Parade of Stellar Arts & Crafts Tiles From The Two Red Roses Foundation

By WD, Antiques and The Arts Weekly

February 26, 2016

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Six years in the making, the definitive reference on Arts and Crafts tile and architectural faience has rolled off the presses, available from the website of Two Red Roses Foundation (TRRF), based in Palm Harbor, Fla., and from eBay. A limited run of 500 copies, don’t look for it on Amazon, Abebook, Alibris or any other professional bookseller.

Regular readers may be familiar with Two Red Roses and its progenitor, Rudy Ciccarello, who arrived on America’s shores from Rome in 1968 and followed a career trajectory that embraced diplomatic stints, a bachelor of arts degree from Boston University, a bachelor of science degree at Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy and the subsequent founding of a home infusion service — the success of which allowed him to pursue his collecting passion — the American Arts and Crafts movement [See Antiques and The Arts Weekly, August 5, 2011.]

Ciccarello’s collections quickly exceeded the space limitations of his home and he temporarily moved much of it to a secure warehouse. In 2004, he launched TRRF after the title of a William Morris poem “Two Red Roses Across the Moon.” In 2014 he announced plans to develop a new museum in St Petersburg to honor the American Arts and Crafts movement — an 110,000-square-foot, $35 million structure on 3½ acres, scheduled to open in 2018.

In the meantime, acquisitions have continued apace, and this new book surveying the TRRF collection of Arts and Crafts tiles reinforces the foundations’ mission to promote understanding of the American Arts and Crafts movement through the collection, conservation, exhibition and interpretation of its decorative and fine arts. The book joins previously produced TRRF catalogs of furniture and metalwork and fully documents the TRRF collection, from individual 4-b-4-inch tiles to a complete room installation. Decorative arts historian Susan J. Montgomery is the tour guide, taking readers through these hundreds of examples of early Twentieth Century tiles. We see gems by some of the movement’s leading artists — Ernest Batchelder, California Faience, Doulton, Grueby, Frederick Hurten Rhead, Rookwood, Van Briggle and others — each one highly competitive yet true to the movement’s pursuit of fine design and craftsmanship.

And the stellar examples bring big money. In October 2012, as Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on New Jersey, the wind was at the back of a Rhead University City Peacock tile, which sold for a record $637,500 at Rago’s. Depicted in the book, this large four-part tile panel with a peacock, circa 1910 and measuring 20¾ inches square, is a unique piece, a personal gift from Rhead to friend and Weller Pottery colleague Levi Burgess, for his Zanesville, Ohio, residence.

When it has not paid top dollar at auction for these pieces, TRRF has rescued them from walls of buildings being renovated or razed. Ciccarello recognizes the need to safeguard these objects of the Arts and Crafts movement for future generations through conservation. His foundation’s museum will do just that, as well as making the material available to people with a serious interest in the period in which Arts and Crafts objects flourished in America. The parade of matte glazed tiles with their rich, earthy colors and excellent design depicted in these pages helps further that mission even before the doors open.

As an aside, author Montgomery will conduct a book signing session on Saturday, February 20, at the Grove Park Inn during the 29th Arts and Crafts Conference. For information, www.arts-craftsconference.com.