Early Art Nouveau Maufroid Freres et Soeur ceramic encaustic floor-13m2-17m2+

A beautiful example of an early Belgian Art Nouveau unglazed ceramic encaustic floor produced by Maufroid Freres et Soeur c.1902, recovered from a house in Gembloux in Belgium.

Both the main field tile and the double lay border tile are 16.2cm sq. The palette is cream, mushroom and topaz blue and the interlinking of the stunning vegetal themed form so unmistakingly ‘art nouveau’.

Of the 440 field tiles available, 130 have what are called capillary cracks. These cracks form when the tile is removed from the kiln and reacts to a higher than normal humidity in a room during cooling. It does not effect the strength of the tile (they’re already 106 years old!) although aesthetically a crack can be seen. We have intentionally taken a sample of the floor for photographing that shows the field tiles with the capillary crack.

There would be no problem from the perspective of tile solidity in laying these tiles and grouting the joint and crack but to ensure the buyer is happy WE ARE SELLING THE FLOOR AS 13 M2 PLUS 3.4 M2 OF THE TILES WITH CAPILLARY CRACKS FREE FOR USE AT YOUR DISCRETION.

Tiles quantities (give or take one or two):-

Field tiles – 440 (130 with capillary cracks)

Border tiles – 185

Border corners – 4 internal tiles and 4 external tiles