Posted 3 years ago
ho2cultcha
(5048 items)
These three tiles were just calling out to me to buy them the other day. So i did. On the back it says 'American Encaustic Tiling Co. Inc. ALHAMBRA and New York. Very nicely made tiles. they appear to have different pigmented clay pressed and fired. Porcelain. Each tile is 6" by 4". any idea when made or anything about them?
ho2cultcha, Cool. :-)
It looks like you have some street/sidewalk tiles of the style used in New Orleans:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/street-name-tiles-of-new-orleans
https://www.nola.com/300/article_c93a7bd0-8288-5d06-aa92-d7206c66d346.html
https://wgno.com/news/let-the-tiles-lead-the-way-the-history-of-street-tiles-in-new-orleans/
https://tilesinnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/06/american-encaustic-tiling-company-part.html
https://www.brownstoner.com/architecture/east-new-york-brooklyn-empire-state-dairy-tiles/
I keep looking for some clarification on the yellow border, because a couple of those pieces suggest that this is a modern embelishment.
However, your tiles have it, as well as the AETCO name on the back, and AETCO went out of business in the 1930s. Hmmm...
Here's a non-letter AETCO tile with a bit of background info:
*snip*
Very heavy, vitrified clay (called "kaospar" by AETCO) that looks and feels like vitrified porcelain, forms the body of this encaustic floor tile in a moorish style that was made at the California plant of The American Encaustic Tiling Co. Limited. The tile is stamped on the reverse with the registered trademark "Alhambra". The tile is a true encaustic tile in that each color is in the clay that forms the tile; in other words, this tile is made with three different colored clays and is not glazed.
*snip*
https://www.goantiques.com/antique-american-encaustic-2544078
Some detailed about AETCO and the process of encaustic tile making:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/51295835.pdf
wow! thanks keramikos. great info. interesting that they were made in California.
ho2cultcha, You're welcome, but I don't know that it necessarily follows that the Alhambra-trademarked tiles were made in California.
That PDF file has a couple of references to the Alhambra trademark, but they don't match:
*snip*
American Encaustic also applied for a patented trademark in April of 1880 for encaustic tiles that were marked "ALHAMBRA" on the back
*snip*
APPENDIX D
ALHAMBRA February 1, February 17,538 1889 18, 1890
*snip*
Unfortunately, the USPTO interface for trademarks is even less friendly than the patent one. >8-0
It sounds like AETCO started producing tiles made from California clay in 1919.
Another thing: if you look at the style of the "O" character, yours seems a bit rounder than the "O" character tiles in that atlasobscura picture of the Toulouse Street sign.
Of course, a lot of the New Orleans street name tiles have had to be replaced, because they were lost or damaged.
I guess it's also possible that your "O" tile might be a "0" tile.
'Tis a puzzlement.
Well, here is an AETCO number 5 tile:
https://bingoman.wordpress.com/about/history-of-new-orleans-blue-letter-street-tiles/
The back is a bit different in that it name checks both New York, and Zanesville.
Apparently Victoria, BC, Canada also has street name tiles made by AETCO.
Knew I was forgetting something (the Google Books link on this one isn't too atrocious):
From the Western Architect and Engineer, Volume 161909 - Architecture
*snip*
AMERICAN ENCAUSTIC TILING CO Ltd WORKS AND GENERAL OFFICES ZANESVILLE OHIO USA EXECUTIVE OFFICES AND SALESROOM 1123 BROADWAY NEW YORK WESTERN OFFICE 681 MARKET STREET SAN FRANCISCO WW FUNGE JR WESTERN SALES MANAGER OUR NEW PROCESS NON CRAZING 66 AETCO WALL TILES AETCO WITH PATENT DOVETAIL ANCHOR BACK Sums up as follows A AETCO Patent Dovetail Anchor Grip B RIVET actually formed in setting ABsolute security against tiles coming off Why take chances with any other make when you can get AETCO wall tiles at the same price Our manufactures embrace the following departments Dep A Ceramic Mosaic Tiles Dep B Vitreous and Encaustic Tiles Dep C AETCO WallTiles Base Cap Cove etc Dep D Embossed and Art Decorated Tiles Dep E Art Ceramic Mosaic Tiles Dep F Faenza Terra Vitrea and Enamels Dep G Brick Tiles and Special Work A B SPECIFY AETCO tiles and get the very BEST Our Products are used throughout the World and are known as the Highest Standard of Excellence BRICK TILES are better and cheaper CROSS SECTION OF 9 23 1 BRICK TILE than any other material for Veneering Reinforced SHOWING OUR DOVETAIL MORTISE Concrete or Brick Walls to secure a glazed surGRIP BACK face and are made in over 200 colors of Bright and Matt Glazes RESULTING ANCHOR FORMED IN SETTING PATENT Bar MIC TILE AL TILEC CROSS SECTION We also make a large line of Moulded Trim Sills etc to work with Brick Tiles Samples Details and full information supplied by our San Francisco office or any Dealer handling AET CO Tiles FAC SIMILE OF BACK OF 9x3 x BRICK TILE
*snip*
https://books.google.com/books?id=NmFDAQAAIAAJ&lpg=RA1-PA16-IA2&ots=FfKrnHrixi&dq=aetco%20PATENT&pg=RA1-PA16-IA2#v=onepage&q=aetco%20PATENT&f=false
And this:
https://nolastreetstories.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/appearance-of-street-name-tiles/
aaahg! so much to read!! have you found any info on the Minton tiles i posted recently? i find that silver mirror background to be really interesting. it adds the viewer's image to the vision.
a friend of mine had an encaustic tile press and we made encaustic tiles many years ago in Berkeley.
ho2cultcha, Yeah, sorry about all the linkage, but I'm still not quite satisfied with regard to the history of those AETCO white, blue, and yellow tiles. One more link:
*snip*
The logotype was inspired by the letterforms on the original tiles, first installed in the 1920s.
