(c) 2023 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Brickpoint Blank Tiles

designer Henry C. Mercer (Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1856 - 1930, Doylestown, Pennsylvania)

manufacturer Moravian Pottery and Tile Works (established Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1898)

Date1901

Place MadeDoylestown, Pennsylvania, United States, North America

MediumGlazed ceramic

Dimensions3 x 2 in. (7.6 x 5.1 cm)

ClassificationsArchitectural Elements

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberC2c1.13

eMuseum ID720025

Previous NumberC2c8

Previous NumberC2c1.14

EmbARK ObjectID26591

TMS Source ID10286

Last Updated10/5/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner oversaw all the details of the Museum during its design and construction, 1899–1902. She collaborated with the tile maker and owner of the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Henry Chapman Mercer, on the galleries’ custom floors. Ceramicists and trained laborers in Doylestown, Pennsylvania produced Mercer’s unique designs by molding tiles from handmade casts and applying slips and glazes for firing.

BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendell Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935) p. 87. (as made by Henry Chapman Mercer of Doylestown, Pennsylvania)
Christina Nielsen et. al. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Guide (New Haven, 2017), p. 67, ill.
Maggie Goldstein, "Henry Mercer's Moravian Pottery and Tile Works at Fenway Court," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 23 January 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/henry-mercers-moravian-pottery-and-tile-works-fenway-court

ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Doylestown, Pennsylvania on 9 December 1901 for $551 (for about 4,000 tiles).