Toomey & Co. Auctioneers

In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond recalls, “This floor used to be wood. But, I had it changed. Valentino said there’s nothing like tile for a tango.” As in Hollywood, so in America as a whole. Art tiles added zest, snap, intensity, and fun to American life as they grouted their way into nearly every reach of its material culture—in the home as fireplace surrounds, wainscots, backsplashes, nursery cladding, even as Christmas cards of clay. They introduced color into American architecture though the country’s transportation system at subway and train stations. They paved the apses of churches and cathedrals, humanized city and judicial halls, civic auditoriums, banks, parts of the Mayo Clinic, and even the floor of the U.S. Capitol. They accented theaters, restaurants, better hotels, and Carnegie Libraries.

The Switzer-Mohr Collection lays out an encyclopedic array of tiles used in these ways from the golden era of American art tiles—the Arts & Crafts period shading into early Modernism. The offerings are assembled and presented with the passion of a collector but curated by several types of expertise: the knowledge of the connoisseur, one who has literally handled thousands of examples of the objects of which he speaks; the knowledge of a scholar, the person who delves into archives to understand the origins and nature of what he loves; the skill of the writer, who can make dusty history and technique accessible; and the devotion and aspiration of the teacher.

A survey of the evolution of art pottery in America during the early 20th century, this delightfully robust selection offers collectors an opportunity to expand their engagement with the nation's decorative history one tile at a time.

Richard D. Mohr is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and of the Classics at the University of Illinois. He is the author of Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick (2003) and The Splendid Disarray of Beauty: The Boys, the Tiles, the Joy of Cathedral Oaks (2023). Since 1993, he has been a frequent contributor to the Journal of the American Art Pottery Association, with serializations on Rookwood tiles, Van Briggle tiles, Teco tiles, Prairie School architects’ uses of art tiles, tiles installed in schools, and tiles made in schools.