Tile

“ A broad red roof of tile is a conspicuous object on the same road which winds and turns in true crooked country fashion, with hedgerows, trees, and fields on both sides, and scarcely a dwelling visible. It is not, indeed, so crooked as a lane in Gloucestershire, which I verily believe passes the same tree thrice, but the curves are frequent enough to vary the view pleasantly. ”

“ Some beautiful heads of dogs, lions, and asses were marvellous examples of animal portraiture, and illustrated the capacity of tiling for the reception of that style of decoration. In them was seen the work of an artist who fully understood that, given the requisite mastery of color, a tile may be employed as a more lasting substitute for canvas. It is also worth noting that whenever tiles are used for covering a large surface, and each one is treated as a unit, the result is an artistic blunder. ”

“ The velvety quiet of these floors imparts a tranquillity to the kitchen, contagious to mistress and to maid.
It is needless to say much for the tile as you know its beauties. It may be cold to the feet, non-resistant and tiring to the back and slippery when wet, but this is overcome by mats of matting, cork or linoleum. Tile is made in every design and color to fit any desire or design. All corners and joints at the base of walls can be curved. It makes a unit of the whole room in design and intention as no other thing does. It can be cleaned out with a small hose. ”

“ For even when such work is first executed, and the brickwork is fresh and neat, I think we always feel that the smooth hard surface of the tile offers rather too great a contrast to the rougher texture of the bricks; and whilst the former is likely to remain almost unchanged for ever, the latter is certain gradually to grow rougher and ruder in its aspect, until, in the end, we shall have walls showing everywhere picturesque marks of age, and yet with their decorations as fresh as if they had but just been introduced. ”

“ The tiled ridges always terminate in a shouldered mass of tiles specially designed for the purpose. The smaller ribs of tiles that run down to the eaves, along the ridges in a hip-roof, or border the verge in a gable-roof, often terminate in some ornamental tile in high-relief. ”

“ Though the bunch of flowers on each is painted on one slab, the ground of each tile is formed of separate pieces, fitted together like a kind of mosaic, probably because the pigment of the ground required a different degree of heat in firing from that needed for the enamel painting of the centre. The few other works of this class which exist do not approach the beauty of this early essay in tile painting, on which Luca evidently put forth his utmost skill and patience. ”

“ And yonder by Nankin, behold! The Tower of Porcelain, strange and old, Uplifting to the astonished skies Its ninefold painted balconies, With balustrades of twining leaves, And roofs of tile, beneath whose eaves Hang porcelain bells that all the time Ring with a soft, melodious chime; While the whole fabric is ablaze With varied tints, all fused in one Great mass of color, like a maze Of flowers illumined by the sun. ”

“ They are pieces of wood from half an inch to an inch in thickness, the size of ordinary tiles, carved in bold relief with free hand, coloured or not, and are very useful for house decoration, chimney-piece borders, cornices, and corners. The tile when employed with much repetition becomes the diaper ornament. ”

“ Tiles may be made of various kinds and sizes, but in every case they show an inclination to buckle in drying and firing. The larger the tile the stronger is this tendency to warp. The clay must not be so rich as that which is used for throwing and should be tempered to counteract the tendency to curl. ”

“ The modern highly glazed tile paper for walls and ceiling is an admirable covering, as it refuses to harbour dirt, and the housemaid's brush can keep it sweet and clean. Wall papers are so pretty and so exquisite in design that it seems hardly necessary to do more than mention them. ”

“ The free space is an advantage in giving relief to the design and in furnishing an even surface for the teapot or bowl to rest upon. In the decoration of rectangular tile forms the general principles as to variety of measure or shape in space divisions hold true. Emphasis should be concentrated at the corners in order to strengthen the design.
Fireplace Tiles.—Some of the tiles illustrated in Plate XIV would be entirely appropriate for facing a border around the opening of a fireplace. ”

