House & Garden 
The Kiln, as the successor of a smaller muffle, 
was placed in a rough outbuilding nearby ; and 
the help was a youth from the country-side. 
But it is by this small 
scale of his apparatus 
kept under the con¬ 
trolling hand of the art¬ 
ist, that admirable things 
are made. It remained 
to simplify the process 
so as to bring it within 
range of the small equip¬ 
ment, and to get designs 
from new sources. 
It was doubtless his 
research into the tile 
making of the old Euro¬ 
pean countries which led 
Mr. Mercer to first re¬ 
produce their historic 
designs before conceiv¬ 
ing new ones. The 
foreign museums gave 
in interesting review the 
products of all peoples 
and times. They showed 
the artistic spirit of the 
different nations and how their legends and 
achievements were described by their fictile 
decorations. After the discovery of America a 
Spanish monk, Ludovico 
Murliano, had designed 
for Charles V. a title bear¬ 
ing the words “Plus Ultra” 
(more beyond) between the 
pillars of Hercules, repre¬ 
senting the Straits of Gib¬ 
raltar or end of the pre¬ 
viously known world. The 
greatest boast of Spain told 
upon a little tile! Through 
the kindness of Prof. Dr. 
Hans Bosch of the Ger¬ 
manic Museum, a wax 
mould was obtained of The 
“ Knight of Nuremberg ” 
that strange legendary hero 
who was imprisoned in one 
of the city towers and 
was about to be put to 
death. By a mysterious horse he vaulted the 
moat and made his escape. 
Mr. Charles H. Read, of the British Mu¬ 
seum, extended courtesies to Mr. Mercer 
which enabled him to reproduce The “ Swan 
and Tower" Tile, a Spanish original of the 
sixteenth century, prob¬ 
ably made at Toledo in 
honor of that city. 
Forming a square 
around the central mo¬ 
tive is the Latin inscrip¬ 
tion Fluminis impetus 
letificat civitatem Dei :— 
There is a river the 
streams of which make 
glad the city of God. 
From the British Mu¬ 
seum also were obtained 
the rubbings of the ca¬ 
meo tiles From Castle 
Acre Priory, in Eng¬ 
land, made bv monks 
possibly near Lynn in 
the fifteenth century. 
The one illustrated 
shows a flower pot with 
shamrocks growing out 
of it within the inscrip¬ 
tion Orate pro anima 
Dni ( domini ) Nichi ( Nicholi ) de Stowe Vicari 
(Vicarii ) :—Pray for the soul of Father 
Nicholas of Stowe, Vicar. 'The originals 
of The “ Dragon ” and 
“Wheel" Tiles were found 
in the same ruins. The 
designs of the Byzantine 
period, such as those from 
the carved stone balus¬ 
trade of S. Apollinare in 
Classe at Ravenna, have 
been produced in colored 
clay under the glitter of 
glaze. Florentine, Per¬ 
sian and Moorish designs 
have been reproduced and 
show the process of sgraf- 
fiato which Mr. Mercer has 
revived and developed to 
be capable of presenting 
artistic results in the pot¬ 
ter’s art: an art which has 
suffered from the hard 
effects and mechanical methods which fol¬ 
lowed after the alchemist Bottcher put before 
his king the secret of porcelain. 
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