Tile, 6 x 6 inches. Brown on cream transfer. Maker is Mintons China Works. This is one of 12 designs in the Early English History series by John Moyr Smith produced by Mintons China Works, c. 1872. A battle is depicted here between Roman soldiers in full armor, and Galgacus, who is armed with a spear and shield, but no armor. According to Tacitus, Calgacus (sometimes Calgacos or Galgacus) was a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy who fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in CE 83 or 84. His name can be interpreted as Celtic calg-ac-os, "possessing a blade," and is seemingly related to the Gaelic calgach (meaning prickly or fierce). Whether the word is a name or a given title is unknown.

Mintons China Works was pottery, porcelain and tile manufacturers, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Factory founded 1793/6 by Thomas Minton in Stoke-on-Trent, taken over by Herbert Minton in 1836 until the latter’s death in 1858, when the china business was carried on by Colin Minton Campbell, in partnership with Michael Daintry Hollins, who ran the tile business. In 1868 the partnership ended and Campbell continued as Minton's China Works, also producing tiles, though not encaustic (inlaid) tiles, until 1918 when tile production ceased. From 1873, the name 'Minton' was changed to 'Mintons' without the apostrophe.