Although most images are of new technological inventions, they also depict historical and social events. The presence of a bullfighter or of a billiard table appear to be reflections on the social importance of these activities.
The way Ramon Casas i Carbó (Barcelona, 1866-1932) used archaic iconography and artistic technique to comment on what was then state-of-the-art technology epitomises his fine sense of irony.
Of the twenty-five tiles only one provides a direct clue as to who the artist was. It is a rendering of Casas and Utrillo themselves, accompanied by the words Pèl & Ploma, the journal they had founded in 1899 and continued to publish until 1903.