Enjoy Flowers All Year Around!

Toleware lighting adds a colourful and decorative effect to a home interior scheme.  The lighting works particularly well in rooms adjacent to the garden bringing the 'outside in'.  The toleware designs add both interest and colour to a room.  We thought it would be useful and interesting to explain what Toleware is for you and why we can now gain such enjoyment from it!

Toleware, or simply tôle, originates from the French tôle peinte which means 'painted sheet metal".  The tehnique was developed in the early 18th Century and spread across Europe and America over the decades that followed. 

The base for tole was fabricated of metal. Sheets of iron or steel were dipped in molten tin or pewter (which is an alloy of tin and copper) to form a foundation that could be decorated with paint or varnish.  

The toleware decorating technique was thought to have been developed to keep utilitarian household products from rusting.  It became popular and flourished until the end of the 19th century when the popularity of toleware declined. Toleware, however, saw a brief revival in America in the 1950s that lasted a decade or so. 

We have several toleware lighting pieces in stock and they are proving very popular with people today.