New Acquisition Alert: Grueby Desert and Jungle Tile Friezes from the Bronx Zoo
The Desert and Jungle tile friezes commissioned by New York architects Heins & LaFarge for the New York Zoological Society’s high-profile new zoo in the Bronx in 1902 were crucial projects that added to the profile of the Grueby Faience Company. Upon the successful completion of the tiger and lion enclosures, Heins & LaFarge would commission Grueby Faience for nineteen stations of the New York subway system in 1904 and 1905, and again the following year for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
C. Grant LaFarge, designer, with Addison B LeBoutiller
Grueby Faience Company, Boston MA, Manufacturer
Buff faience body
The Desert frieze, designed for the Lion House, is a strikingly simple four-color depiction of a vast, open desert baking under a pale blue sky. Distant hills appear as an ivory shimmer on the horizon, like a heat mirage rising from the desert floor. Visual relief is provided in the foreground oasis, with a continuous band of green with occasional palms reaching above the horizon line. Despite the fact that lions inhabit grasslands, where their grazing prey thrives, rather than true desert, this scene made an acceptable habitat for the lions and hundreds of these tiles were installed in the lion enclosure.
C. Grant LaFarge, designer, with Addison B LeBoutiller
Grueby Faience Company, Boston MA, Manufacturer
Buff faience body
The Jungle frieze was the second design submitted to Heins & LaFarge for the Bronx Zoo project, even though Grueby’s scope only called for one. The addition of a second design was presumably to differentiate the cages for the big cats housed there — lions versus tigers. This depiction of a tiger’s habitat is diametrically opposed to the Desert tiles. It is cool, dark, dense, and green. Very little pale blue sky is visible in this tiger’s eye view of the tropical forest of thick foliage and tree trunks. Even in this single tile of the two-tile repeat shows LeBoutillier’s keen design sense. There is no central element, just a continuous horizontal band of trees. Depth is suggested by three alternating shades of green foliage. Most of the tree trunks are green as well, defined only by the tiny clay barriers.
LaFarge or, more likely, LeBoutillier realized that a repeat-tile frieze, no matter how closely the tiles are set, will read as a series of individual squares and a continuous landscape image simultaneously. Like most of Grueby’s frieze designs, the Desert and Jungle tiles are either self-repeating or form a two-tile repeat, so they can be combined a number of ways to achieve the desired length.
These tiles were so well received that Grueby included them in their exhibition at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, alongside many vases and lamps. Displayed prominently on the wall of their display, the Desert and Jungle tiles helped to show the range of decorative items created by Grueby artisans.
Although Heins & LaFarge were credited as designers when the Desert and Jungle tile friezes were exhibited on their own, Grueby’s staff, especially Addison LeBoutillier, refined the design, and offered advice on color and efficient production. As the son of mural painter and glass designer John LaFarge, C. Grant LaFarge believed in cooperation between architects and the artists who provided the decorative treatment of their buildings creating a sense of pride and ownership of the project.
Both Jungle and Desert tiles were included on the Grueby price lists of 1905 and 1909, at $5 each, but only the Desert tile was illustrated in the company catalogue. Decorative art tiles were an inexpensive way for people to add interesting decorative touches to their interiors in kitchens, bathrooms, or for over mantels and hearth decoration. One such example is the Jungle tile fireplace surround recently located in a residence in Brookline, Massachusetts. The opulent residence, built in 1905 in the exclusive Chestnut Hill neighborhood, had three fireplaces—including the one displayed at MAACM. All four Jungle tiles, along with the 38 green glaze tiles and the entire hearth, were carefully removed and reinstalled in a contemporary fireplace and mantle now on display in MAACM’s fourth floor Tile Gallery.