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See tiles at the Ironbridge shop

Welcome to Tile Heaven. Spend a little time and enjoy the amazing range of colours and designs as you discover the greatest selection of antique tiles on the web.

See victorian and edwardian tiles of all styles from famous companies like Minton, Wedgwood and even better tiles from tile specialists like Maw, Marsden and Sherwin & Cotton. See tiles from the arts & crafts and aesthetic movements, art nouveau tiles, majolica tiles, transfer printed tiles, hand painted tiles and many more unusual tiles made with interesting and innovative processes, mostly from England and from the period 1860 - 1930.

The best antique tiles on the web particularly the best condition. Oft-times on the large auction and craft web sites tiles similar in many respects apart from condition can be found, many are scratched hearth and fireplace tiles that we consign to the junk boxes at the shop (and at a fraction of the price). Descriptions on such sites are brief and tend to be optimistic lacking precise condition reports,out condition reports are scrupulous.

 


All Together

Antique tiles are great display items that can find a place in almost any home. Easy to display, the straight edges mean they easily sit on a shelf or can be easily framed and similar to plates they may also be mounted on plate stands or in plate hangers. Plates are probably the most similar collectables but tiles offer a vastly greater range of designs and colours.

 

Antique tiles make a great and unique gift and are highly decorative. With brilliant glazes and bright colours antique tiles have a near universal appeal, they make a more personalised gift than a product from a regular store and with such a range of designs there are tiles to suit almost every taste and interest. It is no wonder that there are many collectors of English antique tiles around the world but there are many more people who just have a few nice tiles to display and use.

 

Make a feature, antique tiles can be used to make that special centrepiece or focal point in a backsplash or table top, a few great designs can make all the difference to a field of plain tiles and antique tiles are still often less expensive and better quality than bespoke contemporary tiles. Tiles have a traditional use as pot stands or tea pot stands and flat tiles are well suited to the role. All our tiles have been professionally cleaned and have at most very minimal adhesive residue remains so can be readily installed or comfortably sit on display stands and in frames.

 

Antique tiles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are unique the brilliance of the glazes is unequalled on more modern tiles, processes then used are now prohibited in modern tile manufacture due to health and safety concerns for tile workers.

 

With fewer things to spend money compared to nowadays a higher proportion of income was spent on homes and much of that was on the hi-tech decorative objects of the day. Tiles were prominent features in homes of the day and highly prized, around 1900 an average worker could buy two fairly ordinary tiles with their daily wage, just one of the best tiles in the larger sizes of 8' x 8" or 12" x 6" cost more than a week's wage. Tiles were used both for installation and as pure objéts d'art as is witnessed by the many tiles from around 1900 that we see in original frames.

 

The range and diversity of Victorian and Edwardian tiles continues to amaze even after over 40 years we still see tiles we have never seen before almost daily. The camera and screen can not fully portray the wonder of many of the tiles, like a print of a great oil painting does not do justice to the master. Whilst not all of the beauty can be captured much of it can, so why not browse away and explore the creativity both in design and manufacturing techniques.

 

We are confident that here you will see the best selection of quality antique tiles you will find anywhere, we are careful with our buying, conscientious in our cleaning and scrupulous with our descriptions. The comment we get most often regarding condition is "better than described", our good condition is better than many others excellent, our mint condition though few and far between are mint, not mint with just a few chips and ….

 

Antique tiles are usually classed as 'architectural antique 'or 'decorative arts', few of our tiles have been removed from walls or floors so decorative arts is a more accurate description. They were literally works of art fitted in to and enhance larger items, to add brightness and colour to the furniture and fireplaces that they were fitted in.

 

Search Tile Heaven

Looking for a particular artist or company or any other detail? Use your favourite search engine with the search term and the site name, for example to find Lewis Day type like this:

lewis day site:tileheaven.uk

 

You can search by price too

Whilst we seek out the best we do have quite a few more ordinary quality perhaps with condition of manufacturing issues, they are usually down the page and may get missed. You can search for prices using your favourite search engine too:

£35 site:tileheaven.uk

 

 

We have thousands of links on this site and we are human so the occasional error occurs, if you find something that doesn't work please let us know. Thank you.

The altogether page is updated first when new tiles are listed, updates to other pages are effected soon afterwards. New and updated items are at the top of the pages.

We do not sell floor tiles, we rarely sell encaustic tiles.

 


Sets for Fireplaces etc.

