A 17m2 Societe Amay art nouveau ceramic

An antique Belgian floor in a cool palette of greens, sky bue, off-white, vieux rose and charcoal now fully restored to its original beauty and arriving ready to relay.

Manufactured in the early twentieth century by Societe Anonyme AMAY, Belgique, we include in the photo gallery some scans of the tile from their original catalogue.

This ceramic encaustic floor consists of a field tile, a same size border tile, for which all four border corners are present, and a half sized border, which is laid between the field tile and the large border. Both the field tiles and large borders are 14cm sq and the half sized borders 14cm x 7cm. 

The surface area of the floor is c.17m2+ / 183 sq. ft. 

The design and palette has art nouveau influences and the main field tile tessellates across four tiles to reveal a polka dot framed cross and floral motif and the borders take from the same palette and design. We think the vegetal theme and palette lend themselves perfectly to relaying the floor in a room linking home with garden and optionally, given the tiles were highly fired and are resistant to high summer and sub zero winter temperatures, the floor could also be laid outside on a garden path, in a conservatory or summer house.

Arriving ready to relay, the condition of these tiles is excellent; there are occasional small chips and edge nibbles on a small number of tiles, all grout-able, but each tile has been individually quality controlled both during the removal of the old mortar, grout, surface dirt and waxes during the restoration process. The high resolution photographs are a randomly selected section of the total floor.

The tiles will work very efficiently with underfloor heating systems.

Removed from the same house we have another Societe Amay floor of c.8m2 in the same palette but with a subtly different field tile and introducing a different half size border. The same size border is identical to this one. This presents opportunities to use both of the floors in different areas. More details on the floor can be found if you click here.

Tile quantities by tile type:-

Field tiles -  700 - 14m2 / 151 sq. ft

Large borders - 100 plus 4 corners – 2m2 /  21.5 sq.ft or 14.6 linear metres or 47.8 linear ft

Half size borders - 90 plus 4 corners - 0.9m2 / 9.7 sq.ft or 12.6 linear metres or 41.3 linear ft.

NOTE:-
Antique tiles were most commonly made in single or two tile moulds. Before current computer automation methods their moulds were made my hand and the colour slips mixed by eye. Kiln temperatures could also be variable, as could the firing time. The result is that often tiles display subtle size and thickness variations and there can be tonal variations in colours, owing to the slip mixing and/or firing time. All of this makes these handmade tiles unique and adds to their charm. Some floors display their subtle variations in size and tones, some not, but when photographing we always take a random section of the floor so that it is representative of the whole. A tiler should always dry lay a section of the tiles to familiarise himself with them before starting to fix lay.