A double border Belgian ceramic – early 20th century

Manufactured in the early part of the 20^th century by Societe Anonyme Carreaux Ceramiques de Morialme, a fully restored antique Belgian double border ceramic floor. The tiles are 14cm square with 14cm x 7cm square half size borders.

In an aqua palette of alternating motifs, each opening up in a four-tile tessellation, the floor has cleaned superbly. The design of the field tile simulates, in its motif framing, the half size border design and the floor totals 8.6m2 / 92.6 sq ft.* All 8 half size border corners are available but the full-size borders corners will need to be mitre cut from the regular borders by the tiler, an easy task.

*we have up to a further 97 large border tiles available, should they be needed, which could increase the surface area available to a maximum of 10.5m2/113 sq ft.

The photographs in the gallery display a randomly selected, representative sample of the tiles, totalling c.1.2m2, and we also include scans from the original Morialme catalogue showing the presentation of the tiles in the early part of the twentieth century.

Tile quantities: -

Field tiles – 315 – 6.2m2 / 66.5 sq ft.

Large borders – 72 – 1.4m2 / 15 sq ft. – 10 linear metres / 33 linear ft.

Small borders – 102 plus 8 corners – 1m2 / 10.7 sq ft. – 14.8 linear metres / 48.6 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.