mosaic floor tesserae

[luisgoldfarb]

Hi all!
I am currently working in the production of some small stoneware bars for the restoration of the historical mosaic floors of Teatro Colón, an important building in Buenos Aires.
The Teatro Colón is among the bests in the world due to its superb acoustics, and was bily circa 1900 by italian architect francesco Tamburini.
Tamburini also designed many important public buildings in Argentina. The Casa Rosada, also built by Tamburini, has a small museum and there we found a book in which it is said that the stoneware tesserae used for the Casa Rosada flooring were originally been brought from Stoke-on-Trent, and the name "Campbell" is mentioned as the english manufacturer of the tiles.
We don´t really know if the original Teatro Colón tesserae were also been imported from Stoke-on-trent, more than 100 years ago. But we did find a suitable high fire white and red earthenware clay body that we are now using for the production of the replacement tesserae.

We started making the tesserae by a wet clay pressing method. This proved not to be the best: it is a slow method, mainly because we have to hand finish the units. The plaster molds break too often. And the tesserae tend to wrp, either at the drying stage or at the kiln.

So we are trying now to start producing them by the original dust pressing method.
I would be very grateful if you could suggest a book or an online source of information where I could find some technical recommendations concerning the preparation of the granulated dust, the design of the metal dies, the amount of pressure that is needed for the job, etc.

I apologize for my poor english writing and thank you all in advance.
Regards from Argentina
Luis

 

[diamondtiling]

Daniel platt may be a name that you would like to research, they have ceased trading a short time ago but you may find some information on the net, I have been to mexico a few times and visited some lovely ancient churches that have mosaic floors, when you read the history you will find that a lot of their tiles were clay baked in the heat of the sun as were many bricks and suchlike years ago, if you could machine the moulds would this be an option for you? interesting thread, I will watch it closely, goodluck to you.

:welcome:

 

[luisgoldfarb]

Thanks!!
Daniel Platt used to be a tiles manufacturer? A restoration firm?
Very interesting what you tell about the mexican sun baked tiles... Can´t imagine that this would provide a strong enough ceramic material!
These mosaic floors of the Colón Theatre were made by hand-cutting small tesserae from the stoneare-porcelain bars. I have heard that the Opera Garnier in Paris and other important buildings have the same kind of mosaic floors.
We are now very interested in ceramic tiles and feel encouraged to continue investigating, because it seems that the restoration authorities are very happy with our tesserae. During the last seven years, they were not able to find a suitable material for the mosaic restoration. By coincidence, we did succeed!
Best regards from argentina!

 

[Gazzer]

Thanks!!
Daniel Platt used to be a tiles manufacturer? A restoration firm?
Very interesting what you tell about the mexican sun baked tiles... Can´t imagine that this would provide a strong enough ceramic material!
These mosaic floors of the Colón Theatre were made by hand-cutting small tesserae from the stoneare-porcelain bars. I have heard that the Opera Garnier in Paris and other important buildings have the same kind of mosaic floors.
We are now very interested in ceramic tiles and feel encouraged to continue investigating, because it seems that the restoration authorities are very happy with our tesserae. During the last seven years, they were not able to find a suitable material for the mosaic restoration. By coincidence, we did succeed!
Best regards from argentina!

A tile manufacturer

 

[frankenfurter]

Hi Luis,

The Campbell mentioned on the rear of the tiles is from the 'Campbell Tile & Brick Company' which used to be based in Stoke on Trent. Owned by Colin Minton-Campbell. The greatest majority of their tiles where dust pressed for speed of manufacture.

If you're having problems with warping of plastic-clay, have your tried making a slip of the clay first and then casting that? You'll find it has a lot less tendency to warp than plastic clay. Dust pressing does require a whole lot more investment in the machinery etc.

You'll also find getting a white to match the original whites is pretty difficult too, not a 100% certain but I reckon the used quite a lot of titanium to improve the whiteness.

 

[luisgoldfarb]

Couldn't find a Daniel Platt website... :mad2:

 

[Matt]

Couldn't find a Daniel Platt website... :mad2:

They went out of business a few years ago

 

[luisgoldfarb]

Hi!
And thanks for your answer.
We do have a small manual press, and we successfully tried it for the producttion of some small round tesserae. I have heard that the amount of pressure required is around 500 kg per square centimeter. And I guess our little press could do that!
What we don´t know so much is how to prepare the 7% wet granulated dust. We tried small amounts and it seems to be okay...
You are right about the difficulties in matching the white color. we are using a high fire white earthenware from England, which we purchased at Potterycrafts, in Stoke-on-Trent. We are adding a tiny amount of blue cobalt stain to better match the originals.
However, I think the original material is more "porcelanic". We made quiete a few trials with Limoges porcelain. The color and quality were very good, but we had a lot of distorsion when fired at 1.240ºC - 1.260ºC.

 

[Spud]

from my understanding Luis flint stone is used in ceramic tile biscuits to prevent warping ,the flint is heated in the kiln and turns white this is then pulverised and added to the mixture, i dont know if this will help with your problem good luck anyway , if you are looking for books on vintage tile manufacture and stoke on trent potters/potteries call Chris Blanchett from Buckland books they have many rare titles and he is very helpful

 

[luisgoldfarb]

Thanks a lot!
I will make some experiments and comment on the results.
Regards from Argentina

 

[marke]

i would love to get into this kind of work restoration and such , have seen a few courses advertised but seem rather short to me , thats the kind of interesting work thats gonna stop turning my eyes into 600x400 travertine :lol:

cheers