A special feature in Mauresque mosaics, is the interlacing of one colour with another in the same device. A stanniforous glaze wna commonly used by the Moors in the 13th century. The piecea forming their mosaic works, also their tiles with raised ornament, appear to have been pressed into plaster moulds. Glass mosaic, having a Manresque type of design and colour, is commonly met %%Rh in the churchea of Italy, and frequently in combination with porphyry. There nre examples of this and marble moaaic in Westminster Abbey. Florentine mosaic is composed entirely of marbles, agates, and gems ; the materials are costly, and the process of working it slow, but most beautiful pictures are produced at the atudios for this art at Florence.
Several attempts were made in England in the beginning of this century to form tesselated pavements by onmbining marble and atone with coloured cements ; Wyatt, Carter, Benasconi, Felix Austen, and Croggon, made attempts in this form, but with no great success. In 1836, Blashfield made ornamental pavements by combining Aspdin's and Parker's cements with mineral coloura. This pavement wore well, and atood frost, but it looked dingy. The cements were mixed with water, placed in iron moulds, and screwed down to drive off part of the water from the cement, and so get the edgea of the forms perfect. Inlaid tiles after patterns of oncanstic clay tiles were so produced, and subsequently Blashfield tried coloured bitumen, but this material did not wear or look ao well as the cement. Painted tiles were made in clay by Copeland & Co. at this time for Blashfield for terrace-steps. The tiles were so designed and made that, when com bined, they formed a pattern 6 ft. in length. The colours were red and black. In 1839, an elaborate mosaic floor was made by Blasbfleld at Deepdene, combioing the features of the ancient "opua incertnm," the Venetian " pise," and the common Italian " trazzo" floors. It is the large,t floor of this character in England. The mosaic features were placed face downwards on a true bench, and backed with thin red tiles and cement, and thua formed into large slabs, which, when all properly bedded on a concrete floor, were rubbed down and polished.
In 1838, Routledge and Greenwood made buff terra-cotta pavement and tiles. The latter were inlaid with scagliola, and polished. Iu 1839, Singer of Vauxhall, asaisted by Pother, made teseerte for slabs and pavements, copying Moorish and Roman examples. Singer's pro^ess was to place clay, well kneaded and of various colours, and as near as practicable of uniform stiffness, in a machine, whero, by means of levera, it was subjected to pressure, and made to exude from an aper ture 6 in. by in. Aa it protruded, it was cut into lengths of 3 in., and these small pieces were left fnr some daya to dry. Fifteen or more were then laid one upon another, and a frame of cor responding size (across which were strained wires, crossing one another at regular intervals), sliding vertically on two uprights, was made to pass through them, cutting out by this motion 100 or more teaserEe. When any curved forms were required, the tesserEe were placed angle-wise in a groove,
and a piece of ourved metal was made to pass through n number of them placed together, which gave a coincidence of form in tbe parts divided. The tesserEe were then burnt, and put together on alahe of slate. The great ball of the Reform Club was e‘reuted by Singer with tessera) thus made, and ground down to a true surface. He also made a pavement for the court of the present Royal Exchange of similar tesserte, hut being laid down during winter, the cement gave way, and the whole was taken up and removed. Some of the pieces used for dados and Mauresque slabs were made out of plaster moulds, and these were often coloured and enamelled. These pieces of tesserte were affixed to slabs of slate with plaster, and were much used for sides of stoves. About 1830, S. Wright of Shelton took a patent for rnaking inlaid tiles after the fashion of the mediaeval tiles ; he sold his rights to Herbert Minton, who, assisted by the advice of Welby Pugin, produced the tiles so well known in connection with the name of Minton.
Inlaid tiles were largely made in England in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, some later on, The oldest tiles are of red or brown colours, some few black, having ornaments painted on them with white or buff clays, and glazed. Other tiles have ornaments impressed on them in relief, possibly pressed in carved wooden or pla,ter moulds. This impress of ornament may have sug gested the inlay of other coloured clays in an indented surface, and led to the running-in of slip, or thin clays of white, buff, black, or green, into the indented surface of the tile. The superfluous slip would have been scraped off when stiff, and the tile brought to a perfect face, and glazed and burnt. All these tiles seem to have been coated with a plombiferous glaze. They were made of various sizes, but are not often found more than 6 iu. sq., and frequently are so designed that 4, 9, and 16 tiles are required in combination to form one pattern. Some of the best pavements of this sort were found at Salisbury, Winchester, Exeter, Bristol, Chichester, Oxford, and Gloucester Cathedrals ; and in numerous old churches and other places in England they exist in great number. One of the most perfect old examples is the floor of the Chapter House, Westminster Abbey. They are frequently laid with marginal tiles quite plain, and sometimes with an inlaid border at the verge. The inlaid ornament usually affords a clue to the date of the tiles, as the type of the architecture of the age is seen in these fictile records. There is an artistic effect about the free sketchy way in which the designs aro drawn, and the mottled appearance of the colour, which gives them a great charm, and over-rides the more precise outline and uniform tone of modern tiles.