J. L. Mott Iron Works
{{Short description|Defunct American hardware store}}
File:JLMott MainOffice cropped.jpg
The J. L. Mott Iron Works was an American hardware dealer and manufacturer during the late 19th century. It operated in New York and was relocated to Trenton, New Jersey, where it ceased operations in the 1920s.{{Cite book |last=Knoblock |first=Glenn A. |title=Weathervanes of New England |last2=Wemmer |first2=David W. |publisher=McFarland |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4766-3022-9 |location=Jefferson, NC |pages=222 |language=en}}
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."Leaders for 90 Years", House & Garden November 1918, p. 61 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. Lossing, History of New York City, 1884, vol. II p. 708 Mott was interested in the patenting of inventions, but turned down President Buchanan's offer to make him Commissioner of Patents.Lossing p. 708f.
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.{{Cite book |title=Hardware Dealers' Magazine |date=1907 |publisher=Hardware Dealers' Magazine, Incorporated |pages=1179 |language=en}} 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 ExpositionIllustrated in Gems of the Centennial Exposition, p. 71f. 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 moulds 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. Some examples of the fountain figure The Boy with the Leaking Boot in various American and Canadian cities were purchased from the company.
File:JLMott bathroom interior.jpg
The company relocated in about 1902 to Trenton, New Jersey.{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/07/07/101957779.pdf|title=Mott Iron Works to move |date=7 July 1902|work=New York Times|accessdate=2009-07-15 | format=PDF}}File:Modern Plumbing - J. L. Mott Iron Works.jpg
In 1917, artist Marcel Duchamp may have selected a urinal from the J.L. Mott showroom in Manhattan and presented it as a work of art called Fountain at the Society of Independent Artists exhibition.A 128-page Bathroom Book showing the company's wares was mentioned in House & Garden November 1918; see also Gail Caskey Winkler and Charles Elbert Fisher, The Well-appointed Bath, 1989, pp 18, 20, 26. This episode marks the introduction of the readymade in the history of modern art.
The Mott Iron Works company[http://www.mottironworks.com Mott Iron Works website] was established in 1984 in Massachusetts, United States, and has no connection with the earlier company.
See also
References
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Further reading
- {{cite web|url=http://www.vintageplumbing.com/thejlmottironworks.html|title=The J. L. Mott Iron Works|work=Vintage Plumbing Bathroom Antiques|accessdate=2009-07-15}} - company history and images of bathroom fittings
External links
{{commons category|J. L. Mott Iron Works}}
- {{cite web | url=http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?num=20&word=J.%20L.%20Mott%20Iron%20Works&s=3¬word=&d=&c=&f=4&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pNum= | work=NYPL digital gallery| title=Images with the phrase "j. l. mott iron works" in Name | accessdate=2009-07-15}} - 753 images from the company's catalogues
- {{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/07/27/100170018.pdf|title=Jordan L. Mott dies in 86th year|work=New York Times|date=27 July 1915|accessdate=2009-07-15 | format=PDF}} - Obituary of son of the founder
- {{cite web|url=http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/manholes/manhole.html|title=Manhole and coal chute covers|work=Forgotten New York street scenes|accessdate=2009-07-15}} - includes images of J. L. Mott ironwork
- [http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/aapamphlets/item/167 Modern Plumbing - J. L. Mott Iron Works (1921)] Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library.
Category:Manufacturing companies based in New Jersey
Category:Companies based in Trenton, New Jersey
Category:American companies established in 1828
Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1828
Category:1828 establishments in New York (state)