Rectangular Tiles & Crackle Glaze

[Jill]

I've just started thinking about how I would like to decorate the downstairs toilet. There is nothing period or authentic about this area and it is a newly created area where one of the doors to the outside used to be. I was recently inspired by a photograph on a Fired Earth advertisement in one of my magazines for a green rectangular tile. Looking on the website the tiles in question - Retro Metro - Crackle Glaze Lime - have as the name suggests a crackle glaze, which has got me thinking, when did rectangular tiles come into fashion and would they have been crackle glazed, or is this a new invention to make them look old, even though they wouldn't have been cracked originally.

I know nothing of this subject does anybody else? Also if you were part tiling a wall and using a dado tile on top, at what height would you stop tiling? Does anybody know where I could source such tiles with or without the crackle glaze other than Fired Earth. Thanks.

 

[LadyArowana]

http://www.hesmith.co.uk/ranges-london-underground-tiles.htm

 

[Feltwell]

Hi Jill - Craven Dunnill, based at the Jackfield tile museum in Ironbridge, do a large range of traditional tile patterns. Beautiful but not cheap!

http://www.cravendunnill-jackfield.co.uk/index.html

As for dado height - personal choice I'd say. For functionality I'd go at least 12" above the height of the top of the sink.

The "brick" pattern tiling that the Victorians used a lot came back into fashion a few years ago and you could certainly get black and white rectangular tiles quite cheaply in B&Q. No idea if that's still the case. I suspect the "crackle" glazing is an attempt to make new tiles look old, although I'm no expert at all.

 

[Jill]

Thanks for those links. There are some gorgeous tiles which are lovely but too decorative for my simple cottage, and for a downstairs loo. At first I thought the Fired earth tiles were rather expensive to use in the toilet but after seeing the price of some of the tiles at B & Q and Topps Tiles I now know they are not.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I love the rectangular, crackle glaze tiles these people make, and I thought they came out a bit cheaper than the Fired Earth ones, though I may be wrong about that.

http://www.marlboroughtiles.com/about/productinfo.php

Perhaps the most stunning tiles I've seen are in Emerie et Cie, in Brussels or Paris, but it's a long way to go.

Tiles are ancient - as ancient as ancient Greece, or Rome, - and over time tiles craze, which I think sparks a modern fashion for crackle glaze - to make them look old. All that is mere speculation though.

The Delft tiles popular in Georgian England, imported from Holland, are rather sweet.

http://www.nederlandstegelmuseum.nl/Museum/Geschiedenis_English.htm