tile, decorative
Object
Accession Number
2005.005.002Description
One of eighteen matching square clay encaustic tiles, the light blue body with the design of four radiating fleurs de lis executed in whitish inset clay.History of Use
These floor tiles were donated to Craigdarroch by two brothers in 2005. Their father, Reginald Betts, collected the tiles when he was working as a plumber at Craigdarroch during the 1919 renovation for Craigdarroch Military Hospital. He told his two sons that he had collected the tiles at the Castle because they were being thrown away and he liked them.For fifteen years, it was believed that the tiles may have come from room #212, formerly Mrs. Dunsmuir's bathroom. This is because one of The Castle Society's restoration technicians found fragments of plaster in that room coloured in the same shade of blue. Two photographs of Craigdarroch's south facade (Library and Archives Canada PA-212338 & PA-212339) taken in about February, 1919 depict a debris chute from Mrs. Dunsmuir's bathroom window leading to a pile on the ground. These tiles were thought to have probably been picked out of that pile.
In 2021, Craigdarroch staff members studying the cavities beneath the kitchen floor, found three more identical tiles near the glazed brick chimney front. These tiles were stained with what appears to be grease in a similar manner to the 2005.005 accessioned tiles. This new discovery suggests that all of the tiles may have been stained with animal fat created by cooking on the kitchen's French range.
