Share your antique Tile Stories here..I would love to hear about any stories related to Antique Tiles..How you got them, what they are, or where and when they were made. I want to hear it all..


Here is mine.
Hello all I would like to to share these tiles I have they were made in San Jose California in the 1920s by Solon & Schemmel in the 1920s

"Albert Solon, together with his partner, Frank Schemmel, began a distinctive tile manufacturing career back in the early 1920's in San Jose, California," wrote Northside resident Jeanne Lazzarini in the Summer/Fall 1995 edition of Style 1900, a quarterly journal of the Arts & Crafts movement. "Withstanding the test of time... exquisite examples of Solon's magnificent work appear throughout the West; a testimony to the abundant popularity of his unique decorative tile artistry."

During the 1920s, Solon& Schemmel tiles were incorporated into schools in Oakland and San Francisco, war memorials in Berkeley, theaters in Los Angeles, YMCA buildings in San Diego and Honolulu, and even the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The tiles can still be seen on classroom buildings at San Jose State University. However, Lazzarini wrote, "the Backesto Fountain... is the oldest dated S&S installation."

Solon & Schemmel were part of a distinctively California aesthetic craft. At the turn of the century, Lazzarini observed, "California offered perfect clay soils and a new place to create hand-finished work reflective of the then recently popular Mission Revival, Spanish Revival, and innovative American Arts and Crafts bungalow architecture... With abundant valleys rich in clay soils, California attracted imaginative artists from all over the world, eager to explore different methods for making and using tiles."

Solon was an Englishman who had emigrated to Northern California in 1908. He taught ceramics and physics at the old San Jose Normal School (now San Jose State). Solon was introduced to Schemmel by Ernie Curtis - the man who designed Backesto Fountain. The partners opened their tile factory in 1920 near downtown San Jose. According to San Jose State archivist Jack Douglas, "Each tile installation became a ceramic masterpiece and soon stairs, floors, fountains, fireplaces, mantles, archways and wall treatments all over California were adorned with [Solon's] ornament."

These are some pictures of some of the tiles I have.

Some patterns and colors.. I have a total of 380 of these Tiles I hope one day they will end up in a Bungalow somewhere.

These Tiles are featured in the Book California Tile The Golden era 1910-1940 on page 118.

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