(c) 2022 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Nuremberg Tiles: German Quarry Blank

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

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

Date1901

Place MadeDoylestown, Pennsylvania, United States, North America

MediumGlazed ceramic

Dimensions4 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (11.4 x 11.4 cm)

ClassificationsArchitectural Elements

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberC30c21.10

eMuseum ID717868

Previous NumberC30c23

Other NumberMC73

TMS Source ID25656

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. 199, no. 73.
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 14 June 1901 for $898 (for 1,722 square feet of tiles).