Identifying tiles and brick

Fabric, stamp, and format.

Roman tiles carry stamps, signatures, and animal prints; medieval floor tiles show slip-decorated patterns. Format, thickness, and fabric help date building material, and keyed backs indicate wall tiles.

The Roman roof was a system: flat tegulae with raised flanges, capped by curved imbrices. Box flue tiles from hypocaust heating carry combed or roller-stamped keying for plaster. Legionary and civic stamps (a legion’s number, a town’s initials) tie a tile to its builder.

Accidental marks are evidence too — dog and hobnail prints, fingertip signatures swept in the wet clay — and they record the tilery yard as surely as any stamp.

Medieval floor tiles run to two-colour (encaustic) patterns — heraldry, beasts, foliage — laid in church and abbey floors. Brick sizes and fabrics change by period and region. Record dimensions, fabric, and any marks; note glaze and pattern wear on floor tiles honestly.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on pottery

Identifying pottery and ceramics — Fabric, surface, and how it was formed.

Identifying terracotta figurines — Mould lines and vent holes.

Identifying amphorae and transport pottery — Shape equals cargo.

Identifying Roman samian ware — Glossy red tableware with moulded scenes and potters' stamps.

Identifying Roman coarse wares — The kitchen pottery of the empire — greywares, mortaria, and flagons.

Identifying Greek painted pottery — Black-figure, red-figure, and the glossy slip that defines them.

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