DOI Heft:
Nr. 230 (April 1916)
DOI Artikel:Ernest Batchelder and his tiles
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43461#0202
Ernest Batchelder and his Tiles
To vitalize the public interest in art it is neces-
sary that the artist come into personal contact
with the every-day life of the people through his
work. The natural development, therefore, of
the art centre and school opened by Mr. Batchel-
der in Pasadena in 1910 was toward some definite
constructive business closely allied with the home-
life of the community.
Out of the many crafts taught and carried on
in the charming studio on the banks of the Arroyo
Seco, Mr. Batchelder’s choice fell happily on the
development of the tile-making started in the
studio garden kiln, and the designing and mak-
ing of fireplaces.
Others of his associates and pupils continued
in studios of their own the work in textiles and
embroidery, jewellery and furniture, and the teach-
ing of design in the schools; while the leader went
boldly into the whirlpool of building trades which
flourish so amazingly in that portion of the coun-
try, still in the stage of shelter-making.
To keep one’s head and one’s art clear and un-
changed through a close contact with business as
carried on in the present day requires something
more than a desire to succeed according to such
business ideals. Inexhaustible patience and a
determination to control in every detail one’s
own art product must aid one in the fight to pre-
vent untrained middlemen from coming between
the craftsman and the recipient of his art. Mr.
Batchelder’s successful maintenance of the art
standard of his fireplaces and other pieces of tile-
work is the result of careful superintendence on
his part, and by the architects with whom he
associates himself.
The advent of a new craft product is always an
interesting subject for investigation, and when
that product is the expression in a usable form
of the ideas of an authority in the field of design,
the interest increases and the subject takes its
place in the annals of art.
The peculiar processes by which these hand-
wrought tiles are made belongs to the domain of
the kiln, but the reproduction of their charming
variations in any machine-pressed tile is impossi-
ble. Soft and harmonious in tone, they blend
into the colour scheme of a well-planned room or
set the dominant note therein. The schemes of
decoration suggested by the environment of a
home, the object of the club-house, or the eccle-
siastical nature of an altar, are as diversified as
the niches which they occupy. Ivy and rose
borders, peacocks and rabbits and deer are sub-
jects for the conventionalizing powers and the
fantasy of the designer, and delight the imagina-
tion of those who sit around the hearth.
Perhaps the most noticeable effect of locality
is seen in the landscape tiles which speak so
charmingly of California. The live oaks lend
themselves lovingly to tile designs; and the boat
and windmills, the rows of poplars and quaint
maids and fishermen of Holland have furnished
a whole chocolate shop with an art so pleasing as
to drain one’s pocketbook of pennies and keep
one drinking cocoa for an hour or more. Brave
viking ships, gay knights and canny hunters pass
through the pageantry of these tiles with the re-
serve befitting symbols wrought in clay; and fairy
castles, curving hills and winding roads lead the
eye from one tile into another to take one far
afield or a-Maying while still sitting near the
cheerful winter fire.
On account of Mr. Batchelder’s work in adapt-
ing his wealth of training in design and the in-
spiration he has received from study of Gothic
art and other European sources to the making of
American fireplaces would lack a vital part of its
helpfulness and encouragement for others if the
successful effort he has made to retain the per-
sonal touch on all his tiles were for one moment
ignored.
Both the nature of art as an expression
of personal ideals of beauty, and the intimate
character of the fireplace in a home demand that
no machinery of the market-place interfere.
Underneath all the perseverance necessary to
the maintenance of this standard must lie a silent
conviction that sacrifice and a missionary spirit
are still factors in the attainment of ideals which
were so natural in the time of Gothic art and have
been so nearly lost in the commercialism of a cen-
tury just past.
LVI
To vitalize the public interest in art it is neces-
sary that the artist come into personal contact
with the every-day life of the people through his
work. The natural development, therefore, of
the art centre and school opened by Mr. Batchel-
der in Pasadena in 1910 was toward some definite
constructive business closely allied with the home-
life of the community.
Out of the many crafts taught and carried on
in the charming studio on the banks of the Arroyo
Seco, Mr. Batchelder’s choice fell happily on the
development of the tile-making started in the
studio garden kiln, and the designing and mak-
ing of fireplaces.
Others of his associates and pupils continued
in studios of their own the work in textiles and
embroidery, jewellery and furniture, and the teach-
ing of design in the schools; while the leader went
boldly into the whirlpool of building trades which
flourish so amazingly in that portion of the coun-
try, still in the stage of shelter-making.
To keep one’s head and one’s art clear and un-
changed through a close contact with business as
carried on in the present day requires something
more than a desire to succeed according to such
business ideals. Inexhaustible patience and a
determination to control in every detail one’s
own art product must aid one in the fight to pre-
vent untrained middlemen from coming between
the craftsman and the recipient of his art. Mr.
Batchelder’s successful maintenance of the art
standard of his fireplaces and other pieces of tile-
work is the result of careful superintendence on
his part, and by the architects with whom he
associates himself.
The advent of a new craft product is always an
interesting subject for investigation, and when
that product is the expression in a usable form
of the ideas of an authority in the field of design,
the interest increases and the subject takes its
place in the annals of art.
The peculiar processes by which these hand-
wrought tiles are made belongs to the domain of
the kiln, but the reproduction of their charming
variations in any machine-pressed tile is impossi-
ble. Soft and harmonious in tone, they blend
into the colour scheme of a well-planned room or
set the dominant note therein. The schemes of
decoration suggested by the environment of a
home, the object of the club-house, or the eccle-
siastical nature of an altar, are as diversified as
the niches which they occupy. Ivy and rose
borders, peacocks and rabbits and deer are sub-
jects for the conventionalizing powers and the
fantasy of the designer, and delight the imagina-
tion of those who sit around the hearth.
Perhaps the most noticeable effect of locality
is seen in the landscape tiles which speak so
charmingly of California. The live oaks lend
themselves lovingly to tile designs; and the boat
and windmills, the rows of poplars and quaint
maids and fishermen of Holland have furnished
a whole chocolate shop with an art so pleasing as
to drain one’s pocketbook of pennies and keep
one drinking cocoa for an hour or more. Brave
viking ships, gay knights and canny hunters pass
through the pageantry of these tiles with the re-
serve befitting symbols wrought in clay; and fairy
castles, curving hills and winding roads lead the
eye from one tile into another to take one far
afield or a-Maying while still sitting near the
cheerful winter fire.
On account of Mr. Batchelder’s work in adapt-
ing his wealth of training in design and the in-
spiration he has received from study of Gothic
art and other European sources to the making of
American fireplaces would lack a vital part of its
helpfulness and encouragement for others if the
successful effort he has made to retain the per-
sonal touch on all his tiles were for one moment
ignored.
Both the nature of art as an expression
of personal ideals of beauty, and the intimate
character of the fireplace in a home demand that
no machinery of the market-place interfere.
Underneath all the perseverance necessary to
the maintenance of this standard must lie a silent
conviction that sacrifice and a missionary spirit
are still factors in the attainment of ideals which
were so natural in the time of Gothic art and have
been so nearly lost in the commercialism of a cen-
tury just past.
LVI