A large 28.5m2 / 305sqft Octave Colozier ceramic floor - before 1913

A large, 28.5m2 / 305 sq ft antique ceramic encaustic floor, complete with its original triple border tiles consisting of a same size border framed by a half size border laid in duplicate. The tiles bear the reverse inscription 'OC', being Octave Colozier, the heritage ceramic production house established at St Just de Marais. The floor was produced c.1913 and appears in the Octave Colozier catalogue for that year, a scan of the page is included below with high resolution photographs of a random section of the floor. The floor has been recovered from the entrance hall and reception room of a turn of the century townhouse in Villers Sur Bonnieres, Picardie.

The main 14cm sq / 5 1/2 inch field tile design is classical with a four tile tessellation opening to produce a repeating 3D star theme. The palette is cool in greys, off-whites and blue...broken only by a dark jade half size border with an amber coloured flower head. The removal of the old lime based mortar and years of dirt and wax has revealed a good quality and heavy ceramic, there is no incidence of tile wear and, aside the occasional edge nibbles and small groutable chips one would expect of an antique floor 100 years old the ceramic is superb. Having been taken from two areas in the same house there are a lot of border tiles available as well as a significant number of border corners as the floor traced around several corners as well as a chimney area.

Being a ceramic encaustic tile it can be relaid inside or outside of the home and as excellent retainers and distributors of heat can work with underfloor heating systems very efficiently.

Tile quantities, give or take one or two:-

Main field tiles - 1,015 totalling 21.6m2 / 230 sq ft.

Large border tiles - 160 plus 11 corner tiles totalling 3.7m2 / 40 sq ft. or 26 linear metres / 85.4 linear feet

Small border tiles - 345 plus 23 corner tiles totalling 3.9m2 / 41.6 sq ft, or 54.2 linear metres / 177.8 linear feet