January 24 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Howells. Sam asked if he went to the Tile Club dinner in New York.

Notes: The Tile Club was founded in 1877, at the behest of a British architect, Edward Wimbridge, who suggested painting on 8 x 8 inch ceramic tiles (as a reaction to the decorative craze which cut into their painting sales). Twelve artists and writers joined more for the fellowship, exchange of ideas, and conviviality of like-minded souls than for tile painting, as the media in which the artists actually worked was not limited. The club met until about 1887. The original members included the illustrator, Edwin Abbey (present at the Stomach Club in Paris, where Sam read his piece on Onanism), and the painters, J. Alden Weir and Winslow Homer.

Over time, about 30 men joined the Club but the core group usually stayed at about a dozen members. Later members included the architect, Stanford White the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (also in Paris at Millet’s wedding with Sam); the painters, William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902), Elihu Vedder, Francis Millet, the painter and photographer, Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896), and the Japanese art director, Heromichi Shugio. There were also four honorary musician members. The Club met on Wednesdays, usually near the Tenth Street Studio Building, where they critiqued each other’s work. They also had dinner parties in each other’s studios with musical accompaniment from their honorary members, went on sketching excursions to the seaside and countryside, or visited art museums. A collegial group, the artists and writers collaborated on writing and illustrating their own Tile Club publications as well as on articles published in Harper’s Weekly, Scribner’s or Century magazines. Their final publication was A Book of the Tile Club in 1886 which described the easy camaraderie of the Club and included anecdotes about members.

For more on the Tile Club and their famous outings, see Mahonri Sharp Young’s essay, “The Tile Club Revisited,” American Art Journal Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1970) p. 81-91. Young claims the artists often threw tiles at each other, and broke up shortly after the 1886 book—the rumored cause was Hopkinson Smith’s personality [or, perhaps too many tiles found their mark].

Sam ended the letter with:

“We reach Hartford next Saturday—leave here Tuesday & take 2 days to go to New York, & stay there a day or two” [MTLE 5: 13].