Rare and Elegant - A 33.7m2 Paray-le-Monial ceramic dated 1894-1895

This rare and magnificent 33.7m2 / 363 sq ft. French ceramic encaustic floor was handmade in 1894-1895 by Societe Anonyme des Carrelages Ceramiques PARAY-LE-MONIAL (Saone et Loire). The main field tile and large border tile are 17.6cm sq, over 15mm thick and weigh c.1.3kgs each. A half-sized border tile, 17.6cm x 8.8cm, has also been laid with the floor.

The floor has been reclaimed from the entrance hall of the fine Maison Maitre of a large farm in southern Burgundy with some of the farms outbuildings dating back to the 16th century. Monochrome in palette and creating an impressive navigation into the house, the principal tile is star themed with faux cabochons and is complimented by a greek meander themed large border and a bar themed half-sized border. The main section of the hallway was laid as a triple border configuration with the same size greek themed border top and tailed by the half sized border. Smaller areas off the main hallway, as can be seen in the photo in the gallery, utilised just the field tiles, half sized borders and a plain white tolerance tile. We have reclaimed these Paray le Monial tolerance tiles as they are the identical white and they can be used again as tolerance tiles in the relaying of the floor.

We include in the photograph gallery high resolution photographs of  random 1.25m2 section of the floor, representative of the whole, scans from the original 1894-95 Paray le Monial period catalogue in our possession presenting the floor and a couple of photographs of the floor before its lifting and transportation to The Antique Floor Company workshop for restoration.

This is a large, heavy, quality ceramic, now 130 years old but in excellent condition; a small number of tiles display edge nibbles or the ocassional small chip, all groutable, but this is a bourgeoise floor both in quality and size that demands to find a new and appropriate setting. Being highly fired the tiles can also be laid outside, for example as the entrance path to a maison maitre. 

We will supply to the floors purchaser a free technical drawing for the layout of the floor in your chosen area.

Tile quantities by tile type:-

Field tiles - 830 - 24.9m2 / 268 sq ft

Large border tiles - 110 plus 4 corners - 3.4m2 / 36.6 sq ft - 19.7 linear metres / 64.7 linear feet

Half sized borders - 273 plus 18 corners - 4.2m2 / 45.2 sq ft. - 47.2 linear metres / 154.9 linear feet

White tolerance tiles - 39 - 1.2m2 / 12.9 sq 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.