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Fig. 1 - A Child’s Storybook World, 2015; Gladding, McBean & Company, Los Angeles, CA, designer; Motawi Tileworks, Ann Arbor, MI, manufacturer; Glazed faience. MAACM Collection.
Books can awaken and invoke the power of imagination, transporting readers to another world. In these troubled times, too often people forget the simple joys of reading. A Child’s Storybook World, a whimsical mural in the collection of the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, vividly conveys the message that books can bring fantasy, romance, and adventure to life.
Composed of 84 tiles made of faience, or glazed terra cotta, A Child’s Storybook World depicts a boy sitting against a tree, absorbed in reading a large book. All around him are literary characters that have been conjured by his imagination, including three knights in full armor on horseback, Romans in a chariot, and two pixies, within a backdrop of a large castle and two fort-like towers.
Fig. 2 - Detail from A Child’s Storybook World. MAACM collection.
Made in 2015 by Motawi Tileworks of Ann Arbor, MI, the mural (Unframed dimensions: 36 ½”h x 84 ½”w), is a copy of an original created by Gladding, McBean & Company around 1926. The original was installed above the fireplace in the Robin Hood Room at the Wilmington Public Library in Wilmington, CA, now part of Los Angeles. Soon after, Gladding, McBean featured the mural in an advertisement, explaining how art can bring life to libraries: “On the shelves of a Public Library, great lovers of history hide and the heroes of chivalry lie unseen. Think of the possibilities of bringing these characters out of their books to live on the library walls.”
Founded in 1875, ceramics manufacturer Gladding, McBean & Company of Los Angeles, CA, became known for their architectural terra cotta. By the early twentieth century, the company was well established in California and began to expand their business by purchasing smaller competing potteries. In 1923, they acquired Tropico Potteries, a company near Los Angeles specializing in small faience and floor tiles. According to the Los Angeles Herald, April 21, 1907, "The factory at Tropico is one of the best equipped in existence and can easily furnish all tile that is required in Los Angeles." After the procurement of Tropico, Gladding, McBean expanded production to include decorative tiles for use in commercial buildings and private residences, offering more than 85 different colors in various shapes and sizes. In 1933, seven years after creating A Child’s Storybook World, Gladding, McBean produced another version for their display at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. As demand for architectural ceramics diminished in the 1930s, however, the company began to focus on other products such as tableware.
Fig. 3 - Motawi Tileworks staff with MAACM’s mural in 2015.
Motawi Tileworks created their first copy of the mural in 1997 for the children’s area of the Washington Square Public Library in Kalamazoo, MI. They have since created several others for locations including the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. A Child’s Storybook World is popular because the subject speaks to the young and young-at-heart. For this reason, the beloved mural will be displayed in the Children’s Gallery at the new Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, where visitors will have the opportunity to experience it this winter.