A small, 10.5m2, antique Maubeuge ceramic tile

One of three antique ceramic floors reclaimed from the same town house in Saint-Laurent-Blagny, close to the city of Arras in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France. This ceramic floor was manufactured by Produits de Ceramiques, Maubeuge in the early twentieth century and consists of a 12.5cm square field tile, a same size border and a half size border laid in duplicate. 

The floor has cleaned very well of its old lime based mortar and years of dirt and wax have been removed from their faces. Arriving ready to relay, a small number of tiles bear small edge nibbles or small chips, all groutable. The photographs below are of a randomly selected section of the floor which totals c.10.5m2 / 113 sq ft. 

Being a highly fired tile it can be laid inside or outside of the home, for example in a patio area, small conservatory, summer house or garden path where the vegetal theme would work well. Optionally, owing the tiles size and 10mm thickness, they can easily be laid on walls as a kitchen or bath splashback, in a shower or a stove ingle nook. Being ceramic they are easy to maintain and a regular wash is all they require to retain their beauty.

The length of the border tiles is 5.5 metres, 18 feet and we have recovered two border corner tiles for the large border, so two will require mitre cutting for a traditional framing of the floor. There are no border corners for the half size borders and these will either require mitre cutting or the border itself cutting at 45 degrees for the rendezvous.

Produits de Ceramiques, Maubeuge produced two tile sizes for this design, a 15cm square offering and this, a 12.5cm square tile. We have the 15cm tile floor also available so there could be the option to lay the same design in two separate rooms or potentially merge the two in one larger area. The second floor available can be seen by clicking here

Tile quantities, give or take one or two;

FIELD TILES - 590 -  9.3m2 / 100 sq ft

BORDER TILES - 42 plus 2 corner tiles 0.7m2 / 7.4sq ft - 5.5 linear metres / 18 linear feet

HALF SIZE BORDER TILES - 90 - 0.7m2 / 7.4sq ft - 11.25 linear metres / 37 linear feet (halve for a duplicate lay)