Looks Real Enough
This weekend I spotted what might be a new Toynbee Tile. I’m certainly not the first to have noticed it. It’s in the Samson Street pedestrian crosswalk on the east side of Market. I haven’t seen a new and definitely legit Toynbee Tile in at least 10 years, so I can’t be sure, but it looks like the real thing. The adroitly carved paranoid and homophobic micro-screed give it a sense of authenticity. If it is a fake, the technique, motifs, materials, and craftsmanship are done well enough to qualify the work as a worthy counterfeit. It fooled me, just about, and I grew up with the things.