*snip*
https://cambooth.net/portfolio-new-orleans-tile-co/
My sense of it is that New Orleans had tiled street signs much earlier than the 1920s, but perhaps the iconic AETCO white, blue, and yellow ones were first installed then (as opposed to some of the other styles).
Yours seem to be the real McCoy, but the shape of the "O" on that one tile still makes me wonder if it's a zero character instead. Either that, or perhaps all the others I've seen pictures of are replacements made by people who didn't do their homework.
So you knew about encaustic tiles, and have even made some, huh? Very cool. :-)
I knew nothing about them prior to your post. One website says that the original meaning of the term had to do with cement as opposed to ceramic tiles, but that didn't seem to make sense to me in the context of these particular tiles which look ceramic.
That description in the PDF thesis about the process of making encaustic ceramic tiles made sense in terms of something that is going to be installed outdoors in a high traffic area.
I haven't looked at the Minton tile post previously, but will do so now.
A'ight, a few more tidbits, and then I'll try not to torture you further about this.
Try as I might, I couldn't bring up the American Encaustic Tile Company trademark for Alhambra at USPTO, but there is a picture of it in that doctoral thesis PDF on page 246 (page 234 of the actual document).
It was registered February 18, 1890, which would seem to predate by almost three decade AETCO's purchase of the West Coast Tile Company at Vernon, California (1919). That still doesn't necessarily mean those tiles weren't made at the California facility, if that 1920s installation observation is correct.
Industry overall in Vernon, California wasn't a happy-making thing for everybody there:
https://la.curbed.com/2017/5/19/15651412/vernon-ca-vinci-history-leonis
An AETCO catalog (no letter tiles in sight, although plate 54 is entirely missing):
http://www.oldhouseauthority.com/archive/tiles
There is a section about AETCO in the Google Books copy of "The Pottery and Porcelain of the United States: An Historical Review of American Ceramic Art from the Earliest Times to the Present Day: to which is Appended a Chapter on the Pottery of Mexico" by Edwin Atlee Barber G. P. Putnam's sons, 1909. (No link, because it's one of those heinous Google Books links.)
One little excerpt from the AETCO section (pages 353-359):
*snip*
This company has recently produced a new style of unglazed floor tiling in elegant designs and attractive coloring which is designated by the name and trademark of Alhambra. Beautiful soft effects in carpet patterns have been obtained on a vitreous body of great hardness. The tinted arabesque designs are inlaid to the depth of about one eighth of an inch simulating mosaic work.
*snip*
You may have already answered all your questions about these tile- but in case not... the O is indeed a 0 (zero).... and while the yellow or golden outline was historically installed in NOLA neighborhoods as a more rare variation, they do still exist in the Marigny and Bywater, and often we will see just one yellow mixed in with the usual greyish/beige outlines. It seems they were installed as early as late 1890's here. We choose in 2003 to make a reproduction that was with the golden outline, as to be able to distinguish from the historical.... now almost 20 yrs later, many people mistake our repros as original, since we have over 20k in the streets as official replacements for the city. (our edges of the serifs are a bit more rounded than the originals)
Great find getting these tiles in CA... we are jealous.. and would love to add those to our collection!
DerbyPotteryTileNOLA, Thank you so much for adding more information about the street corner tiles in New Orleans.
I think I spy some here in this photo of a street corner in Marigny, although I can't zoom in to be sure, because it isn't a Street View photo:
Marigny
New Orleans, LA
https://goo.gl/maps/HR8A7s8aXD8PpCiK6
So you all have replaced some twenty thousand of these tiles? Awe-inspiring. Hopefully, they will last as long as the originals. <3
Just a couple more tidbits. };-)
As DerbyPotteryTileNOLA noted, the middle tile in this post is indeed a zero rather than a capital "O." Here is a sample of a replacment tile with the capital letter "O":
https://www.derbypottery.com/
The USPTO databases remain stubborn about showing me either the original registration cited in this PDF for ALHAMBRA:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/51295835.pdf
I can find serial and registration numbers for AETCo itself and a few of its products (sorry, no permalinks for the USPTO trademark database), but that's about it:
*snip*
Serial Number Reg. Number Word Mark Check Status Live/Dead Class(es)
1 72078104 0696627 MASTER-SET TSDR DEAD 019
2 72067732 0696581 "AMERICAN SCORED TILE" TSDR DEAD 019
3 72023970 0660272 TILE GEMS TSDR DEAD 019
4 71293460 0270677 REFLECTA TSDR DEAD 019
5 71000885 0045389 A.E.T. CO. TSDR DEAD 019
6 71000884 0045425 A. E. TILE CO. TSDR DEAD 019
*snip*
https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search
Annoying. >8-0