Bathroom dating and renovation

We have a 1925 Mediterranean Revival home in Florida. We have two bathroons that seem to be original in some aspects (tub and wall heater) but the wall tile in both bathrooms is made up of 4" tiles, green in one and blue in the other with black tile edging. Is this something that would have been used in the 20s or are we looking at 50s tile? From reading Old House Journal, it seems that a 1925 bathroom would have been sterile white. Is that correct? Any help is appreciated, we are considering how to renovate and want to keep it somewhat period.

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Permalink Reply by jane on October 16, 2009 at 7:24pm

the profile ( the size and curve of the pieces) of the wood around the mirrors looks more like the 20's

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Permalink Reply by Donald Shore on October 31, 2009 at 8:30pm

It could have been either. The "tell" is the edge of the tile. If it has a shouldered edge, then it is probably from the 40's and beyond. Flat face/tight joints indicate an earlier tile.

There was color in baths in the 1920's. We are currently working on a couple of baths in La that have a satin matte blue in one and pink in the other. Beautiful colors and they coordinate with the floors and the porcelain fixtures.

If you post a digipic of the back of a tile, the impression may tell the story.

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Permalink Reply by David MacNamee on November 1, 2009 at 5:41pm

Thanks, the tiles have a slight curve to the edge. We are going to have to demo some of the tile to fix some plumbing so that may give us more of a hint. Hopefully our tile man will be able to tell, he has been doing it for 30 years. I'll post pics of the tile and the before and after for anyone else that is trying to do this.

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Permalink Reply by David MacNamee on November 20, 2009 at 1:14pm

Well, we demoed the wall and found that the tile is not original - there are a couple of 1950 newspapers in the wall so I expect that was when it was done. The interesting thing is that the original floor is under the new tile floor - small back and white individual squares. And the walls under the remodeled tile are some sort of glaze that looks like it was "alligatored".
The plaster behind the glaze looks to have horsehair in it. When I can figure out how to get a good picture I will post it.