Living History in Mosaics

Homeowners reap benefits of Pennsylvania handicrafts at Moravian Pottery & Tile Works

By: Faith Bahadurian

The restored building used by Henry Chapman Mercer in 1898 for the production of decorative tiles is open daily. "The
Photo by Faith
Bahadurian
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   "If tiles could tell no story, inspire or teach nobody, and only serve to produce aesthetic thrills, I would have stopped making them long ago."
   These words, from Moravian Pottery & Tile Works founder Henry Chapman Mercer, reveal the motivation that carried him through his remarkable career of tile making.
   Mercer, the product of a family of wealth and privilege, and one of the best-documented figures of the Arts and Crafts movement, was born in Doylestown, Pa., in 1856. He lived there for most of his life, after graduating from Harvard University in 1879, although he spent long periods of time traveling the world.
   These wide-ranging archeological explorations, through Central and South America, Europe, Egypt and the Middle East, provided him with endless inspiration for his narrative designs and other scholarly work.
   Not one to spurn his own backyard, he helped found the Bucks County Historical Society just one year after his graduation, and also conducted extensive site research throughout Pennsylvania and many other states.
   As the 1900s drew to a close, Mercer became increasingly concerned about the industrialization of all aspects of life — a concern shared by others that gave rise to the Arts and Crafts movement. He amassed a huge collection of artifacts including the everyday implements of farmers, households and craftsmen. These tools were disappearing, along with the crafts and trades associated with them. His original exhibition, "Tools of the Nation Maker," first numbered around 15,000 items. Today this collection, housed by the Mercer Museum exceeds 40,000 artifacts and is still growing.
   Hoping to preserve some of the crafts threatened by obsolescence, Mercer tried his own hand at pottery, with an eye to making pottery demonstrations part of the Historical Society activities. (Today we take the idea of a "living history museum" for granted, but this was a new concept in Mercer’s time.) He felt the time was ripe for producing ornamental tile with the good local clay.
   Mercer’s first successful efforts (after failed attempts at making pots and bowls) were decorative stove plates inspired by those he saw in homes in the Pennsylvania Moravian community. Moravian Pottery & Tile Works has no connection to the Moravian church.
   In 1899, he received his first commission for a Doylestown residence, and in 1901 he produced the medieval-style tile floors for Isabella Stewart Gardener’s lavish museum in Boston.
   He built Fonthill, his concrete dream house, between 1908 and 1912, and filled it with his patented brocade tiles, which in bold relief, showed scenes of craftsmen at work, and scenes from literature and history. Many of these early tiles tell the story of the discovery of the New World, and scenes from antiquity. Others show the craftsmen whose livings were being threatened by the machine age: the candlemaker, stonemason and butter churner. No subject was too humble for depiction in his tiles.

"Henry
Henry Mercer’s patented brocade tiles showed scenes of craftsmen at work, as well as scenes from literature and history, in bold relief.

Photo by Faith Bahadurian

   He built the Moravian Pottery & Tile works between 1910 and 1912 to meet the growing demand for his now famous tiles. The concrete Spanish Mission style building is built in a U-shape, with a center courtyard that used to hold the tons of coal required to fire the kilns (they are now gas and electric).
   The business started to turn a profit almost immediately, and has produced tiles for corporate and residential America in nearly every state. Mercer’s aestheticism, coupled with his strong practical bent, had created a durable handicraft business that today’s homeowner can still benefit from.
   Although Mercer died in 1930, production continued until the 1950s, then was resumed in 1974 by the Bucks County Historical Society.
   Today, the Tile Works is bustling with activity, supplying everything from a souvenir for the casual tourist to more elaborate installations for the likes of Mario Andretti, Neiman Marcus stores, Debra Winger, Arnold Palmer and Keith Richards.
   The tile designs being used now are the same ones Mercer and his staff created. The back of each tile is stamped "MOR," the current year, and "Bucks County." This is to ensure that contemporary products are differentiated from the original Mercer-made tiles.

"Ximena


Ximena Munoz turns out stamped-molded tiles.

