Departments

The Moravian Pottery & Tile Works: A Working History Museum

Members Special Edition

"Sour Gum Leaf" Available to members only - $39.95

"Sour Gum Leaf" is the sixth in a series of special tiles made exclusively for members of the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. This reissued design will only be available to members beginning in May 2007 and will be retired from production in May 2008.

 

Throughout his tile-making career, Henry C. Mercer drew design inspiration from trees and their leaves. Sour Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), also known as Black Tupelo, Blackgum and Pepperidge, is a tree native to southeastern Pennsylvania. "Lofty, tough, fine-leaved, flashing scarlet in autumn," Mercer once wrote, the Sour Gum is "heavily fruited with blue berries once beloved of the now vanished wild pigeon and other birds."