May, 1912 
consequent expense for its 
renewal. The use of tiles 
suggests coolness and tneir 
interesting texture makes 
them valuable in many 
places where wooden floors, 
stained or painted, would 
not be suitable, and in piaces 
wholly out-of-doors they are 
particularly appropriate, for 
after all they are closely re- 
lated. to the earth, being 
made of clay, which, of 
course, is the earth itself. 
The advantages of tiling or 
flagging for flooring instead 
of wood more than compen- 
sates for the difference in the initial cost of these materials. 
The fireplace is everywhere the center of family life, and 
tiling is used wherever the fireplace is found; in fact, the 
use of tiles is so largely in connection with the fireplace that 
many people think of them 
chiefly as a decorative ad- 
junct to the mantel or chim- 
ney-piece. At any rate, their 
use in this way is of wide and 
increasing interest, for man- 
ufacturers are vying with one 
another in making their tiles 
for this purpose more and 
more beautiful and alluring. 
The usual custom has been 
to set tiles around the fire- 
place opening. They may be 
of plain surfaces or deco- 
rated in any number of ways, 
either with set, formal fig- 
ures or so arranged that a 
continuous scene is shown 
which may either extend across the top of the opening or 
down the two sides as well. The variety of design is be- 
wildering and a fireplace almost anywhere may be fitted with 
tiles decorated in accordance with the purpose of the room. 
A nursery fireplace may be set with squares showing the let- 
ters of the alphabet or children playing games of different 
kinds, or the tiles might illustrate the stories of Cinderella, 
Jack the Giant Killer or Little Red Riding Hood. For the 
library a very interesting treatment might show the signs of 
the zodiac worked out in two or more colors, and not long 
ago a particularly interesting assortment of tiles was intro- 
duced showing in the softest of greens, old reds, blues and 
buffs numerous old buildings in Boston such as the Old State 
House, Faneuil Hall and the Old North Church. The de- 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
than merely as a setting about the opening. 
‘““Swans and Lily Pond”’ tile 
175 
signs were made strong and 
effective by combining black 
with the soft tones of the 
colors just named. 
For use in other parts of 
the house there are always 
reproductions of antique tiles 
which are of never-failing in- 
terest, for the art of every 
country during many cen- 
turies has been lavished upon 
their design. ‘The delft tiles 
of white and blue, which 
show the dykes and wind- 
mills of Holland, are beauti- 
ful in many rooms, and for 
other uses reproductions of 
old Spanish tiling in yellow and blue may be selected. 
But tiles may be used about the fireplace in other ways 
Hearths and 
fireplace linings are often made of heavy tiles sufficiently 
strong to endure constant 
use, and entire mantels and 
chimney-breasts may be built 
of tiles specially molded, 
and even the mantel shelf is 
sometimes one large tile 
made for this purpose. This 
seems, of course, to be a most 
expensive method of  fire- 
place building, but it need not 
be, for the makers of these 
fittings supply the _ tiling 
ready made, decorated and 
packed so that merely the set- 
ting in place remains to be 
done, and this is within the 
ability of any workman of or- 
dinary skill. Not long ago 
the writer saw in the atalier of some young architects a 
most fascinating fireplace where the entire hearth and chim- 
ney-breast, extending to the ceiling, were of extremely beau- 
tiful tiling. Upon small squares of a slightly rougnened old 
blue surface were quaint Byzantine figures worked out in 
gray. Certain squares bore the initials of the owners and 
a border was used about the fireplace opening and up either 
side of the chimney-breast. Across the top there extended 
a frieze which agreed in character with that placed about 
the entire room. ‘The arrangement was so wonderfully 
beautiful that it might have been built of antique tiling, but 
all of the material had been selected from the open stock 
of a well-known dealer, acquired at a very moderate cost. 
cut where needed and set into place by an ordinary workman. 
e of tiles 
