Shadows of a Forgotten World

Barta & Tichý Praha was one of the most famous ceramic factories in Europe.  Here is an example of their work which I found in Prague:  This factory has a connection to Lviv, for in the 1880s the famous architect Jan Lewiński opened a store in Lviv where products from Barta & Tichý were sold. A few examples of these tiles can still be found in Lviv:

My friend sent me pictures of these lovely antique tiles in Drohobych, which were made by Joachim Sternbach's company, probably in the interwar period.

Usually I've found the dates of buildings carved into the facade, but occasionally the years were marked in other places, for example on the floor near the main entrance, such as can be seen in my posts about terrazzo  or on tiles as seen below. This one includes the old street name and building number

As I suspected, few doors were open or unlocked to Vienna's residential buildings. Unlike Lviv, the vast majority of doors are in good condition and kept locked, usually with a key and not code. Therefore, I didn't have the opportunity to see many entranceways. However, I lucked out and did find a few beautiful corridors and stairwells. But I only found one tile with a manufacturer's mark.

Various traces of Przemysl's prewar past Boot Scrapers indoors with handle (missing part) also with missing part

Traces of Stanisławów's prewar and Polish past: Polish-language street sign conscription number company from Lviv bootscraper bootscraper tracks for transporting coal

An antique glazed wall tile in Krakow with the manufacturer's mark.

Instead of placing a tile on the floor with a company’s name, sometimes a special tile would be installed on the wall. The same companies that made floor tiles also made the wall tiles. These tiles are typically glazed. There are only a handful of these in Lviv.

In Chernivtsi I saw a few tiles with the inscription “Leon Schrenzel Czernowitz.” Overall, I saw the name of only one company that manufactured tiles. Leon Schrenzel’s building materials company was founded in 1887 – a time when Chernivtsi would have been part of the Austrian Empire.

In the second half of the 19th century, ceramic tiles started to be widely used in Lviv to cover the floors of entrance ways. The tiling was often very decorative and colorful. Lviv had several companies that were manufacturing such tiles between the late 19th century and WWII. The name of the manufacturer or supplier of the tiles was often stamped on a special tile and laid in the entrance way near the front door of the building. Along with the company’s name, which was often named after its founder, sometimes also the name of the city of the company’s location was included. Quite a few of the stamped tiles have remained in Lviv. These served as an ad for the company and were deliberately placed so that it was the first thing a person saw when he entered the building. A few of the more common inscriptions are “Jan Lewiński Lwów za Barta & Tichý w Pradze” (in the 1880s, architect Jan Lewiński / Іван Левинський opened a store where products from “Barta ...