A unique and impressive clover themed French floor c.1905

A curious and beautifully detailed antique French floor in cool tones of sage and leaf greens on a fond of cream with mustard and black detailing and piping present.

The c.10m2 / 110 sq ft floor is complete with its original same size and half size border tiles. The theme is vegetal, tessellating across four tiles. ‘Le Treffle’ in France is as much a symbol of good luck as its Irish equivalent the shamrock is in Eire or on the east coast of the USA. The large clover on the four-tile tessellation is centrally anchored by a smaller group of three leaf clovers.

The tiles, which are unmarked save for a grid line design on the reverse, are dated c.1905. We have a growing library of antique period catalogues and scans and have included a scan from the Ceramiques Sand & Cie Catalogue showing the floor.

The floor has yet to be fully restored and we can provide an estimated timescale for its completion and readiness for shipping.

The ceramic is excellent quality and the tiles in very good condition, they arrive ready to relay having been cleaned of their old lime based mortar and had their faces steam cleaned to remove old wax.

Being ceramic the tiles are suitable for internal or external use, for example as a front garden path.

Enquire for tile counts by tile type 

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.