Arts and Crafts Beehive Tile

Arts and Crafts Beehive Tile

 

Labor Day is over and it’s time to get back to work. This week’s antique tile is an image of the iconic beehive. Bees and the beehive are symbols of industriousness. Each individual bee works for the common good of all in the hive. They are the symbol of a prosperous community as well as wisdom. The symbol is often used in religion as well. In Christianity it is an emblem of Christ. The bee symbolizes the soul that flies away from the body in the Siberian, Central Asian, and South American Indian traditions. Napoleon even chose the bee as his personal emblem.

This is a large tile measuring 16.5 inches tall. It has deeply incised lines that would be filled with grout when installed to give the panel a mosaic look. The matte blue glaze curdles in places. The back is unmarked, but by the clay body and glazes I suspect this to be Owens Empire, or at least from the Ohio River Valley.

You can find this tile for sale at BungalowBILL.com

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Vintage Flamingo Tile Panel by Mosaic Tile Company

Mid Century Flamingo Tile Panel by the Mosaic Tile Co

The Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville Ohio made this vintage tile panel featuring a salmon pink flamingo. The first time I saw this design was at one of the first sales dedicated exclusively to tile at the Perrault Rago Gallery in Lambertville New Jersey in the 1990′s. I have never seen another until I acquired this. These panels were entirely hand decorated and each would vary a little from the way the factory artist would draw them at the factory. They would use full size cartoons as reference as they drew each tile. These panels were used to compliment and accent the plain field tiles Mosaic sold. You can see another larger panel by Mosaic here. They were generally marketed to be installed on the back wall of a shower or bathtub or around a pool. Their use today is only limited by your imagination.

Find this for sale at BungalowBILL.com

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Antique Art Deco Tiles

Have you ever wondered why you rarely see American tiles from the art Deco period? Alright, maybe you haven’t. But I’m a tile nerd and have pondered the thought. I see the reason is that although Art Deco was the rage in Europe in the 1920′s, it really didn’t get the the USA until the 30′s. That also happened to coincide with the Depression, so people were worrying about many other things than decorative tiles. People had to live their Deco life through the Hollywood movies since they couldn’t afford to renovate their homes. Deco quickly turned to Moderne after the war then blasted into Mid Century Modern. Art Deco really never got a chance to get a foothold in the USA as decorating style for the great majority of Americans

Antique Art Deco Tiles by Mosaic

The antique tiles shown here are made by the Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville, Ohio. They have a nice Art Deco aesthetic to them and the backs bear what seems to be a transitional mark, somewhat between the round MTC of the Arts and Crafts and 20′s era and the MOSAIC in a lozenge of post World War 2.

Find these for sale at BungalowBILL.com

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