A fireplace tile is a glazed ceramic tile made to decorate the area around a fire opening, most often set in vertical panels either side of the grate in a cast-iron insert or along the hearth. Being fired and glazed, such tiles withstand heat and are easily wiped clean of soot, which made them both practical and ornamental.
Tin-glazed tiles from the Netherlands lined fireplaces in Dutch and English houses from the seventeenth century, often painted in blue with figures, ships or biblical scenes. The great age of the fireplace tile, however, was the Victorian and Edwardian period, when British manufacturers such as Minton, Maw & Co and Pilkington produced them in vast quantities. Designs ranged from transfer-printed birds and flowers to hand-painted Aesthetic Movement panels, majolica-glazed relief tiles and tube-lined Art Nouveau patterns in rich greens, blues and purples. William De Morgan's lustre and Persian-style tiles are among the most admired. Matching sets survive less often than single tiles, so complete panels command a premium. Chips to edges, crazing and cement residue on the back are common, and many restorers now source period tiles to reinstate fireplaces in houses of the same date.
