WALL AND FLOOR TILES.
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stamped or painted on the surface, but is impressed to considerable depth. The tiles are inlaid. The process in Britain is as old as the medkeval tiles of Malvern, already noted. In the ancient tiles the design was impressed in the moist clay. In the modern it is equally impressed, but at the time of forming the tile out of the dust, leaving a sharply formed design, which is subsequently filled by a powder of another color. The whole being pressed together forms a homogeneous mass. The impressed design is also filled, in some cases by a liquid slip, as in the ancient tiles, and when dry the excess is scraped off before firing. .
The design being impressed to a depth of one-eighth or one-quarter of an inch, and filled solidly with body of a different color from the groundwork of the tile, is not obliterated by wear until the whole substance of the tile has been cut away to the full depth of the design. The brilliancy of the design and of the colors of the tile may, as with plain tiles, be heightened by a simple glaze; but the surface is made slippery, and is not so well adapted to pavements as the simple unglazed surface. Some of the colored bodies, such as blue, green and white, are sufficiently vitrified in burning to give a vitreous semi-glazed appearance. But glazed inlaid‘tiles are suitable for hearths where not exposed to much wear, and are now largely used abroad for this purpose. Their thickness and strength renders them secure from breakage.
Encaustic or inlaid tiles are usually one inch thick, twice the thickness required for plain wall-tiles. They are especially suitable for pavements in halls, corridors and vestibules, or wherever they would be exposed to attrition and wear bj r the fire-irons, etc.
Encaustic and Enamelled Tiles in Decoration.
Another important application of the encaustic, and also of the enamelled tiles, is found in decorating the walls of build- 1H gs, especially those of brick, either grouped in large panels, or set singly about the window-frames and cornices.
The glazed encaustic tiles are generally used in mural decoration and in fire-places, for lining the jambs and back, where movable or basket grates are used. They not only