Glazed floor tile with raised figures of animals, from North Berwick Abbey

Glazed floor tile with raised figures of animals, from North Berwick Abbey

Glazed floor tile with raised figures of animals, from North Berwick Abbey

Glazed tile with geometric and floral patterns, from North Berwick Abbey

Glazed tile with geometric and floral patterns, from North Berwick Abbey

Glazed tile with geometric and floral patterns, from North Berwick Abbey

Tile fragment of verde-antico, from Hunday, Orkney, 550 - 1300 AD

One of a pair of garden border tiles of coarse buff earthenware, the top consisting of a fleur-de-lys flanked by foliage, made at Gieve's Fire-clay Works, Tranent, East Lothian, c. 1830

One of a pair of garden border tiles of coarse buff earthenware, the top consisting of a fleur-de-lys flanked by foliage, made at Gieve's Fire-clay Works, Tranent, East Lothian, c. 1830

Rectangular tile of white faience with blue inlay, the face inlaid in hieroglyphs with the prenomen and nomen of Seti II, fragmentary: Ancient Egyptian, 19th Dynasty

Tile fragment in terracotta, moulded in relief with the upper part of two female attendants: Ancient Egyptian, Middle Egypt, Gurob, Tomb 474, 18th Dynasty, c.1479-1390 BC

Tile in blue faience with a fine white core of rectangular shape, from the underground galleries of the Step Pyramid of King Djoser: Ancient Egyptian, Lower Egypt, Saqqara, Pyramid of Djoser, 3rd Dynasty, c.2667-2648 BC

Tile in blue faience with a fine white core of rectangular shape, from the underground galleries of the Step Pyramid of King Djoser: Ancient Egyptian, Lower Egypt, Saqqara, Pyramid of Djoser, 3rd Dynasty, c.2667-2648 BC

Tile of low-fired porcelain, painted in enamel with purple irises and green leaves, with an impressed mark: Japan, 1945 - 1949

Tile of earthenware with slip and pigment, an anthropomorphized rat, from a set of twelve portraying the twelve calendrical animals: China, Six Dynasties, 220 - 589 AD

Tile of earthenware with slip and pigment, an anthropomorphized rabbit, from a set of twelve portraying the twelve calendrical animals: China, Six Dynasties, 220 - 589 AD