Medieval Floor Tiles, Interlaced Pattern, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in color, lettered "CARRELAGES". Three tile designs, numbered 1, 2 and 3, are printed in yellow on brick red. Design 1, at the top, is a block of sixteen tiles whose interlocking circles and foliate sprays join across the tile edges into a continuous pattern. Below, design 2 is a single square with a quatrefoil of four large oak like leaves around a small central flower, with leaf sprays in the corners, and design 3 is a roundel of curling foliage within a scrolling border. Thin lines mark the joints of the tiles.

The running head reads "FAÏENCES PL. 2" (Faience, plate 2). The credits below the image are "A. Racinet fils. del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier à Paris." and "Frédéric Richter lith.", followed by the caption "CARRELAGES" (Tiling) and "F. Séré direxit." No location or owner is lettered for these 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.