While contemporary Indian art, framed or installed, continues to make waves all over the world, Maneka Gandhi’s People For Animals is set to broaden our understanding and perceptions of art. The organisation’s fundraiser in Delhi this August will exhibit antique tiles sourced over two years under an apt title, ‘Treasure Trove’. The 10,000-odd artifacts that speak volumes of the different times they belong to, are more than remains of history. Considered a valuable art form globally, tiles do appreciate over time. Some may be chipped around the corners and come with a smoke stain or two. Their lack of perfection makes them all the more charming and the value only escalates. Where does it say that imperfection is worthless?

Tiles can be used to decorate your space the way paintings and sculptures cannot. If you are a minimalist you can use the tiles as surprisingly dazzling accents on an otherwise monotone surface or if it’s old-world opulence you seek, you can make as many colourful clusters of mosaic as you want. There will be plenty to choose from. Stand-alone miniature portraits, religious and mythological symbols, flora or intricate patterns that take multiple tiles to complete - they are all there. Discriminating between such varieties can be tough. Connoisseurs will probably go for the ancient glazed ones with a surface that looks like it has an extra dimension or the hand painted pieces, which were the most expensive and laborious to produce.

Coloured clay tiles were probably first used by ancient Egyptians and Babylonians, as far back as second millennium BC, from where the architectural art gradually spread to Europe, China and India. Persia remained the centre and birthplace of most new techniques that would be practiced elsewhere. In Europe, from medieval ages to contemporary times, different experiments were made. For many years the process was done by hand. After formation, ceramic tiles went through a firing process in a kiln under very high heat to harden the tile body and to create the surface glaze.? Historically, unglazed tiles were fired once and glazed tiles, twice.

On the aesthetic front, the full potential of tiles was realised in Italy in the 1400s. Majolica or imported Islamic tiles added a full range of colours with tonal gradation and brushwork. In the 18th century, Sadler and Green developed a process to transfer print on tiles. This enabled tiles to now be made cheaper and faster. Almost concurrently, pottery producer Herbert Minton refined a patent he had purchased which would enable him to produce tiles by machine.