8.5m2 antique ceramic floor produced by Douvrin, France - early 20th century

A small, French antique ceramic encaustic floor, complete with its original same size border tile, produced by Compagnie Generale de Construction de Fours, Ceramiques de DOUVRIN, in the early 20th century. A scan from the Douvrin catalogue c.1910, shows the main field tile. The floor has been reclaimed from the kitchen of a town house in Auchy-les-Mines in the Pas de Calais region of northern France and has been professionally cleaned of its old lime based mortar and years of encrusted surface wax.

Totalling 8.5m2 / 91.5 sq ft both the main field tiles and border tile are 14.2cm square and +/-15mm thick in a palette of sea green (the borders) and sea blue (the field tile) as well as wine and peach with charcoal piping detail. The floral themed circular pattern opens in a four tile series and the border tile is strongly art nouveau in design. Owing to the handmade individual batch making process of the early 20th century there is some tonal variation in the colours of individual tiles, most notibly the wine in the main field tile, but all adding to their charm. The floor has cleaned well revealing both a good deep slip and quality ceramic; a small number of tiles display small groutable edge nibbles or small chips but the floor is in good condition as the high resolution photographs of a random sample section of the floor show. It arrives ready to relay, and can be laid inside or outside of the home. We think the palette lends itself particularly well to laying in a bathroom or wet room and being a highly fired tiles can also be used very effectively with underfloor heating systems.

Tile quantities, give or take one or two:-

Main field tile - 360 tiles totalling 7.3m2 or 80 sq ft

Border tile - 51 tiles totalling 1m2 or 11 sq ft. In length - 7.24 linear metres / 23.8 linear feet

Plus free offcuts for tiler to cut.