Ceramic Tesserae for Mosaic Floor Pavements: A Restoration Plan for Pleasant Home's Summer Dining Porch Mosaic
In: https://digitalcollections.saic.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3Athesis_25182
Mosaic floor pavements have been used as functional architectural ornamentation throughout the world for thousands of years. Small mosaic tiles, called tesserae, traditionally include stones, marbles, backed clays, glass and other materials in an endless spectrum of colors and textures. The art of arranging mosaic tesserae into patterns or pictorial representations and setting them in a bed of cement results in a remarkably durable floor as well as a decorative element within architectural interiors and exteriors. However, as desirable as they are for their durability, mosaic floor pavements are not without their vulnerabilities. Pleasant Home, also known as the John Farson House, is a historic house museum located in the historic community of Oak Park, Illinois, a village known for its architectural significance. Designed in 1897 by prominent architect George Washington Maher, the house is a particularly notable early example of a Prairie Style home and is a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation given by the United States government for sites of outstanding historic significance. The Summer Dining Porch, located in the southwest corner of Pleasant Home, contains a mosaic floor pavement comprised of Carrara marble and ceramic tesserae. The floor exhibits two long cracks in the mosaic floor, which has resulted over time due to the corrosion of two 7-foot long!-beams beneath the porch floor slab. In 2013, the Summer Dining Porch underwent a restoration that included stabilizing and repairing the corroded 1-beams. The cracks in the mosaic floor remain, but were filled in with tinted tile grout. The purpose of this thesis is to produce compatible ceramic tesserae, which can be used to fill to two floor cracks of the Summer Dining Porch Mosaic. Replacement ceramic tesserae will be donated to The Pleasant Home foundation to be used for potential future restoration of the Summer Dining Porch Mosaic. Documentation of the colors and qualities of the tesserae, the overall design, and current conditions of the mosaic floor was undertaken. The floor cracks and adjacent tesserae were studied in detail, noting differences in surface level, the undulating width of the floor cracks, and the condition of adjacent tesserae. Research and experimentation with clay body recipes, colorants, and firing variations were undertaken in the effort to produce tesserae that match the original mosaic floor in color, size, luster, durability, and craftsmanship.