an emphasis on handcrafted objects and paintings with a refined sense of design . 2 A wide range of magazines , such as the Art Amateur and Art Interchange , provided useful instruction to amateurs , while professional organizations like the Society of Decorative Arts ( 1877 ) were formed in New York and other large cities .
Many professional artists also turned their attention to decorative art , some almost exclusively . John Gardner Low , who founded the J . and J . G . Low Art Tile Works in Chelsea , Massachusetts , in 1877 , capitalized on the growing popularity of ceramics and tiles following the Centennial Exposition . Two years later ( 1879 ), the painters Louis Comfort Tiffany , Samuel Colman , Lockwood de Forest , and Candace Wheeler joined forces to establish the interior design firm , Associated Artists .
In order to promote their own artwork , which remained outside the decorative realm , and to circumvent the limiting exhibition policies of the National Academy of Design , in 1878 a number of young artists formed the Society of American Artists in New York . Fraternal organizations , such as the Salmagundi Sketch Club established in 1877 ( an outgrowth of a sketch club formed in 1871 ), provided an informal forum for artists to vent their frustrations , commiserate with one another over financial problems , discuss the latest developments in art , and socialize . 3 Among the several other notable art clubs that were started around this time was the Tile Club — perhaps the smallest , one of the shortest lived , and most definitely the least understood .
The details regarding the formation , activities , and raison d ’ être of the Tile Club are veiled in obscurity , calculated by its members to create an air of exclusivity and attract attention . Basic information can only be gleaned from careful reading of the several contemporary articles published about the group — accounts written and illustrated by club members — which can seldom , if ever , be taken at face value . Each article supplied to the press was a carefully crafted conundrum filled with personal jokes and code names and embroidered with descriptions of activities devised both to confound and amuse the cognoscenti of the art world and the general public . Those “ in the know ” could decipher the innuendos , puns , and satirical remarks , while the average reader who could not still managed to follow an entertaining story line , accompanied by charming illustrations .
The first article published about the Tile Club , written by club member William Mackay Laffan , appeared as “ The Tile Club at Work ,” in Scribner ’ s Monthly ( January 1879 ). 4 This account , which included fifteen illustrations ( two-thirds of which were of tiles or were tile-related ) served to introduce the group to the public . The Tile Club was established in the fall of 1877 by a group of young artists and writers living in New York City who met informally in each other ’ s studios to discuss matters of art . Although there is no record of “ charter members ,” among the earliest to join were two Englishmen recently transplanted in the United States — Walter Paris ( a painter ) and Edward Wimbridge ( an architect ); several illustrators — Edwin Austin Abbey , Charles S . Reinhart , and Winslow Homer ( who was also an established artist at this point ); two painters of land and sea — Arthur Quartley and R . Swain Gifford ; one sculptor — William O ’ Donovan ; two newspaper writers — Earl Shinn ( who usually wrote under the name Edward Strahan ) and William Mackay Laffan ; and one “ jack of all trades ”— F . Hopkinson Smith ( illustrator , painter , writer , and engineer ). 5 A suggestion was made to form a club that would relate not only to their professions , but would
8 THE TILE CLUB : Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting