Old but as new American Olean 4" x 6" cove base in a rare gloss light blue color. Saturated but subtle, it was called S04 Blue Dawn in the 80s - 90s, # 21 Cornflower in the 70s, and apparently Sky Blue in the 50s - 60s. Price is per tile, A grade.

Each tile is 6" long by 4 1/8" tall. (I've measured many of them, knowing 4 1/4" height seems to be a standard now, but I get between 4 1/16" and 4 1/8" every time. These really are 4 1/8" high.) Depth from wall is 1/4" at bullnose top, about 5/16" at middle, and 1/2" projection from wall at the base. They also have the self-spacing lugs or slight protrusions at right and left sides to keep grout lines straight.

The back of each tile is marked AO, S3419T, Made in USA. AO for American Olean, S-3419 is an industry shape designation for Sanitary cove base 4" tall, and from what I can tell the T in S-3419T indicates the shape of the projection at bottom, not a radius curve but the finished ogee curve baseboard shape. (See photo 8; also eBay item #223349034048 where some S3419 in the same or a very similar Sky Blue is seen, but with concave radius edge and minus the T marking.)

These are trim tiles, meant as baseboards for non-tiled wall or fixture areas as the tops are bullnose or tapered to lay flush with the untiled wall. Apparently this shade of blue has been discontinued for about 30 years now and I only have this baseboard type in this color, found stored in a sort of caddy in one of the outbuildings of a house we bought. Probably put aside as replacements, we think in the 1960s, I count 28 of them I would call perfect or A grade, never used and with no visible flaws when installed. (My standard for A grade is that I can't tell them apart from the front. Anything with flaws or irregularities, from glaze skips in the making to tiny fleabites or nicks or chips, I consider B grade, suitable for fill uses, where a partial tile is needed and will have to be cut, or for use as a sample tile for color matching. We have an additional 11 of this cove base in 'B Grade' in a separate listing.)

We know this interesting blue color was discontinued decades ago because the friend who lent me the American Olean color chest of samples seen in these photos says this is the oldest AO case she still has, from January 1995 (just before they merged with Daltile), and already they were sending the cases out from Lansdale with most of the 04 Blue Dawn sample chips having the color code inked out with Sharpie marker. And that was the 4x4 field tile samples, apparently production of specialty and trim tiles was stopped even earlier.

It's too bad because there's just something appealing about these, it's a calming shade of blue, and they also feel different from modern tiles somehow. My first thought on finding the little caddy was, 'Let's use them!' But they're definitely the wrong time period for this house (19th century), nearly all traces of them were already long gone from the walls here, and that might be squandering them, too. Use as replacement tiles to restore a mid century modern bathroom or kitchen seems far more worthy and period-correct. (Rooms that had this type and color originally, but have experienced plumbing woes that left one or more tiles missing or damaged over the years, seem more deserving of any surviving unused pieces, since where else can you get them? It's hard to find the right shade for even 80s bathroom tile now, so 50s or 60s...who knows?)

This particular blue color. If I had to name it I would call it a Sky Blue in direct light, but a light Cadet Blue in the shade (hexidecimal 5E9DAB), as it has grayish green undertones, especially in indirect light, while the modern hex colors for both cornflower and sky blue are too bright blue (like a baby blue 89CFF0, which this is decidedly not, it's much more subtle than that). Apparently nothing like it exists with American Olean today. (The closest in ceramic wall tile might be a shade called Restore, though that's too green. Dal-tile has a blue called Waterfall that looks kind of like it from a screen, but in person that's murkier, and also too green. I was thinking of using this tile myself so I did look around for similar modern types.) The 70s color swatches showing AO #21 Cornflower do seem to be it, though they're old and I'm going only on photos. Prior to that it seems to have been around in the 1950s and 60s --on kitchen walls, surprisingly-- and was apparently called just Sky Blue then, though I couldn't find any labeled swatches from National Gypsum or Olean.

I've tried everything under the sun (literally, all photos are in some kind of natural daylight) to capture the correct color, and it looks right from screens here for the most part. But the truth is, all glossy tile colors change as the light progresses throughout the day (see photo 12, lower right, and photo 14 where there's significantly more green in this blue by late afternoon). The camera also distorts gloss tile colors, I really think more so than matte types, having peered at scores of color chips online by now.

Thus, the only way to be truly sure of a match or complimentary color is to get a sample tile (or take one from the B Grade listing). If you message me I can put whatever number of A grade ones you might need on hold until a direct comparison with the sample is made, and then it's sure. (It's much safer to do it this way as we can't take returns for color matching issues, and why risk shipping fragile, heavy, and impossible to replace ceramic things like this more than once?)

Finally, I've learned some things about tile styles of the 50s and 60s based on what I've found stored here (see last photo) and, if you weren't around to recall that period, it's surprising. It wasn't just 1950s bathrooms that had whole walls done in colorful tile. Apparently this blue cove base, a pale green field, and a delicate yellow top trim was once the color scheme for a kitchen here, as modernized somewhere between 1952 and 1967. On looking into it further (Pintrest has many period advertising images in color), it seems the vibrant all-tile multi-color kitchen was quite a big trend in the 50s and early 60s, which I never knew. In some cases it extended to include random tiles placed in abstract formations that had an almost Mondrian quality. Yet it was comforting, the happy colors, the softly rounded appliances, usually with coordinating floor tile. Who knew? (I'd take that any day over some of the barren, institutional-looking, harsh-angled 'minimalist' kitchens of now.) So in case there are largely intact period bathrooms out there, or more especially kitchens, that actually need some of this particular old blue cove base tile for repairs...I'm refraining from scheming to use it myself (for now).

For the B Grade of these cove base tiles, see our other listings. Some pale yellow 6" x 2" bullnose ones are coming too, found stored in similar wire baskets, plus some unusual 4 x 8" Italian patterned wildflower tiles, the original use of which I haven't figured out yet.