Sle eet 
This frieze of pictorial tiles 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
as a ae Ta 
bearing a continuous landscape design is especially well devised for decoration 
rs een aks 
here i 
Some Domestic Uses for Tiles 
By Norris N. Strathfield 
Photographs by T. C. Turner 
~q]| OME builders and architects are realizing as 
never before the decorative possibilities of 
tiles in numerous places where their use com- 
bines beauty of effect with the durability 
which was once considered their most desir- 
able quality. A generation ago tile making 
might have been considered one of the “‘lost arts’’ along 
with the making of “silver lustre’ and colored engrav- 
ings, and it is only within the past few years that we have 
progressed beyond the point of using only the white glazed 
tiles which are placed in bathrooms and kitchens chiefly be- 
cause they are sanitary and easily and quickly cleaned. The 
revival of this art, like the increased interest in brick as a 
building material, is due quite as much to our quickened 
appreciation of the beautiful as to the zeal and energy of 
the manufacturers in providing these wares for our use. 
It is almost impossible to define easily the difference be- 
tween brick and tiles, for they may be said to be but two 
slightly different forms of the same thing. Each, in its 
simplest aspect, is merely a cake of vitreous clay molded 
into shape, baked into permanent hardness by intense heat 
and then decorated or left unadorned, according to the use 
to which it is to be put. The making of bricks and tiles is 
so ancient that it is not possible to tell just when it was be- 
gun. ‘The excavations of the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon 
have brought to light pavements and walls of tiles which are 
marvels of beauty. Pliny tells us that Byses began the use 
of tiles 620 years before the dawn of the Christian era, and 
they were introduced into Italy just before the beginning of 
the Renaissance. ‘The art had its origin in the east and 
reached its highest development in Persia and India and in 
such parts of Europe as were most affected by eastern influ- 
ence. It achieved a brilliant success in Spain, where it was 
introduced by the Moors, and some of the most beautiful 
and interesting work in the world is the tiling in the Alham- 
bra and other buildings which are relics of the Moorish 
occupation. 
An examination of these ancient tiles shows us that they 
were used chiefly, although not exclusively, either out-of- 
doors or in places which were more or less exposed to the 
weather. ‘Their use with us has been largely as flooring or 
walling for terraces, conservatories, verandas, vestibules or 
loggias which are wholly or semi-exposed. As a flooring 
material the tiles are usually in the form of flags or quarries 
which are often regarded as bricks rather than tiles, for, as 
has been noted, it is difficult to draw the line between the 
two. These paving tiles are made in a great variety of 
shapes, although those in the form of squares or oblongs are 
the most popular, and the favorite colors are gray, brown, 
or the darker shades of red, blue, or green. ‘Their use 
would be more common were it not that their initial cost is 
greater than that of wood, but the same reasons urged for 
the use of brick instead of wood as a building material hold 
good in an equal degree in urging the use of tiles in place of 
wood for flooring. Apart from its greater beauty it is im- 
perishable and is not affected by the temperature or the con- 
stant wetting and drying to which it is often subjected and 
which eventually causes the decay of a flooring of wood and 
