Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Floor Tiles from Sainte-Chapelle, Paris





Photographs by Wendy McLean

I thought these were charming. A friend notes in the comments that these tiles were replacements from the 19th c. restoration, but this source reports that they were copies of the original medieval tiles.

Update: on further research, copies probably exaggerates their fidelity to the original. The medieval tiles of this type only rarely used more than two colors.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:32 PM

    I liked those, too--the tour guide we had said that they were Victorian retrofits, but I might try to reproduce the one with the greyhounds, anyway :-)

    [shalmestere]

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  2. Anonymous1:45 PM

    Is this Minton Tile?

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  3. It may be Minton. On the one hand, the colors are similar to other Minton tiles. On the other hand, I can find no evidence that they did these particular tiles, and others were doing similar work at the time.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. These Sainte-Chapelle tiles are beautiful, even as 19th-century copies! It really makes you appreciate the history and artistry behind flooring. This deep craftsmanship is something I now look for in a modern tile installation process in Long Island, NY. Thanks for sharing this!

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