Since the 80s Katia McGuirk from Maryland has been a dedicated ceramicist and fellow self-titled tilenut. Now with the Tileworks of Bucks County in Pennsylvania McGuirk is able to share her decades of knowledge, skill, and teaching experience to continue and advance “the mission of the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works”.

The Moravian Pottery & Tile Works was designed and created by Arts and Crafts proponent Henry Chapman Mercer. The building, along with the Mercer Museum and Fonthill, are the only concrete structures poured and cast in place by Mercer, all of which now stand as National Historic Landmarks.

At the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, Mercer directed the work at the pottery from 1898 until his death 32 years later. No official potter’s mark was utilised by the tile works but after his death some were used to indicate the pieces’ origins. Today, in order to advance and continue this work, Mercer’s original moulds and local clay are used to produce numerous reproductions of his work.

As a non-profit the Tileworks of Bucks County operates as a museum, opening for tours, classes, and educational workshops. For the first time the museum is creating an online catalogue of all its moulds, ephemera, and historic objects, preserving them for posterity.

Katia Tiles
Moravian Pottery and Tile Works

A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, June 2021.