CEMENT CASTING AT “ALDIE” 
“PTUDY Nature in the language of ex- 
O periment ” is the maxim of the schools 
of science. That art should be pursued in 
the same language is shown by the fact that 
her works are ever created by experiment 
and experiment alone. Art ceases when 
precision of execution records merely pre¬ 
vious performances and disdains the untried 
and the new. Rarely is the artistic sense 
brought to bear upon the making of good 
materials with which the architect, the deco¬ 
rator or garden builder may work. As a 
fact, these artists are dependent upon the 
commercial manufacturer for their materials, 
and the commercial manufacturer counts his 
success the greatest when he experiments 
the least. Many refuse to experiment at 
all, demanding that every step in a so-called 
progress shall pay. Is it not this which hin¬ 
ders the development of those many arts 
which depend not only upon a happy as¬ 
sembling of materials but upon those mater¬ 
ials themselves ? Be this as it may, it is 
undisputable that the best work at applying 
the earth’s raw materials to artistic purposes 
has been done by individuals who have been 
free from the habits and responsibilities of 
commerce and personally disinterested enough 
to go to any length of experiment and re¬ 
search in order to obtain the finest result. 
Readers of “ House and Garden” have 
already been made familiar with an industry 
of this individual sort, the Moravian Pottery 
at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1 and they can 
recall the long period of experimentation 
and study which finally bore fruit in the 
decorative clay products with which Mr. 
Henry Mercer’s name is associated. The 
present article aims to illustrate the work of 
his brother, Mr. William Mercer, who fol- 
1 See “An American Potter” in House and Garden, Vol. I, 
No. 3, August, 1901. 
THE ORNAMENTATION OF THE PERGOLA 
1 75 
