The Old House Web -- Ceramic Tile Floor Repair and Preservation

Flooring

Preserving Historic Ceramic Tile Floors

Historical Background

Historically, the use of ceramic floor tiles goes back to the fourth millennium B.C. in the Near and Far East.

The Romans introduced tile-making in Western Europe as they occupied territories. However, that art was eventually forgotten in Europe for centuries until the 12th century when Cistercian monks developed a method of making encaustic floor tiles with inlaid patterns for cathedral and church floors. But, this skill was again lost in the 16th century following the Reformation. Except for finely decorated wall tiles made in Turkey and the Middle East, and Delft tiles made in Holland in the 17th century, ceramic floor tiles were not made again in Europe until almost the mid-19th century.

The modern tile industry was advanced by Herbert Minton in 1843 when he revived the lost art of encaustic tile-making in England. The industry was further revolutionized in the 1840s by the "dust-pressing" method which consisted of compressing nearly dry clay between two metal dies. Dust-pressing replaced tile-making by hand with wet clay, and facilitated mechanization of the tile-making industry.

hroughout the rest of the 19th century, dust-pressing enabled faster and cheaper production of better quality floor tiles in a greater range of colors and designs. In the 1850s encaustic tiles were selected for such important structures as the new Palace at Westminster in London, and Queen Victoria's Royal Residence on the Isle of Wight. By the latter part of the 19th century, despite the fact that encaustic tiles were still quite expensive, they had become a common flooring material in many kinds of buildings.

Development of the Tile Industry in America.

Although plain, undecorated ceramic tiles were traditionally a common flooring material in many parts of the Americas, especially in Latin and South America, ceramic floor and roof tiles were probably not made in the North American Colonies until the late-16th or early-17th century. It was, however, in the Victorian era that ceramic tile flooring first became so prevalent in the United States. The production of decorative tiles in America began about 1870 and flourished until about 1930.

Like so many architectural fashions of the day, the popularity of ceramic tile floors in America was greatly influenced by the noted architect and critic, Andrew Jackson Downing. In his book The Architecture of Country Houses, published in 1850, Downing recommended encaustic floor tiles for residential use because of their practicality, especially in vestibules and entrance halls.

The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, with its European and even a few American exhibits of decorative floor tile, was a major factor in popularizing ceramic tile floors in the U.S. Initially, most ceramic tiles-other than purely utilitarian floor tiles-were imported from England, and their relatively high cost meant that only wealthy Americans could afford them. However, when English tile companies realized the potential for profitable export, they soon established agents in major U.S. cities to handle their American business.

The English near monopoly actually stimulated the growth of the U.S. tile industry in the 1870s resulting in sharply decreased English imports by 1890.

The location of potteries and ceramic tile factories is dependent upon the ready availability of suitable ball clay (clay that balled or held together), kaolin (a white clay used as a filler or extender), and feldspar (a crystalline mineral), and an accessible market. Since the cost of shipping the manufactured products tended to restrict profitable sales to limited areas, this usually determined whether a factory would succeed.

Although the United States Pottery in Bennington, Vermont, is known to have made encaustic tiles as early as 1853, the Pittsburgh Encaustic Tile Company (later the Star Encaustic Tiling Company), was the first successful American tile company, and is generally considered the first to manufacture ceramic tile in the U.S. on a commercial basis beginning in 1876.

At least 25 ceramic tile companies were founded in the United States between 1876 and 1894. In the East, several notable tile firms that were established in this period flourished in the Boston area, such as the Chelsea Keramic Art Works, the Low Art Tile Works, and the Grueby Faience Company. Other East Coast companies organized in the late-19th and early-20th century included the International Tile & Trim Company, in Brooklyn, New York; the Trent Tile Company, Providential Tile Company, Mueller Mosaic Tile Company, and the Maywood Tile Company, all in New Jersey; and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania .

Many factories were also established in the Midwest-in Indiana, Michigan, and, especially, in Ohio. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the town of Zanesville, Ohio, was the largest center for pottery and tile-making in the world. Some of the factories in Zanesville included: Ohio Encaustic Tile Company; Mosaic Tile Company; Zanesville Majolica Company; and J.B. Owens Pottery, later to become the Empire Floor and Wall Tile Company.

