Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-23
MOSAICS In ARCHITECTURE.
A NEW FANCY WHICH HAS GROWN
POPULAR.
The Work Once Monopolized by
Foreigners Now Carried On by
Local Establishments.

Mosaics are quite the architectural
s fad just now, and very sensible one,
too, both from the standpoint of art and
durability. The art in America is in its
infancy, but its growth has been quite
rapid. La 1881, when VIM. H. Vanderbilt
imported two mosaic workers from Paris
to assist in the decoration of his house,
Fifth avenue and Fifty-frst street, says the
New York Times, mosaics were practically
unknown in American architecture. Ex-
cept the chancel floor and wall decorations
in Grace Church, there was scarcely a
specimen of modern mosaic art in the
city or even in the country. The few
antiques and curios of which the muse
ums boosted need not be mentioned here.
There was not house-decorating concern
in the country that made pretense OF
doing such work, and if perchance an
Italian mosaic worker strayed into Amer
lea he was unknown and out of business.
tAiSlS eliC III lillS CITY
alone which makes mosaics the whole or a
part of their business, giving employment
to fifty mosaic workers and double that
number of helpers and masons. Boston,
Philadelphia, and Chicago also possess one
or more similar houses. One of the most
famous house-decorating firms in this city
has orders enough on hand to keep its mo-
sale workers busy for year to come, and
another firm has over fifty specimens of its
work in residences, churches, banks, the
alters, and other public buildings in this
city, besides having generous patronage
East, West, North and South, so rapidly
has the industry developed.
Nearly all the mosaic workers in the
country are Italians, who learned the art
in Venice. A few are Frenchmen, and
here and there one finds young Italian
who served his three or four years of ap.
premiership in New York, but there are
very few such. The mosaic artist who
has been longest here is Swiss, who went
to Venice while it was yet under the Aus
trian yoke, and learned his art there
The mosaic workers are paid from 81 so to
81 80 a day, according to skill and expert
ence. The work is tedious and tiresome
requiring close application, extreme care
keen eyesight, and def hand, besides, ac-
curate knowledge of the marble colors
No chemical agents or artificial colorine
are used. The artist must be abe to selec,
his marbles in the rough state, and by
wetting them determine what colors to use
in shading faces and figures. To sit foI
hours with Bonded back and hanging head
pottering over table half covered with
dusty chips of stone brings fatigue that
none but those trained in the business can
endure day after day
Imported marbles are used almost ex.
clusively-Italy, France, Africa and the
Mediterranean isles furnishing most. 81
emma, jaime de Lyon, Chagny, rouge royal,
blanc Mines, Italian blue, Italian green
Italian red and the white Carrara are the
most important and the most expensive
marbles used Ireland also gives the mo.
sale worker little green. The Tennessee
marble is the only domestic stone used in
any quantity. The blue turken of France
and the black Belgian marble pretty
nearly complete the list. The marble
comes to the mosaic worker in fragments
of slabs from the monument, mantel and
tile makers, or else in strips specially cut
for the purpose from refuse stone. Then
1t is broken into pieces of any desired size
generally by sort of small adze, but
sometimes by machinery.
The designer makes full-sized drawings
upon heavy paper and indicates the color
to be used in each line and figure of the
plan. The worker cuts the design in Sec
lions Of convenient size for handling. and
To- n1tt ha h &c of - II
polished, face downward, first smearing the
face with gum Arabic, SO that it will adj
here to the paper. If the design is in
tricate the body or filling is put in after
the picture itself is done. When the whole
is completed the sections are laid away,
one upon another, until the wall, ceiling
or floor for which they were intended is
ready to receive them. The design is put
on section by section, and the bits of mar
bic are pressed into the soft Portland
cement. When the cement has become
sufficiently hard the paper is washed off,
the rough places are pointed up and re-
paired, and, if necessary, the entire surface
is polished. Very good effects are some
times accomplished by leaving the surface
dull and comparatively unfinished
Whether the mosaic is to be termed Ro-
man or Venetian depends chiefly upon
whether the chips are cubical or irregular
-polygonal In shape.
Mosaic makes the most durable of floors.
for the cracks made by the settling build
ing may be utterly obliterated with ce-
ment, and there are no large tiles to fret
themselves loose. But in spite of the
testimony of the pavements of Pompeii
and Herculaneum, American architects
and builders were at first very mistrustful
of modern mosaics, and fought against
their introduction. The expense of the
work also retarded the growth of the in
dustry for while, but sharp competition
has gradually reduced prices till the SIM
plest concrete mosaics can be had for about
the some price as marble thing. Prices
range from 70 cents a foot up to any sum
that the builder is willing to pay for
elaborate work. Pictorial designs in Ger
man glass and Italian enamel and gilt
(gold leaf under film of glass; command
much the same sort OF fancy prices as
painting or sculpture. There is almost
unlimited choice of colors in glasswork
and the shading can be very delicately
graded.
Good work of this kind is now done in
America, small though the demand may
be. One or two London and Paris houses
which have American agents, also con-
tract for such work, as we'll as for the more
mechanical designs, but the extent of their
American business is not encouraging. I'm
ported mosaics have fallen into some dis
repute of late. Much of the palmer work
abroad is done by women and even by
children, and it is so badly done that the
designs fall to pieces in their shipment.
American mosaics are multiplying so
rapidly that there is little utility in speci-
flying examples. The 10000 square feet of
flooring in the recent addition to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest
piece in American. There are 100000
pieces of marble in the floor. The beauti-
full wall pictures in the hall of the Equita-
BILE Building were designed and made in this
city, as was also the handsome floor 5000
square feet of the Philadelphia Stock Ex-
change. Other praiseworthy specimens of
American mosaics are in the Church of the
Ascension, the Vanderbilt houses, and in
the mansion built by Henry Willard, at
Madison-avenue and Fiftieth street.
These are among the finest in the country.
From time immemorial mosaics and
glazed bricks have been favorite materials
for building baths A New York firm