Medieval Floor Tiles, Foliate and Interlaced Patterns, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in color, lettered "CARRELAGES." It shows three tile designs, numbered 4, 5 and 6. Design 4 fills the upper part of the sheet: a large square laid in yellow on brick red, with concentric rings enclosing four foliate roundels around a central cross, and small shields with crosses in the four corners. Below, design 5 has bright green scrolling trefoil sprays around a central ring on a dark brown ground, and design 6 has green interlaced knots, each enclosing a small quatrefoil, on the same dark ground. Fine lines show the joints between the individual tiles.

The running head reads "FAÏENCES PL. 3." (Faience, plate 3). Beneath the image are the credits "A. Racinet fils del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier à Paris." and "Frédéric Richter, lith.", then the caption "CARRELAGES." (Tiling) and "F. Séré direxit." The sheet names no location or owner for the tiles.

Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance, histoire et description des mœurs et usages, du commerce et de l'industrie, des sciences, des arts, des littératures et des beaux-arts en Europe was edited by Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, with Ferdinand Séré as artistic director, and it was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. Its plates reproduce objects, manuscripts, seals and ornament of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and every sheet carries a running head naming the work, the section and the plate number. The Faïences plates of the fourth volume deal with glazed earthenware, and the tile plates show inlaid and glazed floor tiles of the kind laid in medieval churches and great houses.

The two tile plates make a natural pair, and either frames well with a plain mat.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.