Rare Egyptian-Revival Surround — American Encaustic Tiling Co.
A rarely-seen Egyptian-revival surround by the American Encaustic Tiling Company — figures and fruit in the distinctive Egyptian idiom, a design you can go years without seeing once, let alone as a complete surround.
Egyptian-revival ran through American decorative arts in waves across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but surviving tile in this theme — intact, whole, and this fine — is genuinely scarce. A piece for someone who wanted something almost no one else has.
Relic Asylum — Tiles with past lives.