“ONE OF THE MOST ELABORATE AMERICAN PLUMBING CATALOGUES”

1897 Original MOTT’S PLUMBING CATALOGUE “R” Mott Iron Works COLOR PLATES

1897 Original [Cover Title] MOTT’S PLUMBING CATALOGUE “R”; Plumbing and Sanitary Department; J. L. Mott IRON WORKS (New York, NY); Printer's device on t. p. verso: Bartlett & Company, The Orr Press, New York, wood engravings by McCullow & Sturm; 24 Color Illustrations: wood engravings: with 1,138 numbered plates on 348 pages; large format 14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm); Includes index. [CATALOG]

COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS: 24 Color Illustrations [18 Color decorated wash basins on 3 one-sided pages and 6 Color decorated porcelain bath tubs on 3 one-sided pages.

LAID IN:  [FOUR ITEMS] Single sheet dated April 1899, describing three circulars to be inserted into a binder which has been provided and the three circulars are present, in fine condition [See Scan].

SCARCITY [At the time of this posting no original copies were located at: the Library of Congress; Via libri; or eBay; [copies were located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Hagley Museum & Library; Worldcat (Columbia Universities libraries and Harvard University)].

CONDITION: VERY GOOD Collectable Condition, two small chips to front free endpaper, none on back free endpaper; tight and solid [it appears to have had professional hinge strengthening repairs sometime in the past] [See Scans/Photos]

HISTORY: The J. L. Mott Iron Works was established by Jordan L. Mott in New York City in the area now called Mott Haven in 1828. Mott was previously a grocer, but he transitioned to iron works when he invented the first cast iron stoves that could burn anthracite coal. The company would later expand to the manufacture and trading of "Stoves and ranges, hot-air furnaces, parlor grates and fenders, fire irons, cauldrons and kettles, statuary, candelabra, fountains garden seats, vases, iron pipes or every kind, water tanks, &c" are mentioned in Benson John Lossing, History of New York City. Mott was interested in the patenting of inventions but turned down President Buchanan's offer to make him Commissioner of Patents.

The business was continued by Mott's son, J.L. Mott, Jr. The J. L. Mott Iron Works shop occupied the entire 11 floors of a building shop in Fifth Avenue and Seventeenth Street. An account cited that the basement, first and second floors displayed plumbing and bathroom fixtures. The rest of the upper floors were devoted to hospital, marine, and tile departments as well as the ornamental, heating, and furnaces departments. Plumbing fixtures, including enameled cast iron bathtubs were also a J.L. Mott specialty.

At the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, 1876, an elaborate cast iron fountain, 25 feet tall, was exhibited by the company. According to the exposition review, Gems of the Centennial Exposition all of the modeling of architectural forms, basins and figures was completed by artisans of the company. Figures were molded in clay, then cast in plaster to provide the molds for the cast iron, in a process similar to bronze-founding. The lowest "pan" or basin was ten feet in diameter, said at the time to have been the largest such cast-iron basin in the United States.

PROVENANCE: Label pasted to the front endpaper stating, “Mr. W. A. Benshoff [Architect], Pasadena. Cal, with the compliments of the J L. MOTT IRON WORKS No. 1676.”

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[ENN – S1 (code to locate the item)]