ORNAMENTAL TILES, SOME years ago a learned Italian found in an old library in Some years ago a learned Italian found in an old library in the city of Florence a manuscript of the fifteenth century on the Art of Painting, in which the author traces the history of the art back to the common father of mankind, and from Adam to God Himself, thereby seeking to prove that the art was divine and coeval with the very creation of man.
Although we cannot claim so high an origin or go back quite so far with the history of tiles, nevertheless we can positively state with truth that wherever we find historic man we are sure to find tiles of one kind or another. In fact, among the most ancient documents we have, are records kept upon clay tablets, which are nothing more nor less than tile books. I allude to the Chaldean and Assyrian tablets found in such numbers amid the ruins of Mesopotamian palaces, and from which the Assyro Chaldean student has been able to add many pages to the his tory of the primitive civilization of man.
That tiles are found so universally under every form of civi lization and in every age is not to be wondered at, when we remember that they are made of clay, a substance found in all lands, cheap, plastic in its nature, yielding readily to the hand of man, and becoming fixed by the sun's heat or by fire, and that they lend themselves under their numberless forms not only to many practical ends, but also to the highest require ments of decorative art. So we find tiles used as records, floors, walls, roofs, ceilings, tombs, baths, altars, pulpits, altar pieces, friezes, dados, fire-places, hearths, wainscots, table tops, drains, stoves, grills, balconies, and in many other ways.
The higher the art culture of a people, the greater their use of tiles. For this reason we hear so often now-a-days about tile, when so much thought is given to the decorative arts and cultivation of artistic taste. A few years ago they were almost unknown in the United States, while to-day there are many tile makers and thousands of dollars invested in the business, and yet the demand is greater than the supply both for domestic and imported goods ; therefore it seems to me it is high time that the general public should be made acquainted with the history of tile and its use in the past as a decorative medium.
The first thought or question that naturally arises is : What is a tile? To get a true definition we must first consider the origin of the English word "tile." It is derived from the Latin noun tegula, and that is formed from the verb tegere, to cover, and was used by the Romans to name a piece of baked or dried clay used for covering houses ; hence a tile is all forms of baked clay, glazed or unglazed, plain or decorated, which is used to cover, or is applied upon another body or object such as a roof, a floor, or wall, etc. Before 184o all tiles were plastic, being made from wet clay ; since that date the larger part have been made from clay reduced to dust and formed into a tile by pressure.
There are two great families of tiles, unglazed and glazed. The unglazed are subdivided into : Plain, a bisque tile of one color.
Inlaid, a tile where one colored clay is forced into another color.
Indented, a tile with the designs depressed below the face.
Relief, a tile with a design standing above the face.
Printed, a tile with a design printed in color upon its face.
Glazed tiles are divided in their turn as follows : vitreous or glass-glazed, plumbeous or lead-glazed, stanniferous or tin glazed, and are again subdivided into : Plain, a tile faced with a transparent glaze and depending for its color on the bisque or body showing through the glaze.
Enameled, a tile having the face covered with a colored glaze.
Incised, a tile with a design cut through the glaze down to the body or bisque.
Indented, a tile with a design scratched or stamped upon the clay body and covered with a glaze.
Relief, a tile with a design modeled, pressed, or stamped above the face or back-ground and covered with a glaze.