Hand-painted or printed? What we can and cannot tell you
Many web pages offer quick tests for telling hand-painted tiles from printed ones. We looked for a museum or conservator source for those tests and did not find one, so we will not repeat them as fact.
One thing a museum does say
A single tile can mix methods. A museum record describes a 19th-century English wall tile whose design was printed from an engraved plate through transfer paper, with the colour painted in by hand. So “printed or painted” is not always an either/or.
What to do instead
- Ask the seller in writing what the tile is, where it came from, and how old it is, and keep that description with the invoice.
- Buy new tiles straight from a working maker such as Sant’Anna or Viúva Lamego, where there is no doubt what you are getting. Viúva Lamego lists collections it still makes, such as “Azulejos Arestas” and “Azulejos Moçarabes (Hispano-Árabe)”.
- For an old or valuable piece, ask a museum or a conservator. Remember the export rules before you pay.
Not confirmed: We will add visual tests when we find a museum or conservator source for them.