Mercer Tiles in the Dining Hall
of Lancaster Theological Seminary.
Tiles installed in 1917:
Lancaster Theological Seminary is fortunate to have three important fireplace installations handcrafted by Henry Chapman Mercer. Two of these fireplaces are in the dining hall. That room is known as the Dietz Refectory. The third fireplace is in the basement lounge of Richards Hall.
The two fireplaces in the refectory are faced with Mercer tiles that depict Bible stories. Henry Mercer had first observed these biblical images on antique Pennsylvania German stove plates. The fireplace above includes two stove plates.
A Mercer Fireplace with two Pennsylania Stove Plates
The Bible in Tile Fireplace:
Above: The tiles:
1. Adam and Eve. 2. Elijah and the Ravens. 3. Abraham and Isaac. 4. and 5. Miracle at Cana. 6. Cain and Abel. 7. Samson with the Gate. 8. David and Jonathan. 9. Love Bettereth [Mote and the Beam]. 10. Peace. 11. Samson and Delilah. 12. The Grenadiers / War and Peace. 13. Miracle of the Widow’s Oil. 14. Pharisee and Publican. 15. Death of Absalom. 16. The Family Quarrel. 17. Miracle at Cana. 18. Flight into Egypt. 19. The Hope of Peace. 20. Wedding Fable / Swarm of Bees. 21. The Wedding / The Parson / The Bride. 22. The Wedding Dance.
Above: The stove plates:
A: Pharisee and Publican This stove plate tells the Bible story of the self-righteous Pharisee (the bad guy) and the humble Publican / tax collector (the good guy). The arrogant Pharisee, on the left is telling God of his virtuous deeds and how he is better than others. A tax collector (“Zoelner”) on the right is humble, and asks God for mercy. The humble heart of the tax collector won the day.
This fireplace mantle also includes a Mercer tile that depicts this story, tile #14. This story of the humble tax collector appears on more Pennsylvania German pictorial stove plates that any other story. Humility turned the often-despised tax collector into a stove-plate hero.
B. 1764 Warwick Furnace, Chester County. The text in the lower medallion is: IAHN. POT. AND. WARK. FURNACE. (John Potts and Warwick Furnace). The inscription reads LAS. VOM. BESEN. UND. THUE. GUTES. from Psalms 37:27 in Luther’s Bible: “Depart from evil and do good.” This is stove plate number 274 in Henry Mercer’s book The Bible in Iron, 1961 edition.
This 1764 stove plate was made at Warwick Furnace, Chester County. The iron furnace was established by widow Anna Rutter Nutt. She is considered the first woman industrialist in the U. S. He son-in-law, John Potts, became the furnace’s ironmaster in 1741. He later founded Pottstown. Today the iron furnace is a lavender farm named Warwick Furnace Farm.
Antique Five-Plate Stoves:
Icons of Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage:
Image source: Winterthur
Cast-iron wall stoves are iconic symbols of Pennsylvania German architectural history. In the 1700s Pennsylvania’s German-speaking families heated their homes with these stoves. Meanwhile their Anglo, English-speaking neighbors did not use stoves for heating. They used fireplaces instead.
Henry Mercer’s ancestry was not German. His relatives had been English and Scottish. But he was very much impressed by the unique craftsmanship of his Pennsylvania German (“Pennsylvania Dutch”) neighbors. So he used decorations from their stoves for designs of his first earthenware tiles.
Many of those historic stoves were decorated with Bible-story scenes. Mercer copied those scenes for his two fireplaces here in the seminary dining hall.
Above: Title page to Henry Mercer’s The Bible in Iron. Mercer assembled an extraordinary collection of antique stove plates. That collection is now on exhibit in the Mercer Museum. He donated that museum and its collections to the Bucks County Historical Society.
Henry Mercer’s Hochzeit Tiles / Wedding Tiles
of this Lancaster Seminary Fireplace:
Above: A ceramic pastor in a wineglass pulpit officiates a wedding. The adjoining panel shows the wedding dance.
Above: Text from Henry Mercer’s landmark book about Pennsylvania German stove plates, titled The Bible in Iron, published in 1914. This publication is the definitive study of those rare stoves and their folk-art decoratons.
A 1917 Letter from Seminary President Bowman to Henry Mercer
Thanking Mercer for Donating this Fireplace to the Seminary:
Above: Letter archived at Mercer Museum Library
Above: Portrait source: Oriflamme Vol. XII, 1894
Letter above:
August 13th 1917
My Dear Dr. Mercer,
It is not possible for me to express to you the gratitude I have felt for many days for the great favor you have bestowed upon our seminary by your splendid gift of the “Bible Mantle.” Now that it is completed it is the most interesting feature of the new building and a great credit to your creativity…
I have been cherishing the hope that you might be with us on the day of dedication and give a brief address on the religious-art spirit of our forefathers. It would be greatly appreciated by those assembled to hear a brief address from the one who has so beautifully and permanently enshrined that spirit in our institution…
With assurance of my high regard for you, I am sincerely and gratefully yours. John C. Bowman.
The Seminary Dining Hall’s Other Fireplace with Mercer Tiles:
Above: Lancaster Seminary’s refectory has two Mercer-tile fireplaces, on opposite walls of the room. The second fireplace has two rows of panels from the series Bible in Tile. The floor tiles are also Mercer tiles.
This Seminary Fireplace Illustrates
The Miracle of the Widow’s Olive Oil:
Above: German text: Da stand das Oel: Translation: There stood the [olive] oil.
Above: German text: Das Oel fehlt nicht. Translation The [olive] oil failed not.
German text: Der Segen Des Herren Machte Riech [sic]. Translation: The Blessing of the Lord Maketh Rich.
The Pennsylvania German Stove Plate
That Inspired Mercer to Create These Tiles:
Above: Mercer described the Widow’s Oil stove plate in his 1914 book The Bible in Iron.
A 1917 Newspaper Describes these Fireplaces
During the Dedication of this New Dining Hall:
Henry Mercer also built a Bible in Tile Fireplace
for his Doylestown Tile Studio / Showroom:
Above: Bible-story tiles surround this fireplace in Henry Mercer’s studio / showroom in Doylestown. His tile customers were able to examine these tile designs in this display room.
Above: Detail of the fireplace in Henry Mercer’s studio / showroom in Doylestown, with tiles depicting The Widow’s Oil.
