NY_MANHATTAN-Lord and Taylor's Rookwood Room

The Lord and Taylor Cut Flower Department in April 1914. The walls, ceiling and floor were clad in Rookwood Pottery's architectural faience and Rookwood tiles. A fountain, created in polychrome architectural faience by Clement Barnhorn, was to be installed shortly near the top of the staircase. (CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT)

A Room of Rookwood Architectural Faience and Tiles--Rediscovered but not Restored

In 1913 the architects--Starrett & Van Vleck--designed a ten story building in the Italian Renaissance style for Lord and Taylor on Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets. The Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, Ohio finished the entire Cut Flower Department, a 15’ x 30’ x 8 1/2’ space, in architectural faience. “The view from any entrance to the interior of the main floor is exceptionally attractive. ...There is a beautiful staircase, at the extreme rear, leading up to the Cut Flower Balcony. This balcony and its fittings, as well as the exquisite fountain at the head of the stairway is all in Rookwood Faience, kept in soft delicate coloring.” (“Architectural Criticism”, Architecture, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, April 1914, p. 77)

The Rookwood Architectural Faience exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. (Brick and Clay Record Vol. XXXVII, No. 11, June 1, 1911, p. 522)

Architects were not limited to the very large faience pieces, though. "[They] could buy a few individual tiles for mantels and the like, or much larger works such as [Clement] Barnhorn's ‘Fountain of the Water Nymph’.”

(http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/16/tem_rookwoodfountain.html)

”Fountain of the Water Nymph” (1903), created in architectural faience by sculptor Clement J. Barnhorn (1857- 1935). Barnhorn created other sculptural works in architectural faience for Rookwood which were installed in the Lord and Taylor store in Manhattan, the Prince George Hotel in Manhattan, the Kauffmann-Bauer Fountain in Pittsburgh, the Holmes Fountain in Cincinnati, and a lunette for the Sailors’ Institute in New York, among others. (Ernest Bruce Haswell, “Clement J. Barnhorn”, The International Studio, Vol. LV, No. 217, March 1915, p. XLVI) This fountain was part of the Rookwood showroom from 1913 until 1967, when Rookwood closed its doors in Cincinnati. In 1992 it was rediscovered by Anita J. Ellis of the Cincinnati Art Museum in an antiques store, and it was purchased by the Museum. (John Johnston, “Rich in history, artwork finds home”, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Friday, May 16, 2003; http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/16/tem_rookwoodfountain.html)

According to decorative arts historian Richard Mohr, Rookwood’s architectural faience color range--at least until about 1910--had greater chromatic possibilities than the other companies that produced architectural terra cotta. However, architectural terra cotta was less expensive than Rookwood’s faience because it was only fired once, while faience had to be fired at least twice: the bisque firing and the firing after the glazing. Rookwood’s faience never attained the amount of exterior use as did terra cotta, and very few buildings used its faience for exterior trim. “Rookwood did much better with interiors, including a fair number of total tile installations where walls, floors, ceilings, and fixtures were all faced with its faience... .” Some of these were the dining room in Cincinnati’s Hotel Sinton, the Rathskeller in Louisville’s Seelbach Hotel, and the Norse Room in Pittsburgh’s Fort Pitt Hotel. (Richard D. Mohr, “Rookwood Faience Tiles...--Part I”, Journal of the American Art Pottery Association, Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter 2010, p. 22) Until now, only the Seelbach installation still existed.

The faience heat grill.

“Probably the most conspicuous piece of artistic pottery...is the big heat grill in the center, at one side, which serves the same purpose as the ordinary iron affair... . It measures about 64 in. long by 50 in. high, and is surrounded by a molded border of elaborate design... . The grill itself...bears as its central figure a graceful urn, the space being filled out by conventionalized vines, leaves and bunches of grapes, with figures of birds and squirrels on both sides of the central figure.” (“Burned Clay Decoration in a New Field”, Brick and Clay Worker, Vol. XLIV, No. 10, May 19, 1914, pp. 1156-1157)

A 7'6" Rookwood faience pilaster. (Photo in the public domain; courtesy of Richard Mohr)

All of the special moldings in this room, except for the ceiling and floor tiles, are colored in natural colors of “rich blues, greens, reds and yellows, with more subdued tints, being used liberally.” (“Burned Clay Decoration in a New Field”, Brick and Clay Worker, Vol. XLIV, No. 10, May 19, 1914, p. 1157) The principal figures of Barnhorn's faience fountain are a “seated figure of a nymph, about two-thirds life size, with a satyr playing on his pipes, ...while the background, in the fresh colors of Spring, will set the picture off fittingly.” (B&CR, p. 1157)

This is the fountain designed by Clement Barnhorn for the Lord and Taylor in Manhattan (Ernest Bruce Haswell, “American Pottery A Recent Develop ment of Faience in the Middle West”, The Art World, Vol. III, No. 1, October 1917, p. 78) It also is similar to the “Fountain of the Water Nymph” (1903) now in the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Although this room was considered an “original work” by Rookwood, the pilasters and Barnhorn’s fountain were reproduced for sale to other customers, and they were assigned stock numbers in Rookwood’s “Record Book of Shape Numbers for Faience Tiles”. (Richard D. Mohr, “Rookwood Faience Tiles: Their History, Designers, Techniques, and Styles--Part III”, Journal of the American Art Pottery Association, Vol. 26, No. 3, Summer 2010, p. 22, Note 8)

Lord and Taylor still exists at this location in Manhattan, but, until recently, we did not know what happened to the Rookwood Cut Flower Department, nor to the other, unidentified Rookwood installation in the building (possibly the column capitals on the main floor). Until the development of the preservation movement in the 1960s and 1970s the old was just trashed during a renovation or demolition. There was usually no attempt to save “worthless” decorative elements of a building, such as the Rookwood-clad Norse Room in the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh in 1967. (https://sites.google.com/site/tileinstallationdatabasemz/pa__pittsburgh--the-norse-room-fort-pitt-hotel)

Even in today’s enlightened times developers still destroy the old in order to gain more profit from the new. A case in point--the developer of 16 East 41st Street in Manhattan recently ripped off the American Encaustic Tile Company’s tiled/ceramic facade so that the building couldn’t be landmarked and protected. The tiles and ceramics, which were designed by Leon Solon, were, of course, trashed.

A ceramic arts treasure rediscovered

Actually, I did discover what happened to the Rookwood faience and tiles in the original Lord and Taylor Flower Shop. Some of it is still there, painted white and hidden behind walls made from wallboard in what is now a storage area.

A 7’6” high Rookwood faience pilaster, wall and ceiling tiles, and faience border decoration.

Everything is painted white, the tiles on the walls and ceilings, the pilaster, and the border faience. When the door is closed slightly, you can see where the faience continues behind the wallboard--in white, rather than the original brightly-colored glazes.

What we cannot see, however, is how much of the faience remains intact, or if the Barnhorn fountain is still in its wall niche behind the wallboard.

In addition, the capitals of the columns on the ground floor may be original Rookwood Faience decorative elements, and the decorated bands across the ceiling may be original plaster decorations from 1914.

Now that this ceramic work of art has been located, will Lord and Taylor preserve it or... ? I did send an email to two of the Lord and Taylor executives about the Rookwood faience and fountain, but have not received an answer, yet.