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Buying Guide To Antique Reproduction victorian floor tiles

Classic English houses utilized tiles as installations to vitalize a somber fireplace or backsplash as much as works of art to grace a wall or side table. Handmade tiles boasted hand paintings and adhesive transfer prints that were signs of the times. Spanning the Victorian era from 1837 to 1901, Gothic and Romantic rejected the classical style of repressed elegance, instead embracing the less contrived geometric schemes. Art nouveau closed this period by placing emphasis on natural shapes especially floral schemes. Reproduction victorian floor tiles wear the hallmarks of the original romantic age, in geometric and floral designs lifted from genuine 19th century patterns.

Romanticism, the biggest Victorian movement, celebrated sentimentality and it was evident in architecture and design. A gothic revival of 12th to 16th century medieval church architecture ushered in the Victorian period with renewed normalcy against the neoclassical Georgian era that preceded in 1714 to 1830. Neoclassicism was itself a rebuff of 17th and 18th century baroque and rococo ornamentation. Romantic followed suit, spurning rationalism and popularizing geometric patterns from gothic monasteries. As low-cost substitutes to antique Victorian tiles, reproduction Victorian floor tiles are not cheap in quality. They are built durably from materials like travertine, slate, quarry, porcelain, marble, limestone, granite, glass, ceramic, unglazed and vitrified stone.

Authentic Victorian period tiles benefitted from techniques of brilliant ceramic coloring and lead glazing deemed hazardous in modern times. Victorian style tiles today come alive with vivid hues on various surfaces and finishings from textured to satin, matte, glossy, glass and encaustic. Genuine Victorian tiles were hand-colored and hand-laid using romantic detailing that was not always geometric. Once Britain opened up to world trade, Oriental, Persian, Japanese and Mexican influences were seen. The arrival of printing made pictorial line art possible, and that of majolica, fancy earthen tiling. Art nouveau with its flowing curves really took root in the 1890s, not the latter Edwardian period of 1901 to 1910.

Reproduction victorian floor tiles have numerous adaptable uses indoors and outdoors. These include wet rooms like bathrooms and swimming pool interiors, walkways, balconies, vestibules and hallways, sun parlors and other conservatories, patios, foot trails, breezeways, kitchens especially countertops. Victorian quarries make a great baking stone as they have endured more heat during formation compared to the normal stainless steel oven and stove. These period reproduction tiles are respectful of the famous epoch during the rule of Queen Victoria in Great Britain and Ireland.