A ceramic tile is a thin slab of fired clay, usually square, used to cover floors, walls, fireplaces and other surfaces, either plain or decorated with glaze, painting, printing or inlaid colour. Tiles are both functional, providing a hard-wearing and washable surface, and ornamental, contributing pattern and colour to architecture and interiors.
Medieval English abbeys and churches were paved with inlaid earthenware tiles, and tin-glazed Dutch and English delftware tiles painted in blue or manganese decorated fireplaces and dairies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Victorian period was the great age of the British tile industry: Minton, Maw and Company, Copeland and many Stoke-on-Trent firms mass-produced encaustic floor tiles, transfer-printed wall tiles and majolica fireplace slips, while William De Morgan created richly coloured lustre and Persian-style tiles for Arts and Crafts interiors. Collectors look for clear factory marks on the reverse, crisp decoration, bright glazes and the absence of chips, crazing and cement residue. Complete sets of fireplace tiles and named designers attract particular interest, and antique tiles are often used today to restore period fireplaces, hallways and kitchens.
