American Tile Companies

Tile Company Location Dates of Operation Mark Alhambra Tile Company Newport, Kentucky 1901–c.1941 American Encaustic Tiling Company Zanesville, Ohio 1875–1935 Atlantic Tile and Faience Company Perth Amboy, New Jersey 1908–1912 Batchelder Tile Company Pasadena and Los Angeles, California 1909–1932 Beaver Falls Art Tile Company Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 1886–1927 Brayton Laguna Pottery Laguna Beach, California 1927–1968 […]

Trent Tile Company

Founded in 1882, Harris Manufacturing Company soon changed its name to Trent Tile Company. Isaac Broome (Ott and Brewer Pottery) was a designer at Trent until he was replaced by Englishman William Wood Gallimore (Belleek Pottery in Ireland, Ceramic Art Company). Gallimore’s designs often portrayed boys and cupids. Trent made dull-finished heavy-relief tiles that were […]

Robertson Art Tile Company

George W. Robertson of the well-known Massachusetts family of potters (Chelsea Keramic Art Works, Low Art Tile Works) moved to Morrisville, Pennsylvania, in 1890 to start his own company, the Chelsea Keramic Art Tile Works. He soon ran out of money, and the fledgling company was reorganized as the Robertson Art Tile Company. George Robertson […]

J. B. Owens Floor & Wall Tile Company

J. B. Owens opened the J. B. Owens Floor & Wall Tile Company in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1909. The firm was also referred to as the Empire Floor & Wall Tile Company. It made tiles using the dust-pressed method in which the finely ground raw materials are shaped in molds at high pressure before firing. […]

Cambridge Art Tile Works/Cambridge Tile Manufacturing Company

The Cambridge Art Tile Works was opened in Covington, Kentucky, in 1887 to make enameled and embossed tiles. In 1889 the company merged with Mount Casino Tile Works to form the Cambridge Tile Manufacturing Company. Cambridge made ivory and gold-toned tiles, stove tiles, teapot stands, and colored architectural tiles. In 1927 the Cambridge Tile Manufacturing […]

Harris Strong

Harris Strong was born in 1920 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. After working at potteries in New York City, he started his own business, Harris G. Strong, Inc., in the 1950s. It produced decorated lamps, ashtrays, vases, and ceramic tiles. By the early 1960s, he concentrated on contemporary-style tile panels. His hand-decorated tile panels, often groups of […]

Moravian Pottery and Tile Works

Henry Chapman Mercer founded the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 1898. The firm made large decorative tile panels and tiles for fireplaces, walls, ceilings, and floors. Moravian floor tiles decorate the rotunda and halls of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, showing about 400 scenes from the state’s history. About 1908 […]

California Faience

Chauncey R. Thomas and William V. Bragdon started the art pottery firm of Thomas & Bragdon in Berkeley, California, in 1916 and renamed it The Tile Shop in 1922. The pottery formally became California Faience in 1924, although the mark California Faience was used before that. The company cast some art pottery that was covered […]

California Art Tile Company

James White Hislop founded the Clay Glow Tile Company in Richmond, California, in 1922, then renamed it California Art Tile Company (Cal Art) the following year. Cal Art tiles in the California Arts and Crafts style have a matte finish with muted colors and earth tones. They are decorated with birds, plants, knights, ships, and […]

Beaver Falls Art Tile Company

Francis William Walker started the Beaver Falls Art Tile Company in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, in 1886. The company made plain, embossed, and intaglio tiles, plus tiles specially made to decorate stoves. Walker’s pale blue, green, purple, and other pastel glazes were unusually free from crazing. Isaac Broome, a noted designer, joined the company in 1890. […]