The first ceramic tiles appeared towards the
beginning of the XII th century, when the Roman art was in full
Initially quite plain, they were glazed yellow,
dark green and black tiles. Arrew kind of tiles appeared in Cistercian
abbeys at the end of XII th century and at the beginning of the
XIII th century. Large decorated tiles on a surface with drawings
printed or engraved with a point.
Tiles from St Georges Castle
Milly la Foręt XIIIth century
The pattrens were geometric or plant-like and were reminiscent of
those that could be found on the monochromatic stained-glass windows
Towards the middle of the XIII th
century, Cistercian tiles and Roman ornemental tiling were ti give
way to a new kind of tiles that became quite popular from the Gothic
period to the end of the middle-ages.
From then on, new tiles with yellow
dessigns on a dark red background could be made thanks to a technical
These two-colored tiles made with somewhat different techniques
appeared towards 1240.
Industry was getting more and more hand-crafted and the last tiles
of that kind were probably made before the end of the XVII th century.
Ceramic marquetry . The technique
of decoration is distinctive. The decoration depends on a combinaison
of clays and glazes of different qualities. The glaze is plumbiferous,
transparent and light yellow. Applied on a tile of red clay, it
will become dark red. The glaze will turn green by adding copper
The technique consist in making a
hollow on the surface of a red clay tile
with a stamp,
then it is filled with liquid
white clay (in french : l'engobe), and
finally the glaze is applied.
The tiles are baked at 1000°.
||This handicraft, outwardly
easy, demands on incredible mastery of the alchemy of clays