The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting The Tile Club | Page 33

of social intercourse among authors and artists and
other gentlemen connected with or interested in
literature and art. 112 The exhibition was probably
arranged by Millet, who was a charter member of the
St. Botolph Club and who served on its 1880
Committee on Art and Library. 113 Contributors to the
Boston exhibition were Quartley, Weir, Smith, Sarony,
Gifford, Reinhart, Millet, Dielman, Vedder, Chase,
Abbey, and Parsons. Based on the checklist, there is no
indication that any of the fifty-two works shown were
tiles. The range of subjects was broad, from views of
Port Jefferson done by Smith and Parsons during the
trip to Long Island in 1881 to scenes of Italy by
Vedder, England by Parsons, Maryland by Dielman,
and Germany by Chase. Also included were a fair share
of figure pieces and portraits, including a portrait
sketch by Chase of fellow Tiler Laffan. Underscoring
the casual nature of the show, as well as the informal
stylistic tendencies of the group, many of the paintings
were described as “studies” or “sketches.” 114
In April of 1882, The Century Magazine published
an article by Millet entitled “Some American Tiles.” 115
This was a serious treatment of the development of
tile manufacturing in the United States, in which he
mainly discussed the work of John Gardner Low and
the J. and J. G. Low Art Tile Works. Millet began by
writing that the making of art tiles in America had be-
gun so recently that most people knew nothing about
it. He attributed this late entry into the field to the fact
that the English had been producing such high-quality
products that it discouraged Americans from trying to
compete. However, he credited Low for being inno-
vative in producing a new form of relief tile that had
already won him a gold medal at the Crewe, England,
exhibition of September 1880. Interestingly, Millet
made no mention of the efforts of his own Tile Club,
considered outside the mainstream of tile making.
Also, it should be noted that there is no evidence that
Millet, a relatively late inductee to the club, had ever
painted any tiles himself.
When Abbey and Parsons returned to England in
May of 1882, their small building at 58½ West Tenth
Street became the official Tile Club headquarters for
the next five years, although the group also continued
to meet in each other’s studios. Because of the cosmo-
politan nature of the Tile Club and its transatlantic
network of members, the clubhouse became, as
described by Laffan, “a convenient neighboring
planet…from which various points of the globe were
precisely equidistant.” 116 By this point Reinhart had
settled in France; Abbey, Parsons, and Boughton were
in England, where Millet would soon be as well; and
the following year Vedder would return to his villa in
Italy. All kept in close touch, and when club members
traveled abroad they were warmly received by
their brethren.
The clubhouse at 58½ couldn’t have been better
suited for the group. Its obscure location enhanced the
club’s carefully cultivated image of being exclusive and
elusive. As Strahan (Earl Shinn) slyly informed the
masses, “It is an undiscoverable place, burrowing out
of sight, in harmony with the singular and notorious
modesty of those who established it. There is no use,
for those who have not received the password, in trying
to find it.” 117 He then tantalized his readers by luring
them to the very doorstep with intriguing clues: “Find,
if you can, the most inconspicuous of these entrances
[on West Tenth Street], the kind of entrance which has
two or three different numbers marked on it, and, if
possible, some number ‘and a half.’” 118 The house itself
(still standing) is a small two story structure built in
1835–36 and situated directly behind another period
Decorative Age or Decorative Craze? 27