8.5m2+ / 90sq ft+ French ceramic Hallway floor

An 8.25m2+ / 90 sq ft+ antique French ceramic encaustic tile floor complete with the two original border tiles. The floor has been recovered from a Maison de Champagne in the village of Bouzy, which is in the Marne departement of France. It was recovered along with two other larger ceramic encaustic floors made by the same period manufacturer, Ste Anonyme, Gare de Douzies, Maubeuge and the floor dates from the early 20th century. Both the principal field and border tile are 15.2cm sq / 6 inches sq.

The field tiles are cream and anchored by a French cross motif in a warm blue with black piping, yellow and burgundy present. The design, when laid out, is made to create the visual impression of adjoining cabachons (tile inserts) between the tiles, which was popular during this period and the more ornate and fluid border tiles take from the same palette. There is over 17 linear metres, 56 linear feet of border tiles, with 3 border corner pieces, so one will require mitre cutting.

The floor is in good condition with only a small number of tiles displaying the occasional small chip expected of a floor close to 100 yrs of age but following a professional cleaning the colours have returned beautifully. Some tiles have small capilliary cracks as can be seen in the high resolution photographs below. These are cracks that are formed when a tile leaves the kiln to cool and has done so in an environment where there has been a higher than normal level of humidity, for example it may have been a particularly wet and hot day in the factory during one batch of production. The cooling tile, losing its heat at the edges simply draws in moisture as a consequence and a small 1cm or so surface crack appears. The cracks are groutable and part of the floors patina and the ceramic remains in excellent condition. They were quality controlled and accepted as such 100 years ago.....and we have done the same now.