The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-30
A -oDERN TILE MAKER.
Fl. c. Mercer is a Semi-Invalid,
 Millionaire and an Artist.


 Millionaire and an Artist.
 Brooklyn Eagle.
 In Bucks County, Pa, there is a man who Is spending a fortune to restore the | los tart of tile making and to raise 1t once | more to the dignity and the honor that it has long since lost. What William ! Morris did for wall papers, bookbinding 1 and printing. and even for clay and glass work. Henry c. Mercer, a young mill
 lionaire semi-invalid. is doing for tiles fin | this country.
 For many years Mercer was the curator of the museum of the University of Penn sylvania, a work that absorbed his every energy. Overwork and too great applica- | tion to the labors of his post caused a complete breakdown. He went to bed
 with nervous prostration, and the doctors | told him that he must never apply him. self to work again.
 So, resigning his post, he went to his | farm in Bucks County and began to re- cuperate as a farmer But the old in 1 stinct of collecting came on him once | more. He began to delve around the old farmhouses in the vicinity in search of | ethnological objects that would show the | advancement of civilization in Pennsyl- vania. He gathered ironware, brassware and pottery. He classified it and ar ranged 1t. and when he came to his pot tery collection he began to regret that the old Dutch makers of tiles had passed away.
 From regretting to wishing that he could reproduce the marvellous reds yell lows and blues was but step. He made collection of tiles and plates by the old Dutch workers in clay He sent abroad asteries in England. Germany. France and Spain. He even sent to Persia, until he had at last marvellous collection from all quarters of the world.
 Then he set to work attempting to re- produce the colors and the glazes. The art of coloring the tiles and the compost ton of many of the lacquers that made them glisten had been lost. No trace of the formulas could be found. He pur- chased a small laboratory kiln and ex- perimented with various formulas of his own invention and sad muss he made of 1t.
 Always ahead of him he saw the grand work of regenerating the tile in- dustry in this country. His purpose was to destroy entirely the influence of the machine made and artifcially perfect article that Is so familiar and which of- fends any one with an artistic sense. In its place he wished to place a series of patterns and colors as soft and gentle as those that delight the eye or VlSltorS 10 Tintern Abey or to Nuremburg.
 First he had to find clay, and in his search for this medium he imported barrel after barrel from all quarters of the earth. He brought clay from IndiS, from Egypt. from Spaip and from Ger many Even China. Japan and Korei were levied on. But after repeated trials and repeated failures, he gave up the idea that the making of beautiful tiles lay in selecting a certain kind of clay.
 Meantime his health was gradually re- turning. So he determined to go as q workman to one of the last remaining Dutch potteries in northern Pennsylvania and as workman study the methods and the art as they were to be found there He spent three months working around the kilns. the drying yard and in the color shop. but he soon found that the old colors had been forgotten as com pletely as if they had never existed.
 Tn despair he returned to his stately mansion on the Bucks County farm and made a few more attempts. He soon be- came convinced that the only thing for him to do was to go to Germany and take few lessons from the potters of the Black Forest. where he heard some few of the old tricks of the trade were still extant. His ticket was purchased. his trunks packed and his farewells made