Date: Fri 30-Oct-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Mercer

Full Text:

Machinery Can't Make Art: Pottery And Tiles Of Henry Chapman Mercer

By Karla Klein Albertson

DOYLESTOWN, PENN. -- "Machinery Can't Make Art: The Pottery and Tiles of Henry

Chapman Mercer," at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, pays

tribute to the ceramic genius of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930), whose

decorative tiles adorn that state's Capitol in Harrisburg and thousands of

other public and private structures throughout the United States.

Although best remembered for these tiles, Mercer was a Victorian Renaissance

man who began his adult life as an archaeologist and collector. After

graduating from Harvard in 1879, the Doylestown native studied law at the

University of Pennsylvania, but this traditional gentleman's career was

abandoned as he gave full rein to an abiding interest in history. Extensive

travels in Europe and Egypt during the 1880s began to build Mercer's storage

bank of romantic and curious images, which provided the inspiration for his

subsequent pursuits.

After being named curator of prehistoric and American archaeology at the

University of Pennsylvania in 1894, Mercer led an important expedition to the

hill caves of the Yucatan Peninsula. A major turning point in his life came

several years later when the curator's attention turned from Paleolithic finds

to the tools and technology of pre-industrial America -- hat we now call

antiques. By 1897, he gathered together a collection of salvaged artifacts for

a display at the Bucks County Historical Society titled "Tools for the Nation

Maker."

A statement Mercer made in connection with this exhibition sheds light on the

early history of collecting, when gathering Americana was a fresh concept:

"When I came to hunt out the tongs from the midst of a disordered pile of old

wagons, gumtree salt boxes, flax breaks, straw beehives, tin dinner horns,

rope machines and spinning wheels, things that I had heard of but never

collectively seen before, the idea occurred to me that the history of

Pennsylvania was here profusely illustrated and from a new point of view. I

was seized with a new enthusiasm and hurried over the county, rummaging the

bake ovens, wagon houses, cellars, hay-lofts, smoke-houses, garrets and

chimney corners on this side of the Delaware Valley."

"He was a major archaeologist in his day, and some of his digs are still

important," comments exhibition curator Vance Koehler about this period in

Mercer's life. "He also contributed much to the science of museology through

his systematic acquisition and categorization of objects. His work directly

inspired other collectors, including Henry Ford, who used to come to

Doylestown to buy from local dealers."

Noting that there had never been an exhibition devoted to Mercer, Koehler

wanted to share his research findings on the multi-faceted potter: "I wanted

to show the sources of his inspiration, the types of things Mercer was looking

at, and explain why a man of 42 decided to change his career mid-stream and

become a tile maker." The show he has mounted at the Michener Museum includes

more than 200 tiles, drawings, and historic photographs.

An attempt he made in the late 1890s to revive the traditional

Pennsylvania-German redware industry was ultimately not successful, but his

interest in ceramics had been aroused and eventually he established his own

pottery in Doylestown, converting his archaeological workshop, Indian House,

into a studio.

Like many people involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement, Mercer ardently

believed that creations of artisans were far superior to the machine-made

products that ruled the day. The title for the Michener's exhibition is drawn

from a statement he made later, "Machinery can't make art. It can make

automobiles and radios and telephones, but it can't create art. Art needs the

touch of a human hand, its failing as well as its skill."

Utilizing local clay, Mercer began to make art tiles impressed with cameo or

intaglio designs, quite unlike the commercial tile patterns of the day. His

bold plastic, often high-relief designs drew on a variety of sources he had

come across in his travels, from medieval pottery to New World archaeology.

Many of the first designs put into production were borrowed directly from the

low relief designs which decorated Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania cast iron

stove plates that he had unearthed for his "Tools of the Nation Maker"

project. His 1914 study of these plates, The Bible in Iron, remains the

standard reference on the subject.

"His work was unique, different from anyone else's at the time, although

others -- Batchelder in California, for example -- certainly followed and were

inspired by him," explains Koehler, who in addition to putting together the

current show is also the permanent curator at Mercer's Moravian Pottery and

Tile Works.

He continues, "I don't really think of him as eccentric. If he had lived in

New York or even Philadelphia, he probably wouldn't even be considered

eccentric. We've had a big debate about this lately, and I always have to

defend him because he had a unique vision of what he wanted made. Mercer

always thought of himself as very sensible. Everything was thought-out for

him. Nothing was really unstudied."

As the show illustrates, Mercer reached a kind of creative maturity in the

decade 1907-1917, during which the potter produced more original designs with

a definite personal style, still inspired by, but not slavishly copying,

historical prototypes. This was also the period during which Mercer

constructed his three signature buildings in Doylestown: his castle-like home,

Fonthill; the new factory for the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, and what is

now called the Mercer Museum, which he donated to the Bucks County Historical

Society.

Mercer's tile business flourished, aided by four sales catalogues illustrated

with his numerous designs for large and small installations, and production

continued until the artist's death in 1930. As Koehler explains, "Selling

tiles for floors and interior decor was big business, and there were tile

agents or dealers across the country in almost every major city. They would

buy samples from the tile works and display them in their showroom."

