A beautiful 22m2 art nouveau ceramic floor

Now fully restored to its original beauty, a stunning Belgian art nouveau floor complete with its original same size border tiles, which can be laid singularly or back to back as shown in the photographs below. The floor was handmade by Carrelages Céramiques de Chimay, Maufroid Freres & Soeur, Rue Poncet, Bourlers, Henegouwen, Belgium, who later became: S.A. La Céramique de Bourlers. Maufroid Freres et Soeur traded as such between 1879 and 1912 and the tiles display on their reverse the Maufroid rings and centralised 'M' stamp.

The total surface area is 22m2 / 237 sq ft and both the main field tile and border tile, in a cool palette of greys, offwhite and sky blue, are 16cm square and 15mm thick.

The floor bears all the DNA of art nouveau styling; the principal field tile design tessellating across 4 tiles, framed by a same size border tile borrowing from the same cool palette. We are delighted to have recovered the full contingent of border tiles and their four internal and four external border corners. There are a large number of border tiles, 300+ in total, providing for a linear lay of some 24 linear metres as a back to back lay or double that for a single lay.

The floor has cleaned well of its old mortar and wax and has a lovely patina; the colours are crisp and consistent and the ceramic is excellent quality. There are occasional small chips and edge nibbles on a small number of tiles, all groutable. The high resolution photographs below of around 1.5m2 of the floor are a randomly selected representation of the whole floor and being a highly fired tile it can be laid inside or outside of the home, working very efficiently with underfloor heating systems.

We also have the same Maufroid Freres et Soeur field tile, with a different border and in a different palette, presenting possibilities for using both floors in separate rooms with a common theme. A link to the floor can be found here

Tile quantities, give or take one or two:-

Field tiles - 530 - 13.6m2 / 146 sq ft

Large border tiles - 294 plus 16 corners - 7.95m2 / 85.6 sq ft or 24 linear metres / 66 linear feet as a back to back lay

Plus a large number of free reject border tiles that can be used for offcuts, mitre cut corners or integrated into the floor.

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.