The American Encaustic Tiling Company, established in 1876, was one of the first, and most successful manufacturers in Zanesville. In the early 1930s it was the largest tile company in the world, producing large quantities of floor tile, plain and ornamental wall tile, and art tile until it closed about 1935, as a result of the Depression. The United States Encaustic Tile Company, Indianapolis, Indiana; Rookwood Pottery, Cincinnati, Ohio; Cambridge Art Tile Works, Covington, Kentucky; and Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Michigan, were some of the other well-known potteries in the Midwest.

Around the turn of the century, the industry began to expand as tilemakers moved West and established potteries there. Joseph Kirkham started the ceramic tile industry on the West Coast in 1900 when he set up the Pacific Art Tile Company in Tropico, California, after his company in Ohio was destroyed by fire. In 1904 the company became the Western Art Tile Company, surviving for five years until it went out of business in 1909.

During the early-20th century, other companies were founded in Southern California, in and around Los Angeles. Batchelder & Brown, in particular, of Pasadena (later Batchelder-Wilson in Los Angeles), was well-known for its Arts and Crafts-style tiles in the teens and 1920s. By the early 1940s California had become one of the leading producers of tile, especially faience, in the U.S. .

Ceramic engineers, potters and artists not only moved frequently from one pottery to another, but often struck out on their own and established new factories when dissatisfied with a former employer. Also, it was not uncommon for one company to reuse a defunct factory or purchase another pottery business, change the name and increase the product line. As a result, many of the companies in existence today are descendants of the early pioneering firms.

Changes in the Tile Industry.

The majority of ceramic floor tile made in the U.S. before 1890 was encaustic, but various factories gradually began to develop and produce other kinds of tiles. The Trent Tile Company, among others, started to manufacture both white and colored ceramic mosaic tiles by the mid-1890s. White vitreous wall tile became available, as well as more decorative tiles with colored glazes, such as the variegated faience glazes intended to give a more hand-crafted appearance that were originated by the Grueby Faience and Tile Company in 1894, and soon adopted by other potteries.

In the 19th and early-20th century, many ceramic tile firms had their own engraving departments, while some used commercial designs supplied by professional printers. Well-known designers were often commissioned to work on specific product lines for a particular firm.

These designers worked for one firm after another which resulted in similar designs being produced by different companies. (Historic ceramic floor tiles were usually identified by a manufacturer's or designer's mark on the back, if they were marked at all.) By the latter part of the 19th century ready-mixed glazes and colors were also available. This was a great advantage for potters who, prior to this, had to mix their own colors and glazes.

During the 20th century, the floor tile industry continued to evolve as much as it had in the previous century. Modern methods of production employed sophisticated machinery, new materials and decorating techniques. In the years following World War II, there were many advances in the industry. Commercially manufactured dust-pressed tiles, which had previously required more than 70 hours just in the kiln, could be made in less than two hours from the raw material stage to finished tiles, boxed and ready to ship.

Dried, unglazed tiles were sprayed with colored glaze evenly and automatically as conveyors carried the tiles into the tunnel kilns, and the extrusion process ensured that the tiles were cut to a uniform thickness and size. The changes and developments in the production of floor tile brought forth a wide range of shapes and sizes, along with new colors, glazes and decorating techniques.

After the turn of the century, fewer encaustic floor tiles were used, particularly in residential architecture. The introduction of ceramic mosaic floor tiles was a factor in their decline . The development of rubber interlocking floor tiles in 1894, along with other, more resilient, flooring materials, was instrumental in the decreased popularity not only of encaustic tiles, but also other ceramic tile flooring. These new materials were not only cheaper, they were not as fragile; they were also lighter and thinner, and easier to install.

Ceramic mosaic tiles remained in common use through the 1930s in part because an innovative development had made laying such small tiles easier. The tiles were pre-mounted in decorative patterns on 12" x 12" sheets of paper, and sold ready to lay in cement. This greatly simplified the tile setter's work, and no doubt was a significant factor in the increased popularity of ceramic mosaic tiles. Sophisticated mosaic floor designs became common in entrance foyers of public and private buildings.

Small, white, unglazed tiles in round, square, octagonal or hexagonal shapes were promoted for their sanitary qualities, particularly for bathroom floors, while larger, rectangular, white, glazed tiles were used for bathroom walls or wainscotting. Colored tiles were also popular, especially for bathrooms, and even kitchens. Quarry tile, which was larger and thicker than other ceramic floor tile of this period, was often used in public buildings, as well as for entrance halls, small studies, libraries, dining rooms and even living rooms in private homes.

But, by the 1930s, the fashion for art tile had diminished to the point where floor tiles were, for the most part, generally regarded as primarily utilitarian, as opposed to important decorative elements.