WALL AND FLOOR TILES.
285
more than twenty years without being impaired in distinctness. They are affixed either by bedding in Portland cement against the wall, with the edges covered so as to exclude water, or by metal frames secured to the wall by screws, or by cutting out a recess as broad as the tiles, and as long as the name requires. The tiles are then secured in this recess % cement, and the joints are pointed.
V
Memorial and Mortuary Tablets.
For memorial and mortuary purposes, encaustic tiles, bearing inscriptions, monograms or heraldic devices, seem to be peculiarly appropriate. They have the advantage of being comparatively indestructible by the weather, and of holding their colors unchanged by time, so that inscriptions on them remain legible long after those cut in stone have disappeared. The material is far more enduring than porphyry and granite or marble, especially where exposed to the weather; and even if lost sight of and buried for ages in the earth, tiles, if properly made, will retain their inscriptions in perfection, and may become of great value in antiquarian researches. Being formed in moulds, duplicate copies can be made at little increased cost, and they could be freely used, not only in tombstones, but as memorial tablets in the walls of churches. Inscriptions may be made in small but distinct letters, so that a tile of ordinär}' - size may contain all that is Usually placed upon a tombstone. The compactness of such inscriptions renders it possible, if desired, to group a number in a small space, and they could be inserted side by side in the walls of vaults, or upon tombstones specially adapted to the purpose.
The memorial tablets now made and exhibited by Messrs. Minton, Hollins & Co., are twelve inches square, and are designed chiefly for insertion in the walls of churches or chapels. They bear heraldic devices or simple inscriptions, and are variously ornamented and colored. Designs are furnished by them at the works, and any inscription to order. I see no reason why such tiles should not be inserted in ordinary tombstones, in place of the chiselled inscriptions, a recess being cut into the stone to receive the tile, securely bedded in cement.