish Hounds. The export ban on Wolfhounds in 1652 seemed to be completely ignored and a good sized volume would be needed to relate all the cajoling, threatening and blackmailing correspondence available in connection with the acquisition of them.  Gradually from necessity the large hounds developed into strictly companion animals and became diminished in size. By the mid 19th century people had forgotten what these early hounds had even looked like and were apt to call anything from a Newfoundland to a Great Dane a true Irish Wolfhound. The breed would have undoubtedly been lost if not for an Englishman named Captain George Augustus Graham who took up the breed with much enthusiasm. He not only saved the true Wolfhound from oblivion, but brought them back into the limelight of Dogdom.