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: