Bits and Pieces: Two "E"s--Eltinge and Elks, and more about Jean Nison

NISON TILE MURAL NEEDS A NEW HOME

(Photo courtesy of the American Craft Council Library)

Before discussing the Eltinge Theatre and The Lambertville (NJ) Elks Club, I have some news about Jean Nison's "Double Dragon" mural, which I wrote about last month (http://tilesinnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-ceramic-tiles-and-murals-of-jean.html). I was just told that the Tichenor residence in Long Beach, California has been repaired after a 2011 fire damaged the house and this mural, and the owners can no longer install the mural in the house. The salvaged 7' x 7' mural and about 300 field tiles with gold mixed with the glaze were given to Brian Kaiser to restore, and he has almost completed this. However, Brian lives in an historic house that contains many tile installations by Rufus Keeler, and the mural is too large for the house, and is not of the correct period.

The partially restored double dragon mural. (Photo courtesy of Brian Kaiser)

Thus, Brian needs to find a new home for this mural, and he's willing to discuss this with any interested parties. Brian can be reached at brian.kaiser'at'ymail.com.

Wall mural (left) created by Jean Nison for the Plant-Lover's Bathroom in the “Arts of Daily Living Exhibition” in Pomona, California in 1954. (Scanned from "The Bathroom–Our Refuge from Stress", House Beautiful, Vol. 97, No. 3, March 1955, p. 115. The October 1954 House Beautifulmagazine contains an article about the other rooms in this exhibition.)

Also, after the Nison article was posted, I received a call from one of Jean Nison's relatives who told me that the "Plant Lover's Bathroom" mural from the Pomona, California "Arts of Daily Living" exhibit in 1954 still exists! This tile mural has been stored in boxes in the relative's garage for many years because it was too large to be installed in her house.

The Theater That Moved: the Eltinge Threatre

In 1998 a theater was moved on tracks down 42nd Street toward Eighth Avenue. It was moved because the developer, Bruce Ratner, notorious for his handling of the new Brooklyn arena fiasco, decided it would not cost any more to move the theater as demolish it. At least something historical was preserved!

(The New York Times, March 3, 1998, p. 1)

“On Sunday, March 2, 1998, the Empire, an elegant Beaux Arts Style Broadway theater built in 1912 and weighing 7.4 million lbs., was floated on tracks up 42 St. near Seventh Ave. to a new location close to Eighth Ave. Few among those witnessing this strange migration realized that the theater was originally named The Eltinge Theatre in honor of Julian Eltinge [b. William J. Dalton, 1881, d. 1941], perhaps the greatest female impersonator of the American Stage. The theater has been remodeled as the AMC MoviePlex. On the original lobby ceiling a fresco of the Three Muses, all portraits of Julian Eltinge as a woman can still be seen[, though faded].” (http://www.thejulianeltingeproject.com/project.html)

“Because the Empire contained only 759 seats, which were spread over two balconies and an orchestra, the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project did not recommend that the Empire be saved. Only the facade would be incorporated into the plan. ...the Empire was destined to serve as the lobby of the AMC movie complex with the central elevators rising through the proscenium to the backstage area. In order to save the facade and gutted interior, the theater was put on rollers and moved two hundred feet down 42nd Street. The theater’s proscenium and mural were saved in part. Truely a desecration of art.”  (Ken Bloom, The Routledge Guide To Broadway, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, NY, 2007, p.67)

“On the ceiling of the lobby...is a mural of surprising artistry for a movie house. It depicts three muses in cascading gowns dancing about in a vaguely Greek setting. Hardly cinematic. More theatrical, and so it is. The mural was originally painted to sit above the proscenium of the Eltinge Theatre. ...If the women in the mural looks a bit odd to you, you've got a sharp eye. It's believed that all three are meant to depict the namesake of the Eltinge Theatre—Julian Eltinge, one of the greatest female impersonators of the 20th Century... ." (http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/2008/02/crossdresser-on-ceiling.html; Color photos courtesy of Michael Padwee unless otherwise noted)

“Most of the patrons walking into the Empire [...Theater on 42nd Street] have no idea of its history. In the lobby, they are actually standing inside the shell of the Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre, which opened Sept. 11, 1912... . Renowned theater architect Thomas Lamb designed the Beaux Arts-style hall, [some of] whose features are still visible, including its ornate ceiling mural.

The steel and glass Multiplex tower rises from the interior of the original terra cotta building.

“By the Great Depression, though, the Eltinge had fallen on hard times and become a burlesque house. In 1937, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia used the city's obscenity laws to shut it down, and it became part of the Laffmovie theater. Renamed the Empire in the 1950s, the theater eventually had to rely on showing grindhouse and porn flicks -- staples of a deteriorating Times Square. 

“It closed in the mid-'80s, but later the revitalization of the area and success of the first multiplex in Manhattan gave AMC an idea. The circuit bought the Empire, moved it 200 feet west -- an impressive bit of engineering, given that it meant moving a 7.4 million-pound structure -- then built the multiplex around it, including a soaring glass-curtain wall that rises five levels above the original facade. The revamped multiplex opened for business a decade ago, in April 2001, and became the [‘center of the movie universe’] within a few years.” (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/first-peek-ever-inside-americas-181121) 

“The Eltinge 42nd Street was built by the producer manager Al Woods and named after his very successful client the female impersonator Julian Eltinge. 

The original terra cotta facade of the Eltinge Theatre as designed by Thomas Lamb. (National Terra Cotta Society, Architectural Terra Cotta Brochure Series, Volume Two, The Theatre, 1915, p. 12)

"Thomas Lamb designed a theatre with an individual exterior focused on a large paned window bordered by a carved-stone arch. The facade framing the arch was light colored and trimmed in multi-colored terracotta. The interior seating 880 had both Greek and Egyptian motifs with eight boxes and two balconies.”  (http://www.theaterprint.com/History-of-the-Theatres_ep_41.html#e)

“[Thomas] Lamb [1871-1942] achieved recognition as one of the leading architects of the boom in movie theater construction of the 1910s and 1920s. Particularly associated with the Fox Theatres, Loew's Theatres and Keith-Albee chains of vaudeville and film theaters, Lamb was instrumental in establishing and developing the design and construction of the large, lavishly decorated theaters, known as "movie palaces", as showcases for the films of the emerging Hollywood studios. His first theater design was the City Theatre, built in New York in 1909 for film mogul William Fox. His designs for the 1914 Mark Strand Theatre, the 1916 Rialto Theatre and the 1917 Rivoli Theatre, all in New York's Times Square, set the template for what would become the American movie palace. ...Aside from movie theaters, Lamb is noted for designing (with Joseph Urban) New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, a legitimate theater, as well as the third Madison Square Garden (1925) and the Paramount Hotel in midtown Manhattan…[in addition to the Eltinge Theatre.]” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_W._Lamb) “Mr. Lamb...was the architect for several apartment hotels [in the city], for the ‘rooftop auto parking station’ at Fifty-third Street and Seventh Avenue, for the parking lot on the site of the old Hippodrome and for the bus terminal, restaurant and store building which extends from 237-247 West Fiftieth Street to West Fifty-first Street. Mr. Lamb won honorable mention in 1932 in a world-wide competition for designs for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow.” (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0C14FD3F5D167B93C5AB1789D85F468485F9)

(From Wikipedia. Public domain photo)

“In the 1910s and 1920s, Julian Eltinge was one of the biggest stars of the day, the toast of the Broadway Stage and the Vaudeville Circuit, and an enormously popular and wealthy star of Silent Film. With music composed by Jerome Kern and other leading composers of the day, and lyrics often written by Eltinge himself, his theatrical farces were phenomenal critical and financial successes.” (http://www.thejulianeltingeproject.com/project.html) Eltinge moved to Los Angeles to be closer to the movie studios.

View from the garden. (Elmer Grey, “The Residence of Julian Eltinge, Esq. Los Angeles, California”, The Architectural Record, Vol. XLIX, No. II, February, 1921, p. 98)

Eltinge built a Spanish-style house in Los Angeles with some of the money he earned from his success on the theater stage. The Eltinge residence was designed by the architects Pierpont and Walter S. Davis. Although only ten minutes from downtown Los Angeles, the house is secluded and almost unapproachable by automobile. But, by “a fortunate arrangement of topography…[the view comprises] a beautiful inland lake, rolling hills beyond it with...little villas tucked away amongst them, and beyond those a range of mountains… .” (Elmer Grey, “The Residence of Julian Eltinge, Esq. Los Angeles, California”, The Architectural Record, Vol. XLIX, No. II, February, 1921, p. 100)

(Elmer Grey, p. 103)

Tiled fountain in the garden. (The Architectural Digest Southern California Edition, 1922, p. 30)

“F. Pierpont Davis (1884-1953) and Walter S. Davis (1887-1973)...were the sons of a Baltimore architect, Henry Davis.  F. Pierpont Davis studied with his father and came to Los Angeles to practice architecture in 1905. Walter S. Davis studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated in 1911. He received an MIT traveling fellowship and spent the year 1911-1912 traveling in Spain, France and Italy. At the end of his fellowship he came to Los Angeles to join his brother. They established a joint practice in 1915. Inspired by the Garden City concept, Walter S. Davis, along with his brother Henry, a landscape architect, H. Scott Gerity, and Loyale F. Wilson, wrote California Garden City Houses. The 1915 book articulated architectural concepts that would appear later in the work of the Davis brothers. The book contained plans to bungalow court housing, houses built around patios and called for the development of a new California architectural style based on the architecture of the Mediterranean world...”, [a style seen in Julian Eltinge’s residence]. 

(United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Inventory—Nomination Form, El Greco Apartment, pp. 11-12)

By 2007 Eltinge’s secluded “Villa Capistrano” at 2328 Baxter Street was only one of many houses on what used to be his property in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, according to Wikimapia.org.

B.P.O.E., The Elks Building in 

Lambertville, New Jersey

A few months ago I stopped in Lambertville, New Jersey on the way home from Fonthill and the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Years ago Suzanne Perrault of the Rago Arts and Auction Center in Lambertville told me that the former Elks building had art tiles on its interior walls. It did!

The Elks Building at 6 Bridge Street in 2013. (Color photos courtesy of Michael Padwee unless otherwise noted)

“The first settlement of the area that is now the City of Lambertville occurred in 1724. The area was no more than a tiny collection of farm houses throughout the 18th century. In the early 19th century, however, Lambertville's site on the Old York Road-the main road between Philadelphia and New York City-gave impetus to further development. In 1812 a bridge was built across the Delaware River and a stone tavern and inn (now greatly enlarged and known as the Lambertville House) was built. The opening of the D[elaware] & R[aritan] Canal in 1834 and of the railroad in 1851 started an industrial boom in Lambertville which included two paper mills, a rubber mill, a wheel and spoke factory, a ceramics factory, machine shops, a brewery, and several saw and flour mills. Also of great importance were the railroad shops where locomotives, freight cars and passenger cars were built.  This prosperity is amply reflected today in the architecture of Lambertville, which boasts one of the country's premier collections of Victorian architecture. Nearly the entire city, comprised of about 1800 structures, is on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.” (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Master Plan, Second Edition, May, 1989, p. 72)

"The historic [business] district reflects the commercial nature of the downtown in the nineteenth century. A large portion of the building stock is either residential or industrial. ...Water power from the Delaware River and smaller creeks made the area a good location for mills. The majority of mills in Lambertville were sawmills, but there was also a large flour and flax mill… .” (Sarah K. Montgomery, New Hope, Pennsylvania and Lambertville, New Jersey: Two Approaches to Cultural Tourism, A Thesis in Historic Preservation Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Historic Preservation, 2004, p. 71

“In 1843, one of the most successful mill operations was constructed at the site of the former River’s Edge restaurant, now the Lambert Lane Townhouses. William Hall constructed this flour and flax mill… . It was later expanded and changed hands several times before it burned down in 1939.” (Lambertville City Planning Board, Historic Preservation Master Plan Element, 2001, p. 6)

(Lambertville City Planning Board, Historic Preservation Master Plan Element, 2001, p. 18)

“The building at 6 Bridge Street was constructed in 1830 by Jacob Chamberlin for William Hall who owned the saw and flax mill on Lambert Lane; there is no record of the architect.  In 1892 it was sold and operated as a saloon and hotel and later purchased by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks for use as a lodge.  The Elks Lodge [No.] 1070 has since relocated to a building on Wilson Street in Lambertville.” (Email from Fred Eisinger, James Marshall House Museum, Lambertville Historical Society to Michael Padwee dated 7/16/13, titled “ Re: B.P.O.E. building on Bridge Street”)

The entrance to the Elks Building on Bridge Street.

The Providential Tile Works*

This has been identified as possibly the Providential Tile Works in the 1890s. (http://glover320.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-date-no-identification.html; One comment about this photo states, "This photo is in the pottery display at the Trenton City Museum in Ellarslie Mansion on the second floor. The description says 'The Providential Tile Works c. 1880'", and identifies the photo as coming from the Trenton Free Public Library, Trentoniana collection. Mr. Glover sent me a better copy of the photo which is marked "ca. 1898".)

The Providential Tile Works was located on Enterprise Avenue near Cherry Street in East Trenton, New Jersey.  Providential was founded in c.1885 by Joseph Kirkham, James Robinson and Louis Whitehead.  They remained partners until 1891 when Kirkham was bought out by the other two. (Sigafoose, Dick, American Art Pottery, Collector Books, Paducah, KY, 1998, p. 163) Then, about 1900 Whitehead bought out Robinson and took over the business. (“Jas. H. Robinson Dies of Peritonitis”, Trenton Evening Times, September 24, 1909, p. 11)  In 1912 Whitehead died, and his wife, who had been the renowned concert singer, Emma Thurston, decided to run the company.   Providential lasted only about a year more and then passed into receivership in 1913. (Sigafoose, p. 163 At this time everything in the plant was sold, including tiles and molds. (Trenton Evening Times, June 5, 1913, p. 7, column 8) 

According to his obituary, Mr. Robinson was responsible for starting a decorating department at the Providential plant.  In about 1885 Isaac Broome, the master designer at the Trent Tile Company, came to work at the Providential Tile Works. (“Trenton Foremost In Pottery Ranks Says Isaac Broom”, Trenton Times, February 11, 1905, p. 1) It is thought that Broome could have brought some of his tile molds, as well as his artistic skills, with him.  In about 1890 Thomas Scott Callowhill replaced Broome as an artist and modeler at Providential.  Callowhill “was an Englishman who had gained considerable experience working at the Royal Worcester, Doulton, and Lambeth Potteries in England.  Callowhill’s two sons, Hubert and Ronald, were also hired as decorators... .” (Norman Karlson, American Art Tile, 1876-1941, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York, NY, 1997, p. 44) In 1899 Providential hired another well-known ceramicist, Fred Wilde, to manage its plant.  (Trenton Times, October 25, 1899, p. 1)  Wilde had a varied career in art tile works in New York and New Jersey as a talented ceramicist, but he did not stay long at Providential.

The art tiles manufactured by Providential “were glazed tiles, plain and in relief.  Early on, some relief tiles had the raised designs painted different colors, or tints, with some good results.  Underglaze decoration was also produced for a while, but both styles were abandoned as being unsuitable for the American market.  Tiles were made for mantels, hearths, and wall decoration, in relief and intaglio.  From 1900 to 1910, beautiful relief designs, in white glaze decorated in gold, were very popular.” (Sigafoose, p. 163) “The Company never grew to be a very large one, as it confined itself to high-class ware... .  They did not make floor tile, and their greatest output was probably around 500,000 square feet.” (Everett Townshend, “Development of the Tile Industry in the United States” in the American Ceramic Society,  Ceramic Abstracts and The Bulletin, Vol. 22, No. 5, May 15, 1943, p. 133)

*(Adapted from my article, “The Providential Tile Works” in Trenton Potteries, The Newsletter of the Potteries of Trenton Society, Vol. 5, Issue 3, September 2004, pp.1+)

The markings and key patterns on the backs of two 6” Providential tiles. The first is a distinctive Providential raised grid pattern. The 4"x6" detached tiles on the Elks building walls have key patterns with three recessed "bars", similar to the three center "bars" in the second illustration.

The B.P.O.E. Building on Bridge Street has been repurposed into an antiques store for many years. Since the building was sold in 1892 and operated as a saloon and hotel before the Elks bought it, and Providential was operating from 1886 to 1913, the tiles in the entryway were probably installed in that period. Although I have come across a few other buildings with Providential tiles in the entryways, none had installations of pictorial art tiles, nor were they as extensively tiled. Although a tiled entryway to a building might not be a spectacular historic installation, it is the only existing art tile installation made by Providential that I have found.

Three 6” x 18” art tile panels. 18th century musicians.

The entryway is tiled up to the ceiling on both sides of the doors.

The floor is tiled with faux-mosaic patterned tiles. Herman Mueller patented this process in about 1896. The Mosaic Tile Company and the American Encaustic Tiling Company, both of Zanesville, Ohio, made this type of tile.

*****

I would like to thank Suzanne Perrault for suggesting I take a look at the tiles in the B.P.O.E. building in Lambertville.

*****

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT POTTERY AND GLASS SITES

Eve Kahn, the New York Times "Antiques" columnist, has written an article about glass and pottery sites where shards have been collected, "Fragments of History That Fit in a Pocket". Susan and I took her to some sites in Brooklyn--the International Tile Company (1883-91), the Volkmar Pottery (1895), the Faience Manufacturing Company, and others--but alack and alas, there were no shards to be found. Ms. Kahn's article is well worth reading and was published on August 1. The article mentions both of us and this blog. Just search the New York Times website for "Eve Kahn" or the title of the article, or click on : http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/arts/design/collectors-find-historical-value-in-broken-glass.html?ref=design. Ms. Kahn's "Antiques" columns are also excellent and can be found in the Times' "Art and Design" section on Fridays.

Isaac Broome: Innovation and Design in the Tile Industry after the Centennial Exhibition

The following is an expanded version of a paper and slide presentation given at the Potteries of Trenton Society Symposium at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, New Jersey on April 5, 2014.

Isaac Broome: Innovation and Design in the Tile Industry after the Centennial Exhibition

Isaac Broome was one of the premier pottery and tile designers and innovators of the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century. The images above are of one of Broome’s patent designs--a machine that glazes tiles automatically--and one of his tiles, "Parthenia". These illustrate two major strands in the development of the American tile industry: mechanization and the stylistic development of American art tiles. In order to understand Broome’s place in the tile industry, it is necessary to review the development of that industry itself.

A Hyzer & Llewellyn painted tile. (Philadelphia Museum of Art collection)

Prior to the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 there were only a few American attempts to produce decorative tiles. Hyzer and Lewellen in Philadelphia, the Charles Cartlidge Company and the Union Porcelain Works, both in Brooklyn, were three of them. (http://tilesinnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/08/nineteenth-century-brooklyn-potteries.html)

A Hyzer & Llewellyn encaustic tile. (Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection)

“Previous to 1872,...Hyzer & Lewellen...were experimenting [with] floor tiles. Their first efforts were directed to the manufacture of encaustic tiles of geometric shapes, - square, diamond and triangular, - with natural and artificially colored American clays, mainly buff, red and black, the designs being inlaid to the depth of about a quarter of an inch. While these attempts proved partially successful, the wet-clay method employed at that time was unsatisfactory, because the shrinkage was found to be irregular and the pieces came from the kiln [in] different thickness[es]. The next experiments were made by the damp-dust process, which has been employed ever since.” (Edwin Atlee Barber, The Pottery and Porcelain of the United States, Second Edition, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1901, pp. 344-345)

In Greenpoint, Brooklyn Charles Cartlidge & Company made decorated encaustic floor tiles, “...about six inches square...made by inlaying clays of different colors in geometrical designs--red with black scroll-work; a cane-colored device in a red ground; red and white, and a combination of blue and white, in imitation of marble, much used at that time as a flooring for halls.” (Edwin Atlee Barber, “Historical Sketch of the Green Point (N. Y.) Porcelain Works of Charles Cartlidge & Co.”, reprinted from The Clay-Worker, Indianapolis, IN, 1895, p. 18) However, we have no pictorial record of these.

Tiles made by the Union Porcelain Works in the Thomas Smith residence, 136 Milton Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The house was built in 1866. (Photo courtesy of Friends of Terra Cotta)

Pictorial tiles made by the Union Porcelain Works, however, still exist. A few years ago Susan Tunick, the founder of Friends of Terra Cotta and the author of Terra Cotta Skyline, showed me some photos of a tiled fireplace in a house at 136 Milton Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (built in 1866-67), which was once the residence of Thomas Smith, the owner of the Union Porcelain Works. Only the fireplace remains of the original interior decoration: the cameo tile plaques on the sides of the fireplace and the blue and white 2"x2" and 4"x4" tiles have been identified as made by the Union Porcelain Works,

Tile plaque made by the Union Porcelain Works.

as have the stair risers on “Keramos Hall”, built in 1887 by Thomas Smith, on the corner of Milton Street and Manhattan Avenue.

"The manufacture of hard porcelain tiles [had] become an important branch of the business of [the Union Porcelain Works]. These tiles are made both thick and thin, in underglaze decoration, and are claimed to be the only tiles made in this country which will endure the heat of a hearth fire. They are decorated with figures of griffins and other fancy designs. The overglaze method has also been applied to tiles for mantel facings and wainscoting, and on the walls of the private office of the establishment may be seen a series of large tile panels embellished with paintings representing the ancient ceramic processes of Egypt, as depicted on the pyramids.” (Edwin Atlee Barber, The Pottery and Porcelain of the United States, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1901, pp. 256-257)

But, it wasn’t until the watershed event of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia that the decorative tile industry in the United States became a reality. “In 1876 the fashion for art tiles as decoration for floors, walls, mantels, and furniture was approaching its peak in England, and increasingly urbanized and house-proud Americans were eager to emulate the latest styles. Art tile production in the United States barely existed, but in the manufacturers’ stalls in the Main Building [of the Centennial Exhibition], pottery-makers, builders, and home owners were dazzled by the elaborate displays of British [and other] tile companies… . Tiles abounded at the [Exhibition], and fair-goers were able to see tiles used as decoration for furniture, as fireplace surrounds, and on the interior and exterior walls of buildings.” (Susan Ingham Padwee, “Art Tiles at the Centennial Exhibition”, Tile Heritage, Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall 2002, pp. 19, 25-27)

An exhibit of Japanese Pottery. (From The Illustrated Catalogue to the Centennial Exhibition)

In addition, many stylistic streams were evident at the Centennial Exhibition, and designers, artists and craftspeople were exposed to them all. For instance, “Prior to this exposition, few Americans had any exposure to Japanese art. ...Displays of Japanese ceramics stunned American visitors. The Japanese produced large slabs of porcelain meant to be used as table tops and screens. [They] also produced fan-shaped porcelain tiles and smaller panels.” (Susan Ingham Padwee, “Art Tiles at the Centennial Exhibition”, Tile Heritage, Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall 2002, pp. 19, 25-27)

In 1877 George Ferris wrote that the colors used by Japanese ceramists were especially striking. “In Japan [...the use of color] rises to the dignity of a distinct, independent faculty, sometimes sensuously strong and deep, sometimes extremely delicate and varied… . [The Japanese] appear to have solved the problem of color in a way which the European has never dared to attempt. Their combinations, balancing of masses, fineness of gradation, variety, intensity, boldness, command over chemical secrets, and fertility of device, are such as to astonish the unaccustomed eye. This is particularly noticeable in the painting of their porcelain…[,] their richness and balance of color are...beyond criticism.” (George Titus Ferris, Gems of the Centennial Exhibition, D. Appleton and Company, 1877, p. 80)

Although there were few, if any, American art tiles at the Exhibition, American potteries were manufacturing roof and exterior wall tiles. The NJ State Building is illustrative of some of the best of U.S. tile work at the time. (Illustration from Ingram, The Centennial Exposition Described and Illustrated, in Susan Ingham Padwee, “Art Tiles at the Centennial Exhibition”, Tile Heritage, Vol. 6, No. 2, Fall 2002, p. 27)

According to Barbara Bloemink, the Centennial Exhibition attracted over ten million visitors and “had two overriding goals--to provide Americans with first-hand exposure to the fine and industrial arts of other nations, and to demonstrate the excellence of American products and...ensure America’s place within an international tradition of fine craftsmanship and invention.” (Barbara Bloemink, “Introduction”, The Sphinx and the Lotus: The Egyptian Movement in American Decorative Arts 1865-1935, The Hudson River Museum, Inc., Yonkers, New York, 1990)


“Revivals and exotic influences were key elements of design and were deeply rooted in popular culture” in the nineteenth century. Many revival styles were associated with different concepts and places--neoclassicism with Greek and Roman democracy, Gothic with Northern European churches--and an exotic eclecticism--'a fascination with the romance of the far away'--also played an important part in design, according to Kevin Stayton, the Chief Curator of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. (Kevin Stayton, “Revivalism and The Egyptian Movement”, in The Sphinx and the Lotus: The Egyptian Movement in American Decorative Arts 1865-1935, The Hudson River Museum, Inc., Yonkers, New York, 1990, pp. 6-7)

The exhibits at the Centennial Exhibition reinforced these influences with the American public.

In 1878, prior to the large-scale development of the American tile industry, American writer James Joseph Talbot wrote glowingly of the possibilities of decorating a home with tile. Although he focused on English and Continental tilemakers, the implication was clear: here was something Americans could also do, as well as enjoy. (James Joseph Talbot, “Tiles and Tiling”, The Penn Monthly, Vol. IX, October 1878, pp. 740-758)

Between 1877 and 1890, following the Exhibition, about twenty-five American tile companies were organized. New Jersey companies such as the Raritan Art Tile Works, the Old Bridge Tile Co., Maywood Art Tile Co., and the Trenton companies--Burroughs & Mountford, the Trent Tile Co., and the Providential Tile Works, among others--flourished.  Many of these companies imported and used European--mainly English--skilled labor and technology. Like the British they also produced encaustic, relief and transfer tiles, but some also strove to produce a distinctive “American” tile style according to Susan Ingham Padwee.


Elizabeth Cumming and Wendy Kaplan tell us that American designers saw no contradiction in looking to Britain, Europe and the Orient for sources to create a distinctly American style. Some idealized the pre-industrial past and embraced styles derived from Medieval, oriental, folk and colonial styles. (Elizabeth Cumming and Wendy Kaplan, The Arts and Crafts Movement, Thames and Hudson, London, 1991, pp. 148+)  At the same time, many of these same designers spurred the American tile industry on by inventing or improving machinery and processes that helped create a huge profit-oriented ceramics industry in this country.

Modelers and designers became the “aristocrat-workers” in an heirarchically organized pottery industry. Besides native-born modelers and designers such as William Grueby, Addison B. LeBoutillier, and Henry Chapman Mercer, there were English, French, German, and Canadian immigrant designers helping to build the American tile industry.

A 6” J. & J.G. Low “natural” tile in a wood and metal trivet frame.  (Author's Collection)

The Low Art Tile Works in Chelsea, Massachusetts under the aegis of John G. Low and his father produced new glazes, designs and tile production innovations. Francis D. Millet reported in articles in the Century and Harpers magazines in 1882, that John Low carved and pressed natural objects into the dust-pressed tiles before they were dried and fired.

A high relief J. & J.G. Low tile. (Author’s collection)

According to Millet, though, the main tiles made by Low were relief tiles made either by Richard Prosser’s dust-pressed method or by the wet clay method. Low’s contribution was to invent a method of working designs in high relief. 

A tile press. (Terence A. Lockett, Collecting Victorian Tiles, Antique Collectors' Club, Ltd., Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1979, p.  47)

For the dust-pressed tiles, “The original designs are made in modeler’s clay or wax, reproduced in plaster, and then the dies are made from these in any metal desired, and finished to fit the [tile] press. When the pattern is in prominent relief, like a head, the workman has only to pile up the [clay] dust in the bed [of the press] to correspond roughly with the deepest depression in the die, so as to insure the complete filling of all the parts, and then the tile can be struck with...ease.” (Francis D. Millett, Some American Tiles, Wellington & Burrage, Boston, Mass., 1882, pp. 5-6)

A low-relief J. & J.G. Low tile designed by Tile Club member Elihu Veder to commemorate the 150th performance of the play Esmeralda performed in Madison Square Garden in 1882. (Author’s collection)

This dust-pressed method is geared to a mechanical process where tile manufacture is relatively rapid and inexpensive.

A Low plastic sketch modeled by Arthur Osborne, titled “The Monk”. “This is a beautiful example of this pre-eminent designer’s ceramic work. The tile...is glazed in bright emerald and has characteristic pooling in the elaborately carved recesses.” It’s size is 17 ½” x 7” x1 ½ “ thick. (Photo courtesy of Wells Tiles, Los Angeles, CA; http://wellstile.com/catalog/2011/04/28/j-j-g-low-plastic-sketch-tile-by-a-osborne/)

Another Low innovation was the “plastic sketch”. This type of tile could be made in any size by a wet clay process: “The designs are first made in clay or wax, and a plaster cast is taken, which serves as a mold for the reproduction of any number [of tiles]. ...The stock [clay] is mixed in the same way as [dust-pressed tiles], only it is taken from the drying pan while it is [still] moist enough to be plastic. ...When it is...the proper consistency, the workman beats it out into a thin mass, smoothes the surface, lifts it with both hands, and flaps it over upon the mold. ...He then works it with his thumb into the depressions of the plaster matrix… . The dry plaster soon absorbs the superfluous moisture from the clay, and the tile becomes sufficiently rigid to be lifted from the mold.” (Francis D. Millett, Some American Tiles, Wellington & Burrage, Boston, Mass., 1882, pp. 8-9)

Low plastic sketches in storage at the National Museum of American History, Washington, DC. Arthur Osborne created about 50 different plastic sketches for Low. (Photo courtesy of Michael Padwee)

“Arthur Osborne emigrated from England to America in the 1870′s and worked for the J. and J. G. Low Art Tile Company, where he became the chief designer and modeler of low relief molded tiles which were press molded by hand and identified by the inscribed initials “AO”. ...Osborne departed Low Art Tile in the late 1890s when he returned to England and started producing his prolific line of acclaimed “Ivorex” plaques.” (http://wellstile.com/catalog/2011/04/28/j-j-g-low-plastic-sketch-tile-by-a-osborne/)

American Encaustic Tiling Company, 12” x 18” panel, “Summer”, designed by Herman Carl Mueller. (Tile is in the Study Galleries in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; photo courtesy of Michael Padwee)

Herman Carl Mueller immigrated from Germany in 1878 and worked as a modeler for the American Encaustic Tiling Company (AET) in Zanesville, Ohio from 1887-1894. Tile historian Michael Sims writes that prior to 1887, “American Encaustic’s products were at least the equal of any other manufacturer’s, except in the field of art tiles. To rectify this, [...AET] hired the talented, sculptor-mechanic, Herman Carl Mueller…[,and the] artistic quality of the company’s tiles improved dramatically. Mueller’s fireplace surrounds and classical figure panels are among the finest art tiles ever produced. [Mueller] also demonstrated to architects the virtues of using decorative tiles in such things as fountains and radiator grilles.” Michael Sims, “The Tiles of Zanesville, Ohio: America’s Tile Manufacturing Center”, Flash Point, Vol. 6, No. 3, July-September 1993, p. 19)

Mosaic Tile Co. mural designed by Herman Carl Mueller. The tiles were made by Mueller's patented "pseudo-encaustic-mosaic" process in 1898 for the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, Zanesville, OH. (Photo courtesy of Michael Padwee)

In 1894 Mueller helped form the Mosaic Tile Company and patented a process of making a pseudo-encaustic-mosaic tile* which has been used widely in many buildings, such as the original tiles in the California State Capitol Building in Sacramento and a Christopher Columbus mural on the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Zanesville.

*[Mueller’s pseudo-encaustic-mosaic tiles were produced by using a piece of metal, a cell-plate, divided into smaller cells, placed over a mold, and into which different powdered glazes could be added via screens to color the tile. This was a way to easily color multiple tiles in the same way.]

Original tile-mosaic altar (demolished), St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Woodhaven, Queens. (Photo courtesy of St. Thomas the Apostle Church).

In 1908 Mueller formed his own company in Trenton, the Mueller-Mosaic Tile Company, where, in addition to experimenting with new glazes on architectural forms, he helped to create new mosaic and tile designs such as this mural in Queens, New York (no longer in existence).

Addison LeBoutillier’s “Beaver” design made by Grueby Faience, c.1904, for the Astor Place subway station on the IRT #6 line in Manhattan. (Photo courtesy of Michael Padwee)

William Grueby learned his craft in the Chelsea, Massachusetts pottery of the Robertson family, the Chelsea Keramic Art Works, as well as in the J. and J.G. Low Art Tile Works. Historian Susan Montgomery writes that Grueby emphasized form and color in his creations and “...resisted over-industrialization, preferring to maintain the values of handcraftmanship. ...Grueby workers processed raw clay mechanically and used the potter’s wheel to form pieces, but the modeling was done entirely by hand. Tile production was more mechanized in that it included molds, but multi-colored tiles had to be hand-glazed.” (Susan J. Montgomery, The Ceramics of William H. Grueby, Arts and Crafts Quarterly Press, Lambertville, NJ, 1993, p. 48)

 Grueby was the first to develop his signature matte and curdled glazes, which spurred his competitors to experiment and develop their own variations of stand-alone matte glazes. Hanna Tachau wrote that Grueby, along with his chief designer, Addison LeBoutillier, produced tiles with a “soft velvety texture and pure tonal quality”. (Hanna Tachau, “America Re-discovers Tiles”, International Studio, Vol. LXXV, No. 299, March 1922, p. 78)  Also, two of the “...country's leading arbiters of turn of the century style chose to incorporate Grueby into their work. Tiffany Studios used Grueby Pottery for lamp bases, and Gustav Stickley used Grueby Tiles in his stands and tables….” (http://www.jmwgallery.com)

Two sixty-eight-tile panels made by the American Encaustic Tiling Company, c.1913, for the Empire State Dairy, 2840-44 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. (Photos courtesy of Friends of Terra Cotta)

Another designer who made significant contributions to tile decoration and design was the colorist Leon Victor Solon. Prior to immigrating to the United States in 1909, Leon Solon designed colored bookbindings for the “Sutherland Decoration” of George Bagguley’s bookbindery in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and he designed colored textiles for Wardle and Company. 

An early Minton Secessionist twin handled vase c. 1905 by Leon Solon and John Wadsworth of inverted trumpet form, with twin ear shaped handles and tubelined laurel swags in shades of blue and purple, with a cream roundel to the neck. A stunning example of the Art Nouveau style introduced by Solon and Wadsworth.  (Photo courtesy of Nick Cashin, "UK Pot Heads" blog; http://ukpotheads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/minton-secessionist-vase.html)

Solon became the art director for the Minton Potteries from 1897-1909, and helped develop Minton’s “Secessionist” ceramic line. After immigrating, Solon became the art director for the American Encaustic Tiling Company where he developed brightly-glazed faience tiles and a color theory for architecture, which led to him being hired as the colorist for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Rockefeller Center. Solon also invited other artists such as Arthur Crisp and Augustín Lazo to design tiles and murals at AET. (Michael Padwee, “Leon Victor Solon: Color, Ceramics, Architecture”, http://tileresearcharticles.omeka.net/items/show/35)

Isaac Broome, sculptor and artist, was a Canadian immigrant to the United States, and as a tile modeler and designer, he was also part of this general movement that helped create an American art tile style and industry. 

Prior to moving to Trenton to work for Ott & Brewer in about 1876, he lived and worked in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, New York. In Pittsburgh, in the 1860s, he was a sculptor and was part of the local art scene.

His friends included the painter David Blythe, and the gallery owner J.J. Gillespie. Broome may also have tried his hand, unsuccessfully, at a pottery business there.

In Philadelphia, Broome exhibited his work at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from at least 1858 when his bust of Bishop Potter was shown, and he was an “Academician” at the Academy from about 1860 on. Sometime in the early 1870s Broome moved to the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, which was known for its pottery industry. Part of the time he lived, and possibly had a kiln on the property at 175 Calyer Street. It is probable that Broome was involved in a pottery venture in Greenpoint with a local architect, J. Charles Caspar, at that time.


Three companies in Trenton and one in Pennsylvania--Ott & Brewer, the Trent Tile Company, the Providential Tile Works, and the Beaver Falls Art Tile Works--made plaques and tiles designed and modeled by Isaac Broome.  Many of these were very popular, and although it it not known exactly how his designs traveled from the United States to England, tile companies, there and in the U.S., made use of his designs, even though they were probably copyrighted.

Drawing for Broome’s “Improved Porcelain or Parian Kiln”.  (Jenny J. Young, The Ceramic Art, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1878, p. 464)

While at Ott & Brewer, in the mid- to late-1870s, Isaac Broome designed parian plaques along with his other works of art. One of Broome’s patents at this time was for an improved porcelain or parian kiln.

(L) Parian Plaque marked “BROOME SCULPT” below hem of dress. 14 3/8” x 11 1/4”. Ott & Brewer.  (R) 14 1//2” x 10 3/4” Parian Plaque marked: “I. BROOME/OTT and BREWER/U.S. 1776”. Both are the gift of Emma and Jay Lewis to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011.    

One of Broome’s plaques, above, depicts women's fashions of the day, while the other harks back to our colonial past.  

In “The Western Art Movement” (1887) Ripley Hitchcock, an art critic and editor, wrote of the characteristics of a developing “American style” of pottery in china painting after the Centennial Exhibition. “At present one characteristic of [American] potteries is the unusual variety of clay bodies and glazes. Another is the absence of restrictions upon the artists. They are not bound...to the production of a given amount of work, but are left free and encouraged in every way to produce individual work.” (Ripley Hitchcock, “The Western Art Movement”, The Art Movement in America: Three Articles Reprinted from The Century Magazine, The Century Company, New York, 1887, August 1886, pp. 578-579)  Although this was referring to china painters in the United States, Hitchcock could easily have been referring to tile modelers and designers.

Three Trent portrait tiles, 4 1/4” and 6” square, all marked “IB”. (Dirk Soulis Auctions, Estate of Gene DeGruson, December 11, 2013, Lot 220)

As with many of the best ceramics designers of the period, Broome would have wanted to control the design process from conception to finished product. Although he was a prolific designer Broome's work with tiles took place within three industrial tile settings. These tile companies--Trent, Providential and  Beaver Falls--had to make a profit in order to survive, and used processes such as the dust-clay process, and mechanization to create as many tiles in as short a period of time as possible. Broome’s mechanical patents, as we shall later see, also helped to build the industrial base of the American tile industry.

“The height of art tile production in the United States [also] coincided with the beginning Arts & Crafts Movement, popular in America from about 1875 to 1920. One basic tenet of the movement was that everyone deserved to live with beautiful, affordable things in their homes. One way in which consumers could realize this goal was to incorporate tiles...into their residential interiors.”  (http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/10aa/10aa86.htm)

(top) A 6” x 18” Trent panel (3 tiles) showing a reclining woman in an exotic locale. From the “Music” mantel facing. (bottom) A 6” x 18” Trent panel (3 tiles) showing three reclining classical women.   From the “Seasons” mantel facing. (Both are from Norman Karlson's  Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Region 2.) 

After the 1876 Centennial Exhibition American consumers at first tended to prefer classical tile styles. (Gary B. Magee, Andrew S. Thompson, Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c. 1850-1914, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, p. 158)  The Trent Tile Company, with the help of Isaac Broome, supplied many of these throughout the country. Decorative arts historian Elisabeth Cameron wrote, “Frequent themes include portraits, classical and contemporary figures, e.g. ...allegorical panels representing the muses.” (Elisabeth Cameron, Encyclopedia of Pottery & Porcelain, 1860-1960, Facts on File Publications, New York, NY, 1986, p. 62)

The Trent Tile Company in 1890.

According to The Trenton Times of September 6, 1883, The Trent Tile Company was first organized as the Harris Manufacturing Company in 1882 to manufacture porcelain spinning rings, to replace steel rings then in use in every cotton, wool and silk mill throughout the world. While experiments were taking place to solve a glaze problem in the manufacture of these rings, the Harris Manufacturing Company began to manufacture relief tiling. “The tiling...is unlike any tiling made for art decorations made in any country, and it is unequaled in richness of finish and the strikingly beautiful decorative effects it is capable of producing. It is the only tiling manufactured in relief with a smooth surface… . While it produces all the effects it is possible to give to relief work, there are no raised portions exposed, [...thus] the chances to damage the relief work…[are decreased…].” ("Novelty Pottery Designs”, The Trenton Times, Thursday, September 6, 1883, p. 1)


I have not been able to locate any tiles made by Harris, but the article compares the Harris tiles favorably to tiles manufactured by the Low Art Tile Works, and discusses an imminent name change from Harris to the Trent Faience Works. Further, “The unprecedented success of the company in manufacturing of relief tiling has encouraged them to extend...production [...to] other art decorations, and they are now preparing designs for a series of plastic sketches and other mantel decorations, which they expect to have ready for the coming holiday trade. ...At present the industry furnishes employment to thirty people… . [This will] soon be increased by a number of skilled people, including a designer of international reputation. The management of the works is in charge of Leonard Roden,...and he possesses a valued assistant in Joseph Kirkham*, the ovenman, who was employed [...by] Josiah Wedgewood, for a period of sixteen years.” ("Novelty Pottery Designs”, The Trenton Times, Thursday, September 6, 1883, p. 1) 

*[I should mention that Kirkham figures prominently in the formation of the Providential Tile Works, and later, in using at least one of Broome’s designs at one of Kirkham's California companies.]

The Trent Tile Company in 1921

By 1892 Trent operated 20 kilns--including six round biscuit kilns and upwards of a dozen enameling or English muffle kilns, and by 1910 employed 300 workers.  By 1912 Trent ran into financial difficulties and was placed in receivership.  In 1916 Trent was purchased by the Receiver, Thomas H. Thropp, who died in 1931.  The company was then purchased from Thropp’s family by R. P. Herrold, but it went into receivership, again, in 1939, and was closed down.  In 1940 the Wenczel Tile Company bought the factory...[which] was located at Klagg Avenue and Plum Street.” (Michael Padwee, “The Manufacture of Ceramic Tiles in Trenton-Part 2: The Trent Tile Company”, Trenton Potteries, Newsletter of the Potteries of Trenton Society, Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2003, p. 1) 

Broome created some iconic classical designs with exotic overtones for the commercial market, as well as other designs for Trent tiles: (top) a Broome classic panel design; (bottom-L) a Broome design marked "Sample"; (bottom-R) four stove tiles. 

Two of Broome's designs, #449 and #448.

From late 1883 to 1885 Isaac Broome was the chief designer and modeler for the Trent Tile Company. Broome’s work for the Etruria Pottery and Ott and Brewer in Trenton was popular with their customers, as well as with decorative arts critics and writers of the day. Broome’s work had garnered awards at National exhibitions, and the Trent organizers probably hoped--and this was borne out--that Broome’s previous success would translate positively to Trent’s advantage. According to Edwin Atlee Barber when Broome left Trent to help organize the Providential Tile Works, he left behind enough art tile designs at Trent so that many were still being made in the 1890s (Edwin Atlee Barber, Pottery and Porcelain of the United States, Century House Americana, Watkins Glen, NY, 1971 reprint of the 1893 edition, pp. 363-365), and we know by the 1905 catalog, into the early 1900s.

Trent tile molds at the Trenton City Museum. (Courtesy of the Trenton City Museum)

We are fortunate that a room of Trent tile molds was discovered in a boarded-up, basement room in the Wenczel Tile factory (Wenczel was located in the old Trent tile works) in 1985 and were donated to the Trenton City Museum.

From the Trent Tile Company's undated Illustrated Catalogue.

Some of the molds (and thus the tiles made from the molds) have the signatures of Broome or William Gallimore, the tile modeler who replaced Broome in 1886, while others can be attributed to Broome on the basis of their early design numbers from the undated Trent Tile Company Illustrated Catalogue and from the 1905 Trent Catalog.

Negative and positive mold images of the “Spring” seasons tile: a cherub with Broome’s signature in the bottom, outer corners. (Mold courtesy of the Trenton City Museum)

It had always been assumed that Trent's tiles of cherubs were most probably designed by William W. Gallimore, however the “Seasons” molds (above) show some cherubs to be Broome’s work. His signature is in the lower outer corners of these molds.

A 6” x 9” edge tile from the set that used Mold # 1206 as a central tile in a fireplace surround. (Mold courtesy of the Trenton City Museum)

Broome also created wonderful “ribbon” tiles, (this mold is attributed to Broome),

and scroll and leaf tiles. (These are early design numbers and are attributed to Broome.)

The negative mold for Broome’s 6” x 12” “Horses” tile. (Mold courtesy of the Trenton City Museum)

Both the horses mold and the serving boy mold (below) are also of tiles attributed to Isaac Broome.

Positive mold # 729, one of two 6” x 12” tiles picturing serving boys. (Mold courtesy of the Trenton City Museum)

Broome also designed historical and classical portrait tiles for Trent. The first is a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, and the second is a classical portrait in very high relief, design #584.

Another way to identify an early Trent tile design is by the key patterns on the backs of the tiles. Key Patterns are the designs on the backs of tiles that help the tiles stick to the wall or floor adhesive. In its early days Trent used frame-like, grooved key patterns on the reverse of some tiles--much like the grooved key patterns of the J. & J.G. Low Art Tile Works. Trent also used circular key patterns with the script “Trent” on some early tiles.

Broome’s “Michelangelo” tile design, #184, in Trent's Illustrated Catalogue, was reproduced by other tile companies.

Broome’s “Michelangelo” tile design was copied by at least ten British tile companies and one California company, with or without his permission, and it was also used by the Providential Tile Works. (see Auction Lot 132 in “From England to America: One Hundred Years of Tiles”, The Perrault-Rago Gallery, Lambertville, NJ, July 1st-23rd, 1995)

”[How] this pair came to be made by J & W Wade of Stoke upon Trent is unknown and has provoked much discussion, it appears that they are the only such pair. These are found from time to time mostly in greens and blues and rarely in this particular glaze. ... John and William Wade commenced tile making in 1888 under the company's general trading name of Wade & Co. Tile making proved very successful and the business was split off in 1891, named J & W Wade and with the trading name 'The Flaxman Art Tile Works'.” The tiles are embossed “Flaxman” on their reverse sides. (http://www.tile-heaven.co.uk/deets/03161.htm)

It is possible that Joseph Kirkham, who worked at Trent and was a principal of the Providential Tile Company, where Isaac Broome worked after leaving Trent, took some of Broome’s molds with him when he moved to Ohio and then to California.

