Pacific Tile & Porcelain Co.
"CERATILE" 4 1/4" x 4 1/4"
Silk-screened, dry-pressed whiteware tile, 1952.
Tile Heritage Collection. Gift of Riley Doty.
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Pacific Tile & Porcelain Company
Paramount, California
1952
Dubbed "revolutionary" by the company's president, Richard Bailey, in 1952, CERATILE was hailed as "perhaps the most significant single discovery and innovation in the field of modern ceramics."
"CERATILE is made by a special process refined within our own laboratories. By this process genuine clay tile takes on a new textured surface. It may be produced in almost limitless design, color and shade. The technique employs semi-automatic methods, thus allowing production in commercial volume. This means the public is now afforded, for the first time in history, tile in any variety of design and color at a cost much less than that of older hand-decorated tile—heretofore the only means by which such personalized design and color were obtainable."
Located in what was then a rural area on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles, Pacific Tile & Porcelain had its beginnings in 1933 with 18,800 square feet of working area under roof. Growth was consistent over the years, and by the early 1950s the plant had enlarged to over 60,000 square feet of under roof production area on an eleven acre tract. As a result of its technical innovation and marketing bravado, PT&P thrived during the 1950s building boom, competing successfully with Pomona and Gladding, McBean, the manufacturing giants in Southern California. By the early 1960s styles were changing and the company soon lost its competitive edge.