Arts, Crafts and Innovations

Art Nouveau

Majolica

Transfer Prints

Aesthetic

Floral

Pictures & Portraits

Mintons

Fine Art

Wedgwood

London

Gothic

Blue and White

Trivets

Large tiles, either dimension greater than 6"

Small tiles, either dimension less than 6"

 

 

Information - click on any title below

FAQ
Order and Shipping
Wanted
Fakes
Tile registered design identification service
Tile identification and appraisal service
What is Majolica
Hand painted
Stencilled Slip
Tube Line
Applied encaustic
Émaux Ombrants
Lustre
Barbotine
Chr. Dresser Tiles
'Dresser Tiles' Sightings
Dresser's Principles
YES Dresser Tiles
Dresser Delusionalist
The Minton Companies
Making a Splash
Attributions
"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name." - Confucius
Tiles for repairs and restorations
Correct Fireplace Hearth Proportions
Condition
Chip
Crack or Hairline
Crazing
Surface Marks
Partial hairline
Manufacturing Imperfections, Flaws or Factory Faults
Stun
Fireplace Tiles
Verso, Back, Reverse
General Comments
Iridescence

 

All Together and All2 Individual tiles for collectors and feature tiles in design schemes. For larger groups see the pairs, fireplace sets and panels & groups pages
Art Nouveau, the first art movement that allowed true freedom for artists. combined with new technology producing the most amazing tiles ever.
Fireplace sets. Sets of ten or twelve or equivalent for traditional british cast iron fireplaces plus design your unique fireplace panels with original tiles.
Arts and crafts, studio, innovations. Hand made or hand decorated tiles and innovative techniques which extended the spectrum beyond print and majolica
Gothic the first 'new' style of the Victorian era at the birth of industrial tile manufacture. Fun and bright designs not sombre as the name now implies
Transfer prints. The primary medium of 19thC wall tile decoration superseded by majolica in the 20thC, many were hand coloured.
Majolica. from 15thC origins processes advanced but the name remained the same culminating in the brilliant lead glazed wares of the early 20thC
Blue and white. From the earliest days of transfer printing a popular colour combination on ceramics. Many were made by pottery companies.
Pictures and portraits. The durability of tiles made fine line art possible in places unavailable to other materials. Most popular in the 1870s and 1880s.
Floral tiles with a strong nature study emphasis, botanical likenesses of the brilliance of nature. Most popular in the last two decades of the 19thC
Sherwin & Cotton the greatest art tile specialist company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries using a myriad of decorating techniques and the most fabulous glazes
Jackfield Tiles, the greatest tile company ever and another top five company were just a few hundred yards from each other on the bank of the River Severn in Shropshire.
Marsden. A hero of 19thC and 20thC tile design and technology not so well known because George Marsden concentrated on tile making rather than promoting the brand.
20th Century Tiles From the 1920s until more modern times, collectable decorative tiles not yet officially antique i.e. over 100 years old.
Henry Richards. More designs, more colours than any other in the 20th century. Would be the sole remaining c.1900 tile manufacturer if not for an accident of naming.
Aesthetic Movement tiles from designers who worked with industry to produce the best possible tiles. The widest ranging styles of the 19thC which were affordable.
Fine Art. Exceptional hand painted and other tiles by artists, designers and companies of great repute and unattributed decorators in very good or better condition.
Tubeline. The process of piping an outline like icing a cake and filling with glazes a premium price technique for art tiles, limited editions and panels.
Small Tiles smaller than 6" x 6". From mostly being used as borders and fillers in the edwardian era it was fashionable to set strong designed tiles amid a field of plain tiles.
Large Tiles larger than 6" x 6", mostly 8" x 8" from the 1870s and 80s and 6" x 12" from the 1890s and 1900s. Many hand painted, 6" x 12" were difficult to make and expensive.
Panels, groups of tiles that form a set, from two to hundreds. For that unique feature in an installation or mounting as objéts d'art.
Pilkington's Tile & Pottery Co. from wall tiles for the construction boom at the turn of the century to lustre and other art tiles following the establishment of the art pottery.
London. Tiles made, designed and/or decorated in London. In the capital of the world's largest ever empire there was great demand for bespoke designs.
Josiah Wedgwood & Son were involved in tile making since the days of the founder in the 18thC. Most seen are transfer printed from the 1880s.
Carter who became makers of Poole Pottery. Brick & tile makers from 1873, wall tiles in the 1890s and pottery in the 1900s. Makers of excellent and often bold designs.
Pot stands and Trivets . A natural extension given the use of ceramics in tableware and the added durability of tiles many tile companies made purpose made pot stands.
One colour. Show great modelling and moulding skills and glaze technologies at times having a magical 3D effect. They had some of the best glazes of the times.
Pairs of tiles, great for making more of a statement, for centrepieces in fireplace cheeks and as art objects and anywhere were a pair is more appropriate.
Registered Designs, over 2000 tile designs were registered between 1870 and 1915, they are a great resource for tile collectors, historians and students of art and design
Collector's Tiles, Here we, to some extent, eschew condition for interest. Mostly rare tiles, some the condition less than we would hope for, but in seeking rarity there often is little choice.
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European tiles. Majolica, printed and tubeline tiles mostly from the early 20th century.
3" x 3" and other tiles for borders and panels In the late 19th and early 20th century most large areas of tiles made great use of plain tiles and borders. Too often overlooked the judicious use of borders enhances bespoke panels and reduces costs.
Minton. Herbert Minton started making tiles around 1830, nephew Michael Hollins took over in 1840, later nephews Robert Taylor and Colin Campbell also made tiles.
Miscellaneous items. Books, frames, advertising items and anything else that looks interesting and antique tile related.
Japanoiserie In 1868 trade opened up with the rest of the world when the previously rarely seen unique nature of Japanese art influenced artists worldwide.

 

 

 
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