Unique Ceramic Floor Tile

I discovered this unique ceramic floor tile or also known as encaustic cement floor tile while helping to upright a severely damaged tomb. The headstone was all in chinese and with Raymond Goh help, he help identify that it is possibly the tomb of Mr. Lim Thow Koon who passed away at the age of 59 and was buried in Bukit Brown on 7 July 1930. The location of the tomb is Block 3 Section A, plot 295. At the moment, i have very little information about the person buried there. 

Etched on this encaustic cement floor tile is the characters CA but also importantly, it has chinese characters too ! The ones i encountered previously were characters such as KSH and TCT, This is one the rare ones i seen so far with chinese characters. 

Such tiles form an important part of the material culture of Singapore, as such floor tiles can been found not only in Bukit Brown cemetery but also in heritage buildings around Singapore. However, we do not often know who were the actual makers of this tiles and whether this factories were from Singapore or not. The only one i have written and research on in some detail was the the TCT encaustic cement floor tiles - known as the Tampenis Cement Tile Works Limited (and yes that is the correct spelling and not Tampines). 

Ceramic floor tile with Chinese Characters

 

Uncovering the tomb and the floor tiles

Below you can see photos of the before and after clean up that made the uncovering of the floor tile possible

The tomb of Mr. Lim Thow Koon before we helped clean up 

The tomb of Mr. Lim Thow Koon after clean up and upright the headstone and 1 of the shoulder

Close up of the tomb of Mr. Lim Thow Koon 

Further Reading

Tampenis Cement Tile Works Limited. Rojak Librarian, posted on 13 May 2021

Saw Poo Choo Neo. Rojak Librarian, posted on 1 September 2021 

Mrs. Ng Wee Yew nee Choo Lian Neo. Rojak Librarian, posted on 2 November 2025