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(c) 2023 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Cluny Tiles: Little Quarry Blank
(c) 2023 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2023 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Cluny Tiles: Little Quarry Blank

maker (established Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1898)
designer (Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1856 - 1930, Doylestown, Pennsylvania)
Date1901
Place MadeDoylestown, Pennsylvania, United States, North America
MediumGlazed ceramic
Dimensions2 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. (7 x 7 cm)
ClassificationsArchitectural Elements
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberC14c3.4
eMuseum ID719412
Other NumberMC19
EmbARK ObjectID26597
Previous NumberC14c9
TMS Source ID10292
Last Updated8/9/24
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)   
Cleota Reed. Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and tile Works (Philadelphia, 1980) p. 196, no. 19.
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 13 May 1901 for $31 (for roughly 31 feet of tiles).