The back of Broome’s “Michelangelo” tile made by Joseph Kirkham’s Pacific Art Tile Company/Western Art Tile Company or it’s subsidiary, the California Tile and Terra Cotta Company in Tropico, California. (Correspondence between California tile historian Steve Soukup and the author) Recently, however, a Tropico Potteries tile has also surfaced with the script “California” marking, above, molded in relief on its reverse, further confusing this issue.)

One of the California companies associated with Kirkham--either the Pacific Art Tile Company/Western Art Tile Company or it’s subsidiary, the California Tile and Terra Cotta Company, which were all located in Tropico, California, is thought to have produced the Michelangelo tile with a “California”-marked back.

Although unidentified in the original blog post by Tom Glover (http://glover320.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-date-no-identification.html), one comment stated :”This photo is in the pottery display at the Trenton City Museum in Ellarslie Mansion on the second floor. The description says "The Providential Tile Works c. 1880" The photo comes from the Trenton Free Public Library, Trentoniana collection.” I was later told the photo was actually of the Providential Tile Works in the 1890s.

In 1886 Broome moved from Trent to the Providential Tile Works, just across the street from Trent. The Providential Tile Works was organized in 1886 by Joseph Kirkham, James Robinson and C. Lewis Whitehead. According to tile historian Norman Karlson, there was a good deal of competition between Trent and Providential. 

Diagram of the Providential Tile Works from an 1890 Sanborn Map. The Trent Tile Company is across Plum Street to the right.

Broome was hired away from Trent and worked for Providential for four years (Norman Karlson, The Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Region 2, Mid Atlantic States, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, 2005, p. 165), not only bringing his skills but even some of the designs he used at Trent. This was not an unusual occurrence as there are many instances in British and American tile factories of workmen taking their designs or glaze formulas with them as they moved from one company to another. Many of these were seen as the property of the modelers and ceramists, and were also probably seen as an additional bargaining point by those workers.

Providential designs attributed to Broome. Tiles #041-005 and #041-006 were also produced by Trent--Designs #223 and 185. (Norman Karlson, Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Region 2, Schiffer Publications,
Atglen, PA, 2005)

“Like Trent, Providential produced dust-pressed, embossed tiles in mechanical, fly-wheel presses… . [The tiles] were then colored with translucent glazes that accentuated the relief designs. Principally made to adorn fireplace mantels, many...were produced in a contiguous series designed to surround a fireplace opening—as was the fashion in upscale homes in the late 19th century.” (http://www.tileheritage.org/THF-TileoftheMonth-Jun-08.html)

The reverse grid pattern and markings on a 6” Providential relief tile. (Author’s collection)

Although Isaac Broome was probably not a part owner of Providential, many of Providential’s tiles were marked “BROOME, KIRKHAM & ROBINSON”. Thus, Broome’s name replaced the name of one of the owners of the company, C. Lewis Whitehead, on the backs of many tiles, indicating Broome’s high regard as a modeler, as well as helping to sell tiles because of his name recognition.

In 1890 Broome left Providential and became a partner in William T. Lee’s, Washington Pottery in Trenton, which advertised hard porcelain ware for hotels.

Beaver Falls Art Tile Company. 1896 Sanborn map.

He then moved on to design and model tiles for the Beaver Falls Art Tile Company, which had been organized in 1886 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Beaver Falls’ tiles were not only used for mantels, but also to decorate stoves and walls.

Color Beaver Falls catalog page and tile panels from Norman Karlson, Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Region 2, Schiffer Publications, Atglen, PA, 2005

Beaver Falls' version of Broome's "Sappho" tile. (Edwin Atlee Barber, Pottery and Porcelain of the United States, Century House Americana, Watkins Glen, NY, 1971 reprint of the 1893 edition)

Broome was influenced by the views of the British art and social critic, John Ruskin, who stressed the moral, social, and spiritual purposes of art and a Naturalist theory of visual representation. For Ruskin, according to decorative arts historian Richard Mohr, “beauty and function and nature should always be twined together.”

However, Broome also embraced the dust-pressed, mechanical methods of commercial tile production, as did many of his contempoaries at this time. Broome developed some technological advances for use by the new, American tile industry while working for Beaver Falls.

Patent # 493,244 (granted, 1893).  A machine that automatically transports tiles to be glazed and cleaned of excess glaze.

In 1892 Broome applied for a patent for a machine that would automatically transport tiles to a decorating vessel, decorate the individual tile, clean off the excess glaze, and remove the tile so another could be decorated. This patent, No. 493,244, was granted in March 1893.

Patent # 509868 (1893) for a machine that improves the edge-cleaning function of the previous patented machine.

Another patent, No. 509868, granted to Broome in December 1893, was for a “Tile-Dressing Machine”, which improved on the edge-cleaning function of the first patented tile-decorating apparatus.

Patent #532,636 (1895) for a roller mechanism that would automatically glaze tiles.

Finally, Broome further improved his first apparatus with Patent No. 532,636 in January 1895, “Tile Decorating Apparatus”. The improvement, here, was the use of a roller mechanism to glaze tiles automatically.

While at Beaver Falls, Broome “...was responsible for many of [the company’s] best tiles: heavily molded figureheads, floral and geometric tiles, intaglio tiles, and large relief panels for fireplaces and mantels.” (Norman Karlson, The Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Region 2, Mid Atlantic States, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, PA, 2005, p. 190) Many of his designs are also found on round stove tiles. (Notice that at least two of the stove tile designs above were also produced by Providential.)

A Beaver Falls mantel facing from an undated catalog, Plate #A 62. Elements of this are similar to elements of Trent's "Cupid and Rose" mantel facing.

Mantel facing in "India style" designed by Isaac Broome from an undated, unpaginated Beaver Falls catalog.

These were many of the same types of art tiles that Broome modeled for Trent and Providential, and which were in fashion in the last quarter of the 19th century. Broome was a brilliant sculptor and tile modeler. He helped three tile companies become successful, and he gave a growing American middle class works of art for their own use and admiration.

Isaac Broome's design for a school of industrial arts at the Ruskin Cooperative Colony. (Not built)

Although Broome left the ceramics industry for a few years in the late 1890s to participate in the Ruskin community in Tennessee and wrote a book based on his experiences, he was disappointed and distressed by the failure of the community to provide an industrial arts education for its members, and the failure of the community as a utopian socialist experiment, itself. Broome returned to Trenton, and he continued his artistic career in the ceramics industry in the early 1900s.

*****

I would like to thank Brenda Springsted, trustee of the Trenton City Museum collection and the Trenton City Museum for access to their Trent collection; the Potteries of Trenton Society; the Tile Heritage Foundation; Nicholas Ciotola, Cultural Curator of the New Jersey State Museum for his help; and Judi Wells and Scott Anderson for their help researching Isaac Broome.

*****

A pdf file of this article may be downloaded from https://tileresearcharticles.omeka.net/items/show/id/37 for individual, non-comercial, educational use only. © Michael Padwee, 2014. All rights reserved.