27 beautiful, helix themed ceramics - 1881

Dating from their presentation in the 1881 Ceramiques Carrelages de Boch Freres, Maubeuge, France as 'bordure byzantine' these c.17.3cm / 6.8 inch sq handmade ceramics display their stunning helix themed design interposed with a blue lozenge themed motif tile. 

There are 15 regular and 12 lozenge borders, the latter allowing for the presentation of 6 complete motifs. The lay length is 470cm / 185 inches.

While there are only a small number available they lend themselves to being a practical and beautiful decorative piece, for example as a splashback in a kitchen or bathroom, in a shower or chimney breast, as a centralised frame in an entrance hall floor filled with a plain modern ceramic. We also have a small number of free rejects of the regular border which can be used either for tile cuts or to create mitre cut border corner tiles.

The tiles weigh c.1.4kgs / 3lbs each.

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.