Photo by Faith Bahadurian

   On a recent tour, Charles Yeske, manager of Historical Properties for Bucks County, told me that a homeowner can come in and pick from hundreds of designs, including basic trim pieces for corners and borders. The Moravian Pottery & Tile Works staff will work with you, or with your architect or contractor, on formulating a design, and help formulate the measuring and spacing. The sales desk in the retail shop has a binder full of photographs of various installations in homes, from which you can draw inspiration, including the expected kitchen backsplashes and other affordable installations.
   Others are more elaborate. One outdoor installation is an alluring turquoise mosaic curved counter, from which the host can serve up drinks or meals at poolside. Another is an ornately tiled fireplace and surrounding wall, in a modern-day western "hunting lodge" for a client who chooses to remain nameless.
   There are also tiles on the walls throughout the public rooms of the Tile Works, as Mercer essentially built his displays into the structure itself.
   Christine Hoenstine, assistant head ceramist, took me through the production facility (not all of it is open to the public). She first pointed out the pile of clay, which looked like a big pile of weedy dirt, out the back door. The rustic clay body is Pennsylvania red clay from Lake Towhee, in northern Bucks County. Each year, a pile of clay is deposited out back to weather and age.

"Henry


Henry Mercer retained an English potter, John Briddes, to build him kilns based on an English bottle kiln. This one dates from around 1911 and is no longer in use.

Photo by Faith Bahadurian

   During the warm months, batches of clay are brought inside, mixed with water, then screened to take out large impurities. It’s cut into blocks, and stored in plastic bags in the very cool dungeon-like cellar, called the "clay pit." As it rests in its moist environment, the clay body develops plasticity and is used throughout the rest of the year. Even the arched ceiling of the cellar sports a tiled epigram: "Keep me damp by the light of the lamp."
   Two kinds of tiles are made. Mercer’s original brocade, or high-relief tiles are made in a press mold, in which the design is incised into a plaster mold. The mold is set on the worktable; clay is pressed into the mold’s design, tamped in, then the extra clay is sliced off the top. This surface will be the back of the press-molded tile.
   Stamp-molded tiles, which Mercer developed after the brocade tiles, are lower relief. For these, the clay is rolled to about ¼-inch thickness by a weighted slab roller. Then the clay "sheet" is cut into squares a little larger than the desired tile size, and set on the worktable. A large hand-operated press presses down the stamp mold into the clay. Excess clay around the edges is cut off.
   Both kinds of molds are made of plaster, which sucks the moisture from the clay so it can be removed intact in five or 10 minutes. (This writer, who has happily dabbled in ceramics, can attest to the intense labor involved in all of this!)
   As she skillfully turns out stamp-molded tiles, summer apprentice Ximena Munoz tells me both kinds of tiles are air-dried for about two weeks before being glazed and fired.
   Ms. Hoenstine and I head into the glazing area, where the techniques vary according to the desired end result, and even include smoked firings in crushed coal and wood shavings to produce a more rustic matte finish. In addition to the many colored glazes mixed on site, the Tile Works also uses a clear glaze called "Briddes clear," after John Briddes who helped Mercer build some of the first successful kilns.
   With two firings, first to 1,801 degrees Fahrenheit, then to 1,944 degrees Fahrenheit, these are sturdy tiles.

"Colorful


Colorful tile pieces are available for sale in the gift shop. They include pieces created in original Mercer molds.

Photo by Faith Bahadurian

   Even sturdier are quarry tiles, which are fired to 2,098 degrees Fahrenheit. This more refined white clay body, which the Tile Works purchases from an outside supplier, is used for flooring, and is colored with various additives.
   We view an impressive, intricately fitted mosaic work in progress, a private commission of Washington crossing the Delaware, based on Mercer’s original installation (commissioned in 1903) in the State Capital Building in Harrisburg. The Harrisburg project, at 16,000 square feet, was Mercer’s largest, and its approximately 400 scenes, all in irregularly shaped mosaics, are based on Pennsylvania history.
   The gift shop offers a wealth of ideas, everything from petite 1-inch tiles (from $3 each), to more "standard" 3- and 4-inch designs (mostly $10-$15). The subject matter is infinitely variable, reflecting the broad interests of Henry Mercer.
   There are also much larger pieces, which can run into the hundreds of dollars, including a particularly lovely arched tile of a songbird perched on a branch. It holds a motto, "Silva Vocat" — voice from the forest or woods. In the wide range of designs at the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, today’s homeowner is provided with a visual choir of artistic voices from the past.
   Moravian Pottery & Tile Works is located on Fonthill and Moravian Pottery Court streets and 130 Swamp Road, off Route 313, which runs north/south of Doylestown.
   The Moravian Pottery & Tile Works Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and closed on major holidays. There is a small fee for tours.
   Got the urge to create? Moravian Pottery & Tile Works offers
fall classes. For more information, call (215) 345-6722 or visit communities.phillyburbs.com/home/moraviantileworks.
Faith Bahadurian is a free-lance writer and frequent contributor to The Packet Magazine and The Princeton Packet. She is well versed on the subjects of gourmet cuisine, arts and more.