Encaustic tiles are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colours but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern appears inlaid into the body of the tile, so that the design remains as the tile is worn down. Encaustic tiles may be glazed or unglazed and the inlay may be as shallow as 1?8 inch (3 mm), as is often the case with printed encaustic tile from the later medieval period, or as deep as a quarter inch. What were called encaustic tiles in the Victorian era were originally called inlaid tiles during the medieval period. The use of the word encaustic to describe an inlaid tile of two or more colors is linguistically incorrect. The word encaustic from Ancient Greek: ??????????? means burning in from the ?? en, in and ?????? kaiein, to burn. The term originally described a process of painting with a beeswax-based paint that was then fixed with heat. It was also applied to a process of medieval enameling. The term did not come into use when describing tile until the nineteenth century. Supposedly, Victorians thought that the two colour tiles strongly resembled enamel work and so called them encaustic.
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