He continues, "Mercer got very good press. He was mentioned in the major

magazines of the day, but he didn't really advertise and promote himself. That

was mostly done through architects like Ward Wellington Ward. It only took one

architect in Seattle or Portland to place tiles in several dozen sites, where

many other people would see them."

Although Mercer tiles are difficult to salvage from disassembled houses

because they are often softer than the mortar that surrounds them, collectors

can find individual examples at shows and auctions. Most of these antiques

were probably agents' samples or souvenirs purchased by visitors to the

factory during its productive years.

Prices are often under $100. Flea market finds are in the $10 to $25 range,

far less than the $500 to $700 paid for contemporary Grueby or Rookwood art

tiles. The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works revived production of a small

selection of Mercer's original designs in 1974, and these may be purchased at

the site in Doylestown.

A mid-October symposium, "Tiles: A Living History," which took place at

various locations around the Philadelphia area. The event -- which presented

lectures, tours, workshops, and exhibitions -- was coordinated by the Tile

Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box 1850, Healdsburg, Calif. 95448, telephone

707/431-8453. The non-profit California organization is dedicated to the

preservation of antique tile surfaces and the promotion of fresh work by

modern artisans. To find out more about their library and research facility,

call or visit them on the web at www.aimnet.com/~tcolson/webtiles.

The four-month run of "Machinery Can't Make Art" is accompanied by a string of

educational events at the Michener Museum. Cory Amsler of the Bucks County

Historical Society discusses Mercer as collector on November 5 at 2 pm, and

Vance Koehler will give afternoon gallery talks on November 15 and January 12,

both at 2 pm. The museum is also offering a lecture series, "The Art and Craft

of American Tiles," on four Tuesday evenings, 7:30-9 pm, beginning November 3.

Series fee $45 for non-members; advance registration required.

While in Doylestown for the exhibition, take time for a pilgrimage to the

three remarkable buildings Mercer built with and for his tile work: Fonthill,

his castlelike home (215/348-9461); the Mercer Museum, which houses many of

the artifacts he collected (215/345-0210); and the Moravian Pottery and Tile

Works (215/345-6722).

"Machinery Can't Make Art: The Pottery and Tiles of Henry Chapman Mercer"

continues through January 17, 1999. The James A. Michener Art Museum, at 138

South Pine Street, is open Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 4:30 pm, and Saturday &

Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Telephone 215/340-9800.

SIDEBAR ONE

SLUG: BEST BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT

Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works by Cleota Reed

(University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987) is available during the show for

$36.50 at the Mercer Museum store, telephone 215/340-9800. This definitive

volume traces Mercer's transformation from archaeologist to tile maker and

includes extensive information on his design sources. Mercer's tiles are also

included in a new comprehensive publication, American Art Tile, 1876-1941 by

Norman Karlson (Rizzoli, 1998) available through bookstores.

SIDEBAR TWO

CLEOTA REED: TRACING THE DISTRIBUTION OF MERCER TILE

Although such idealistic art pottery might be thought to have limited appeal,

Mercer's tiles, in fact, became enormously popular around the country during

the early decades of the Twentieth Century. Mercer published catalogues of his

numerous designs and entered artistic competitions, but his success with

American architects was ultimately responsible for the wide distribution of

his products.

Cleota Reed, author of Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile

Works, first became interested in the Pennsylvania artist's work when she

bought an historic house in Syracuse, N.Y.

"I had been a potter for 25 years, and I moved into a house designed by the

architect Ward Wellington Ward. It had a Mercer fireplace. I discovered Ward

first, and then looking at his houses in Syracuse, I discovered more tiles.

When I came down to Doylestown, I became hooked. I gave up being a potter and

became an art historian," Reed says.

During her research, Reed found mention of 20 more Ward houses in the

pottery's correspondence. She eventually completed a master's thesis on the

architect's frequent use of Mercer tiles in his projects. As she continued

reading through the paper at the Spruance Library of the Bucks County

Historical Society, the historian found reference to orders from other

American architects including Ralph Adams Cram, Julia Morgan, Irving Gill,

Cass Gilbert, Wilson Eyre, Will Price, and Albert Kahn.

In a recent article, Reed wrote, "Henry Chapman Mercer installed his Moravian

tiles profusely in his own buildings, in Doylestown, Penn., leaving hardly a

surface untiled in his home or an exterior wall undecorated on his Tile Works.

It is easy to think that these buildings contain specimens of nearly every

tile, mosaic and brocade [elaborate deep relief tiles press molded rather than

stamped] he designed, but this is not the case. As the motto he borrowed from

Columbus, Plus Ultra (More Beyond) implies, his tiles, many unseen in

Doylestown, are installed in almost every state of the Union."

In addition to private homes, Mercer produced tiles for many public and

commercial structures, such as the Jacob Reed's clothing store in

Philadelphia. The Dutch Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

was paved with Mercer tiles in 1901. A major civic commission was the creation

of decorative tile pavements designed for the Pennsylvania State Capitol

building constructed at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

The most elaborate installations were conceived as multiple units which could

be assembled into mural-like walls or floor displays.