Small French Morialme ceramic floor - Neo-Gothic design and palette

A small, 4.2m2 / 45 sq ft antique ceramic floor of 14.2cm sq tiles produced by Manufacture des Ceramiques Morialme, part reclaimed from the kitchen of a house in Wingles, a town of some 8,000 inhabitants in the Pas de Calais department of northern France. The floor consists of 190 main field tiles, which tessellate in fours, and 15 border tiles which are not sufficient to frame the floor but can be used as a feature; laid within door frames, traced around a fixture or fitting like a bath or sink, as a splashback linking wall to floor etc. We think, given both the design and the terracotta and mustard palette, that the floor would work particularly well as a centralised carpet style feature in a larger area surrounded by antique hardwood parquet.

Both the design and palette have a stong ecclesiastical theme, bearing similarities to English neo-gothic tiles produced in England during the Victorian period by companies like Maw & Co and Minton of Stoke-Upon-Trent. The tiles have cleaned very well revealing a pleasing antique patina and an excellent ceramic with no surface wear. As the high resolution photographs show, some tiles have c.2cm surface capilliary cracks, cracks which were formed when the tiles left the kiln having been heated to 1,100 degrees F and were exposed to a humid environment within the factory. The photographs are of a random, representative section of the floor and being ceramic encaustic the floor can be laid both inside and outside of the home and will work efficiently with underfloor heating systems.