Medieval Floor Tiles, Racinet Design, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in flat yellow, brick red, bright green and dark brown, showing six floor tile designs. Down the left are three small green on dark brown tiles, numbered 7, 8 and 9: a beast with a hooded human head and a scrolled tail, a winged dragon and an interlaced knot. The large square at the upper right is yellow on red, with radiating foliage, rosettes and small shields inside a circle and leafy corners. Below are a red and yellow roundel of fleurs de lis inside a toothed border, numbered 11, and a green on dark brown square of interlaced bands and leaves.

The running head reads "LE MOYEN-AGE ET LA RENAISSANCE." at the left and "FAÏENCES PL. 4" at the right. Below the image are the credits "A. Racinet fils del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier à Paris." and "Frédéric Richter lith.". The caption reads "CARRELAGES." (tiling), followed by "F. Séré direxit." All the lettering on this plate is printed in red.

Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance was edited by Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, with Ferdinand Séré directing the illustrations, and was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. Its chapters, written by a range of specialists, survey the arts, crafts, sciences and customs of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and its plates reproduce objects, manuscripts and buildings in public and private collections of the day. This plate comes from the fourth volume, of 1851, where it accompanies the section headed "Faïences" (faience). Each tile design is drawn as a flat pattern, several of them as a square of four tiles.

The plate can be framed on its own or hung with the companion tile plate from the same section.

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