Maker/Retailer Biography

American Encaustic Tiling Company

Dates: 1875-c.1945

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Benedict Fisher, founder of the firm, was one of the first to cater for the interest in decorative tiles created by the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. Initially the production was in the encaustic method pioneered in Britain by Herbert Minton; from 1880 glazed tiles were added, and in 1881 relief tiles. In 1891 a collaboration with the publisher Edmund Evans resulted in pictorial tiles using the original plates of illustrations by Walter Crane. William Morris patterns were also reproduced on tiles.