Talk:Encaustic tile

Encaustic or mosaic?

The images File:Bankfield Museum 080.jpg and File:Bankfield Museum 081.jpg appear to be mosaics, perhaps made to look like encaustic tiling, but not authentic? Globbet (talk) 17:46, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

I have the source for the encaustic tiles ID in front of me as I write. It's a leaflet available free at the museum. It's called Bankfield Museum: a brief history: a sheet of A4 paper folded into three and published by Calderdale Council. It's undated but probably 2008-2009. On the third inside folded panel it says:

"Other original features within the mansion worth looking out for are: . . . 2. The fine encaustic floor tiles by Maw and Co. of Staffordshire, to be seen in the Marble Gallery and the Chapel Lobby."

This information is quoted with inline reference on the Bankfield Museum page. Furthermore, my own house contains hundreds of modern Stovax encaustic tiles because I'm interested in them. I have closely examined Roman, Medieval and Victorian encaustic tiles (they imitated each other respectively). I got down on my knees and examined the tiles in the photo. I can assure you that I found no reason to think they were not genuine.

I should add that of course these are encaustic tiles which have been installed or fitted in the manner of a mosaic, but they are still encaustic tiles in today's terminology. Today, combinations of plain, bi-colour and tri-colour tiles are sold together as encaustic by companies such as Stovax; that is why the museum labels these as all encaustic; and I think that this is where the confusion behind your question occurs. The tiles shown at the bottom of the image in File:Bankfield Museum 081.jpg are clearly bi-coloured and identifiable as encaustic in the terms of the Wikipedia page Encaustic tile, but the plain ones are today called encaustic too, as they are almost always used together with multicoloured ones in a designed floor - as has always been the case. The word "encaustic" has only been in use since Victorian times, and even that is a misuse of the word, anyway, as the page Encaustic tile tells us. The difference is that today the usage of the word has changed again, to include both plain and patterned.--Storye book (talk) 20:42, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

They are certainly not true mosaic, but the term is often used loosely of any small tiles or stones etc made up into a pattern or picture. Johnbod (talk) 00:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I think the Victorian misnomer is the currently accepted meaning, and would question whether one manufacturer's subversion of the term to include patterns of plain tiles constitutes mainstream usage. Craven Dunnill appears to preserve the distinction. Globbet (talk) 18:57, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

In response to this discussion I have removed the image which showed no inlaid tiles. However the remaining image does show inlaid tiles in the border, and those are genuine as defined in the article, as I saw them with my own eyes. I have done this to conclude this discussion and to prevent further hassle. However, Globbet, please bear in mind that it's not just one manufacturer who has "subverted" the term, as you put it; it's also the museum leaflet. I have not researched the usage of the terminology in a formal sense but, in my own experience, those geometric tiles (as in the removed image) in the front paths of UK Victorian terrace houses are more often verbally referred to as encaustic tiles than as geometric tiles or any other sort of tiles. That is why I had previously allowed the picture of geometric tiles to remain: to explain that there is a cultural and developmental variation in usage of the term, "encaustic tiles".--Storye book (talk) 20:46, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't mean to cause you hassle, Storye book, and don't expect you to change things on my say-so. There is a difference between recording a shift in the language and promulgating a solecism, but if you've got the evidence I won't argue. I have said all I want to, anyway. Globbet (talk) 01:26, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Cement encaustic tiles

There have been repeated attempts to add a reference [http://www.encaustictiles.net/what-are-encaustic-tiles/production-of-encaustic-tiles.html} to the article. The article as it stands refers to ceramic encaustic tiles which are made of clay and fired in a kiln, the reference refers to cement encaustic tiles which are made of cement and are NOT fired in a kiln. If someone wants to write a section on cement encaustic tiles, I have no problem with the reference being used. Theroadislong (talk) 20:33, 20 November 2013 (UTC)