“ The floor, for example, is rich in its varieties of tiles, there being some five or six of different designs and shades. It is true that the great central floors are made of tiles of uniform design and color, and that these—a deep brick red, with small green spots at the corners of each tile—are grave and good; but all around, where we pass through arch or door, there is a deep fringe of brilliant tiles, which are reflected into the glass cases nearest them, to the injury of the objects shown ”

“ With plain glazed tiles a little coarse dust sprinkled over the surface before the tile is removed from the box, and well pressed in, will give a slight interest to the surface and take away any mechanical look. If required for painting, the clay must be very finely sieved and the surface will need careful finishing by hand when dry. ”

“ These tiles are much larger than the Plain-Tiles, which are used in roofing dwellings, &c.; they are flat, as the name indicates, and are fixed to the laths of the roof by wooden pegs, two holes being left in the tile for that purpose. Foot and ten-inch tiles are thick square tiles of those dimensions, used for paving, hearths, &c., or for coping walls. All tiles are burnt in a kiln.
Bricks made in Great Britain are charged with a duty, and as it constitutes an important item in the revenue, the manufacture is laid under strict surveillance by the Excise. ”

“ This will result in a tile with the design in relief. Within these relief lines cement with color added to it may be placed and the tiles placed in a tray of water with the water coming half-way up the side of the tile. The tile will be hard enough to remove in five days.
SIMPLE ROUND PAPER WEIGHTS and tiles that are not square can be made by the same method. A little ingenuity in arranging the retaining cardboard strips around the plaster or wax model will solve the producing of irregular forms. ”

“ Tile seems to be the material that gives the most general satisfaction for kitchen floors and walls. A white vitrified tile, laid on a heavy foundation, having the joints between the tiles carefully sealed with cement, gives perhaps the nearest to the ideal kitchen floor yet attained. ”

“ In medieval times lead or copper [7] in large sheets was used for the chief churches and palaces of Europe; but in more ordinary work clay tiles of very simple form were employed. One variety, still very common in Italy, is shown in C, fig. 3. In this form of so-called “pan-tile” each tile has a double curve, forming a legula and imbrex both in one. Stone tiles were also very common throughout the middle ages. Another kind of roofing tile, largely used in pre-Norman times, and for some centuries later for certain purposes, was made of thin pieces of split wood, generally oak ”

“ Pattern No. 201, a little three-inch tile of alternating black and gray blocks, is reminiscent of Italian influence. In the woods, Parquetry No. 600 is particularly good. Or, for the average home, nothing is better than the jaspes in browns and grays, or a plain linoleum in appropriate coloring. ”

“ Colored tiles are used in some cases with quaint effect; but I believe the dignity of the building is always greater when the roof is kept in an undisturbed mass, opposing itself to the variegation and richness of the walls. The Italian 346 round tile is itself decoration enough, a deep and rich fluting, which all artists delight in ”

“ B, B, Dowels to fix the joint-tiles. C, Tilting piece, a, a, Flat surface of tiles.
the upper edge of the next tile (see D in fig. 1) . The άρμοί also were half-lapped at the joints (see E in fig. 1) . All these were usually fastened with bronze nails to the rafters of the roof. In some cases each joint-tile had a projecting peg to fix it to the next άρμός, as shown at F. In the temples of Imperial Rome marble roofing tiles were used like those shown at fig. 1. ”

“ Tiles tone down and become at home; they nestle together, and look as if you could be happily drowsy and slumber under them. They are to a house what leaves are to a tree, and leaves turn reddish or brown in the autumn. ”

“ At the present day, when slate is not used, tiles of burnt clay are the ordinary roofing material, and many complicated forms have been invented to exclude rain. Most of these are; however, costly and do not answer better than the rectangular tile about 9 by 6 in., fastened with two copper or even stout zinc nails, and well bedded on mortar mixed with hair. ”

“ Red-roofed buildings of stone and adobe entirely cover the hillside, with here and there a dome, a tower, a church steeple shooting upward, or a tell palm poking its head above a garden wall—the glittering green contrasting well with the ruddy tiles and the pink, gray, blue and yellow of the painted walls. ”

