Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Mercer Tiles

Many of you have probably heard of Fonthill and the Mercer Museum outside of Philadelphia -the eccentric concrete buildings by Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930). One of the things he was best known for was his tile work.
One of his many interests was pottery and after leaving his position as the curator of archeology at the University of Pennsylvania (where he earned a law degree) he began to study German pottery. Mercer eventually started the Moravian Pottery and Tile works (seen below, which is still in production) in 1898 which became hugely popular -especially for his arts and crafts movement tiles. The tiles are in prominent buildings all around the world -but the largest collection of them is at the Pennsylvania state Capitol building in Harrisburg ( even the Casino in Monte Carlo has Mercer tiles!)Here you can see a large selection of tiles adorning a fireplace in the Mercer Museum. I think you can see the strong similarity between these unique tiles and the German stove plates which he collected. There are a large number of these (seen below) still in the Mercer collection.
Below is the Mercer Museum ( too beautiful to not post!).
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7 comments:

  1. pve designJanuary 7, 2009 at 4:45 AM

    mercy, mercy me - tiles make me weak.
    I have seen those in Monte Carlo. Fabulous!
    Again, you have an obsession, an ordered and wonderful one. love every post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Renée FinbergJanuary 7, 2009 at 8:08 AM

    thank you, nothing like a bit of knowledge in the morning for me to get going.
    you are the best . i love this.

    i wish i could incorporate some of these tiles in my home.

    xx

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  3. Tess KincaidJanuary 7, 2009 at 8:26 AM

    Oh. Wow. My daughter lives in Philly and I am definitely putting this on the very top of my "must see" list for my next visit! Thank you for this wonderful post.

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  4. AthenaeusJanuary 7, 2009 at 9:46 AM

    Looks like it's definitely worth a visit on my next trip. Thanks for the informative post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ceramic wall tilesJune 11, 2009 at 11:25 AM

    That is a beautiful fireplace.

    I love history.

    Claire

    x

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousDecember 10, 2009 at 4:22 PM

    Bravo, the excellent answer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousDecember 31, 2009 at 2:05 AM

    The matchless message, very much is pleasant to me :)

    ReplyDelete

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