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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
have the merit of beauty, but of cleanliness, as all smoke, soot or dust can be easily wiped off the glazed faces.
Majolica tiles are ornamented with the design in relief, produced generally by the insertion of an open-work metallic plate when moulded, giving them an embossed surface, which is variously colored by enamels, and is highly glazed. This kind of tile is extremely rich and brilliant in appearance, and is suited to mural decoration, such as the walls and dados of dining, smoking-rooms, libraries, offices, stairways, entrance halls, for inlaying cabinet work, and for mantels and fireplaces. For this latter purpose, there were some fine examples in the exhibition of dog-grates and fire-place fixtures. They are particularly applicable to church-wall decoration, grate-cheeks and for flower-boxes. So also the enamelled ornamental tile may be used for the same purposes, but more especially for the walls of dairies, bathing and retiring rooms, and for baths. The ornamentation is added either by hand, or is transferred from lithographic prints, but is all upon the plain surface, not extending into the substance of the tile, as in the encaustic varieties, or raised above the general level, as in the embossed varieties. The elaborately painted tiles and slabs belong to this class, as also those which are enamelled in various opaque colored enamels.
The use of tiles for flower-boxes for windows has become general, and has raised a demand for such as are peculiarly adapted to the purpose. They are usually eight inches square, half an inch thick, and are inserted side by side in a simple wooden or zinc frame-work, grooved so as to receive and hold the edges of the tiles. The majolica and painted tiles are generally preferred.
An important application of tiles is for inscriptions of all kinds, street names, signs, numbers, especially where dust accumulates, and frequent brushing or dusting is necessary. They are largely used in the underground railway in London, for the names of the stations. Messrs. Minton, Hollins & Co. manufacture every kind and all sizes of these tiles for forming inscriptions, dates and texts, and direct attention especially to their letter-tiles, manufactured expressly for street names, and assert that such tiles have been fixed in several towns for