WALL AND FLOOR TILES. 
75 
stamped or painted on the surface, but is imprcsscd to 
considerable depth. The tiles are inlaid. The process in 
Britaiii is as old as the mediseval tiles of Malvern, already 
noted. In the ancient tiles the design was impressed in the 
meist clay. In the modern it is equally impressed, but at 
the time of forming the tile out of the dust, leaving a 
sharply formed design, which is subsequently filled by a 
powder of another color. The whole being pressed together 
forms a homogeneous mass. The impressed design is also 
iillcd, in some cases by a liquid slip, as in the ancient 
tiles, and when dry the cxcess is scraped off betöre firing. 
The design being impressed to a döpth of one-eighth or 
one-quarter of an inch, and filled solid ly with body of a 
different color from the groundwork of the tile, is not 
obliterated by wear until the whole substance of the tile 
has been cut away to the full depth of the design. The 
brilliancy of the design and of the colors of the tile may, 
as with plain tiles, be heightened by a simple glaze; but 
the surface is made slippery, and is not so well adapted to 
pavemeuts as the simple unglazed surface. Sonic of the 
colored bodies, such as blue, green and white, are suffi- 
ciently vitrified in burning to give a vitreous semi-glazed 
appcarance. But glazed inlaid tiles are suitable for hearths 
where not exposed to much wear, and are now largely used 
abroad for this purpose. Their thickness and strength 
renders them secure from breakage. 
Encaustic or inlaid tiles are usually one inch thick, twice 
the thickness rcquired for plain wall-tiles. They are espccially 
suitable for pavements in halls, corridors and vestibules, or 
whcrever they would be exposed to attrition and wear by the 
fire-irons, etc. 
Encaustic and Enamelled Tiles in Decoration. 
Another important application of the encaustic, and also of 
the enamelled tiles, is found in decorating the walls of build- 
ings, especially those of brick, either grouped in large panels, 
or set singly about the window-frames and cornices. 
The glazed encaustic tiles are generally used in mural 
decoration and in fire-places, for lining the jambs and back, 
where movable or basket grates are used. They not only