“ The geometrical tiles are made of various sizes and of every necessary shape, and thus pavements of admirable and effective design and of endless variety are produced, which are equally suitable for small villas, cottages, schools, &c. ”

“ Perhaps, of all available coverings, nothing will look better than tiles, as drawn. Red or buff tiles will in themselves look best, but the choice must, to an extent, be influenced by the general covering of the house. ”

“ The dull ruby tiles that extended from the foot of the walls to the verge of a circular clump of tall iris plants, surrounding in turn a sunken basin of white marble filled with water, were obviously of the best quality. ”

“ In the better class of tiled roof it is common to point off with white mortar the joints between the rows of tiles near the eaves, and also next the ridge; and oftentimes the entire roof is treated in this manner. In some photographs of Korean houses taken by Percival Lowell, Esq., the same method of closing the seams of the bordering rows of tiles with white plaster is shown.
Fig. 71.—Eaves of tiled roof. The older a tile is, the better it is considered for roofing purposes. ”

“ For the rest, if you have wooden work about the fireplace, which is often good to have, don’t mix up the wood and the tiles together; let the wood-work look like part of the wall-covering, and the tiles like part of the chimney. ”

“ In plainer dwellings they were covered with a mixture of fragments of stone and mortar, or with pavement of brick, stone, or common tiles. But in great mansions the floor was one of the special points for display. It was either formed of white, black, or colored marbles, arranged in a check pattern, or it was a specimen of elaborate inlaid work. The tesselated pavements, of which so many remains exist, display two varieties. The first, or plainer kind, is formed of tiles moulded into various forms of animals, flowers, or such devices, each tile being a perfect figure in itself. ”

“ The first thing that attracted my attention as we neared the shore, was the singular appearance of the roofs of many of the buildings, which I ascertained were covered with tiles. As few of my readers have ever seen a roof covered in this manner, I am induced to describe it. The [Pg 31] tiles are pieces of pottery in the form of half a tube seven or eight inches in diameter, half or three-quarters of an inch thick, and about two feet long. They are unglazed, and burnt as hard as our pottery. ”

“ They were painted on moist clay, as described in the problem of the bowl, and afterwards covered with a bright glaze. In this case the glaze was itself coloured, thus adding richness to the colour scheme. The repetition in a tile facing of landscapes, designed to be complete or nearly so, would be tiresome. It is better so to design the entire facing that it will be made up of a series of very simple landscape motifs, each fairly complete in itself, but all so related to each other as to form, when joined, a larger, somewhat conventionalized, landscape. ”

“ The latter have patterns in white, dark blue, and yellow, and in all cases they are remarkable for the beautiful inequality both of the colours and of the surface of the tiles. Both colour and material are in themselves better than the work of our tile-manufacturers at the present day, and illustrate very well the difference between hand-work and machine-work, which I have already noticed in comparing the old and new modes of dealing with plaster. The Moorish tiles are very commonly seen in Toledo, and were used both for flooring and inlaying walls, and in some cases for the covering of roofs. ”

“ The best covering for the joints of tiles which are laid without collars, is a scrap of tin, bent so as to fit their shape,—scraps of leather, or bits of strong wood shavings, answer a very good purpose, though both of these latter require to be held in place by putting a little earth over their ends as soon as laid on the tile. ”

“ The stone walls sometimes seen are a sham, the stones being thin slabs nailed on the wooden framework of a house, like tiles or shingles, to rattle down in a harmless shower when the earth heaves and rocks. ”

“ For a house we need wall material, floor material, window, ceiling, chimney stuffs and so forth. We may, if we like, make floors, walls, and ceilings all of the same kind of stuff, wood for example, but we should need glass for windows and bricks or tile for chimneys. ”

“ She squeezed through the small door, and wriggled out on her hands and knees on to the tiles.
She was in the angle of a small gable. She could see roof all round her, and sky above. Still on hands and knees, she began to creep upwards. The weather-beaten old tiles had mellowed to dull red and orange, and were partly covered with moss. ”