Super hot news: Thanks to fantabulous reader Joel who discovered this huge stash of New Old Stock ceramic tile decorative “sizzle strips” for sale on ebay. These gorgeous sizzle strips were made by Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville, Ohio, probably in the 1950s or 1960s. They are gorgeous. And at $3 each — I think they are a terrific deal. There seem to be many of each style. Each sizzle is 6″ long. Who is working on a vintage bathroom? Go get ’em, Retro Renovators!
After this fabulous discovery, I reached out to Ebay seller 86durango86 to see how he came to own all of these NOS liner tiles. He writes:
I work for a carpet/tile store in Northwest Indiana. My boss was going to throw this tile away about 5 years ago. So I snatched it up to sell on Ebay, only I put it in my storage and never got around to it until last week. I am regretful, though, because we used to have a semi trailer in back loaded with old tile. All the old avocado and pastel colors — but we pitched it all about 10 years ago. I was not as in tune with the value of vintage items at that time, so I really missed the boat at that time. Now I am always on the look out to rescue the beautiful art of the past. All of the accent strips are now listed. If I have fewer than 150 listed then that is all I have of that particular item…. and if I have 150 or more I have additional stock of those items.
Yowza — you mean to tell me there was MUCH MORE vintage NOS tile that was just tossed out? It is enough to break a girl’s heart. Hindsight is always 20/20 though — I’m sure at the time it wasn’t worth the cost of storage to most people. At least some of the coolest stuff was saved — thanks to 86durango86 for saving some of this awesome tile and for allowing us to add the photos to our vintage tile archive.
Check out the graphic below to see close up photos of all 24 varieties of vintage liner tile:
Jane Blacket says
I have a retro bathroom that consists of grey tiles, black terrazzo floor,pink terrazzo shower cubicle and pink terrazzo toilet cubicle with original hardware. The original pink bath is still there. I was given a matching pink 50’s pedastel vanity but Im thinkiing its not going to be big enough round the edge for tooth brushes etc and there is no storage so have found a high gloss grey floating vanity with two draws, that I am thinking of using, with a matching gloss grey tall boy for extra storage. The problem I am having is deciding what colour to paint the walls to give it some pazzazz and maybe a modern retro feel. Anyone have any ideas?
Michele says
OMG – fabulous! I like the second picture down, black and pink? yowza!
pam kueber says
I know, aren’t these awesome?
tammyCA says
They are so pretty. We used strips in our bathroom shower reno last year…they are the ones with the diamonds/ovals but they are new and solid color…I really wanted to find two tones like those above, but no luck – the blue green waves above would’ve worked well.
Carole says
Cool! I love them all, but am partial to the Listello white/red/taupe. Sigh.
Dawn says
I have the black and pink one in my bathroom!!! 1959. The installer just cut them straight, and filled in the crack with grout. They don’t appear to be mitered or rounded at all nor do they have any cap on them. Something I have never ever noticed until I ran back there just now to check! LOL!!!
Joel says
If there is a hobby ceramics store in your town, see if they would be willing to try to glaze the edge. They will also sell “stilt stones” which can be used to file and shape the soft ceramic pieces. It may be trial and error, but you could round off the tile’s hard 90 degree corner and then have the shop try to match the glazing and decoration on the rounded corner edge… it will probably take about 4 tries to get an acceptable (not perfect) match and it will never be exact, but enough to blend, so count on wasting at least 3 tiles and the work to shape it properly… you can also use a dremel.
Diane in CO says
Not sure if you were responding to me, but the curved pieces in my bathrooms are arcs about 1.25″ long – to wrap around the corners; above it is a bullnosed 4×4 wall tile and below it is a bullnosed 4×4 wall tile. (sheesh I’d give anything to be able to post a picture!)
Or, as Pam mentioned, such a corner can be mitered. But then you have to miter all the tiles all the way down to the floor to match the mitered liner strip. They did that in my basement bathroom instead of using bullnosed tile at the corner and I do NOT like the way it looks.
If I’m understanding you correctly, I’m thinking the resulting radius would never match the radius of a bullnosed tile.
Diane in CO says
These are lovely! I have these same tiles, in different color combos, in my (original) 1936 bathrooms in Denver. We have “rounded” corners, where the wall tile is bullnosed — and at that spot in the liner/sizzle strip, the segment is short and ROUNDED or CURVED, to compliment the bullnose of the wall tiles. It’s a specialized piece.
I emailed the seller to ask if his stock contains any of those short CURVED PIECES? Otherwise how would you handle a “sticking out” corner in the room? (Not sure how to differentiate this from a “recessed corner!”)
pam kueber says
miter them – i guess
Diane in CO says
Here is what the seller wrote back:
“Hello, unfortunatley I do not have any trim pieces for these tiles. I am not sure when they stopped using trim for accents but I do not know of any current lines that manufacture them. The custom nowadays is to end your accent into a field tile bullnose at a corner. Sorry I could not be more help.”
One could not get a continuous line doing it this way, if I’m understanding what he means. The liner line would be interrupted at the corners. Not that that’s a baaad thing……….. 🙂
Kelly Wittenauer says
Word of caution to those who google “sizzle strips” looking for tile. The term has been used for several years in the art glass industry to denote strips of pre-fired dichroic glass. Be sure to include the word tile in your search to avoid confusion.
JKaye says
Love that name, sizzle strips. This type of tile was one of the great features in Mike and Lindsey’s pink bathroom featured a few days ago.
DebDeluxe says
Love these! My master bath has a number of interesting tiles, including some Japanese mica tiles on the counter and a row of these lovely “sizzle strips” in a metallic copper ribbon pattern all around the room. 🙂