Henry Chapman Mercer
Tileworks
Doylestown, PA, USA
Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) studied law but never practiced, choosing instead to focus his efforts in the fields of archaeology and anthropology. He served as a curator for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (now the Penn Museum) for a number of years and also traveled extensively to study and collect artifacts around the world.
After developing an interest in redware pottery, Mercer briefly apprenticed with a Pennsylvania German potter. He founded the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works in 1898, which still manufactures tile today. Mercer’s tiles have since been used in buildings throughout the U.S., including the Pennsylvania State Capitol.
Mercer used his inheritance from an aunt to purchase land in Doylestown, Bucks County. In 1908 he began building a house there using poured concrete. Now known as Fonthill Castle, the completed structure includes 44 rooms featuring a mix of architectural styles such as Medieval, Gothic, and Byzantine. Mercer put Fonthill to use not only as his personal residence but also as a showcase for his own tiles and those he collected across the globe.
Following Mercer’s death the rights to the house passed to his housekeeper and her husband until her death in 1975, after which Fonthill Castle opened as a museum. The nearby Mercer Museum was completed in 1916 to display pre-industrial tools and objects, which were collected under Mercer’s direction with the belief that tools were a key way to trace progress through the years.
Isaiah’s visited Fonthill Castle around 1968 and says he remembers the housekeeper clearly. This was an influential visit as Isaiah was struggling with his mental health. Seeing the tiles and what Mercer had created inspired Isaiah to think about what he could do and was another prominent motivation for him to begin mosaicking.
Mercer was very interested in the narrative qualities of tiles. He said their storytelling capabilities and the way they can inspire and teach was the main purpose of his life-long goal to preserve and share the tiles in his museum. A Mercer tile with an Aztec motif can be found on the south wall by the huppa and another with a swan can be found at the entrance to the Julia hallway. In 2022 the preservation team added a tile with wheat in the long hallway and two handshake tiles (one in the courtyard and another near the huppa.) In 2023, Henry Chapman Mercer’s name was added by the preservation team, at Isaiah’s urging on the west wall of the huppa area. The tiles are Moravian tiles purchased from the Tileworks of Bucks County that year.
Example:
Swan tile
Location: Near the entryway to the two passageways, upper level outdoors.
