WALL AND FLOOR TILES. 
69 
utmost in the production of the most brilliant colors. 
Graphic and chromatic decorations in ceramics find in this 
field their legitimate basis of application and their greatest 
possible expansion in the future. The great object of the 
tile is decoration ; and the flat surface in the wall or on the 
floor is more appropriately the basis of Ornament than a plate 
or dish on which, when in use, the decoration is obscured. 
The antiquity of the art of decorating with tiles is well 
known, and the perfection which it attained in several coun 
tries is showu by the specimens which liave beeil handed 
down to ns unchanged,—not even dimmed by age. The 
tiles of India, Persia, Arabia, and Spain, the mosaics of the 
Romans, and the walls of the Alhambra, are familiär exam- 
ples. Glazed decorated tiles were used in Egypt, and among 
the Assyrians and Babylonians. They were introduced in 
Spain by the Saracens and Moors. In China they were em- 
ployed in remote periods for both exterior and interior deco 
ration. The Exhibition contained specimens of antique tiles 
from India and froni the mosques of Samarcand, of the four- 
teeuth and fifteenth centuries; and thus a retrospective 
ghince of the art and its application in this place is fully 
justified. 
The Indian tiles were brought by Dr. Leitner from 
Lahore, where they were taken from old .monuments; but 
the colors are as vivid as they ever were. The art, which 
was connected with the Mogul architecture, is now almost 
dead, as it is no longer sustained. 
Manufacture of Tiles in Great Britain. 
The manufacture in Great Britain dates from mediaeval 
times, and is supposed to have originated in the Roman 
mosaics,—the transition from tessene to the tiles, with im- 
pressed designs, being gradual,—the difference in the first 
place being in the size of the pieces only. Evidences of the 
gradual modification of the size have been found, and in 
Spain, small tiles, intermediate between British tiles and tes- 
gerse, are now in use. Recent excavations at Chichester 
have brought to light mosaic pavements and Roman tiles. 
It is highly probable that the convenience and greater 
rapidity of laying larger tiles led to their adoptiou, and the