Flint Faience Tiles – AC Spark Plug’s Clever Spinoff That Beautified the World

Sloan Museum Curator of Collections, Geoff Woodcox, tells the intriguing genesis of Flint Faience Tiles. This short-lived tile company began with an unusual partnership between French-born Albert Champion, who founded AC Spark Plug (now ACDelco), and an entrepreneurial Belgian-born ceramic tile artist named Carl Bergmans. Faience is a style of tile named after a village in Italy and was very popular in the early 20th century. During the early days of spark plug manufacturing, there were times when the kilns used to produce the ceramic insulators were not in use. Tilemaker Bergmans approached Champion in 1921 about using the kilns to produce decorative tiles and a clever new business was born. At its peak, Flint Faience Tiles were used on cruise ships, schools, factories, and homes around the United States. There is a small exhibit of Flint Faience Tiles in the History Gallery that tells the story of this unusual partnership between an enterprising automotive parts supplier and an innovative artist.

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