J. L. Mott Iron Works - Victorian Era Bathroom, Kitchen, and Outdoor Fixtures

Introduction

“Carrying Coals to Newcastle” is not nearly as remarkable as sending Plumbing Appliances to London – as stated in an J.L. Mott Iron Works advertisement from the New York Sun in 1899. By the end of the nineteenth century the J. L. Mott Iron Works were being shipped to every country where plumbers’ supplies are in use. Large consignments are constantly being to Russia and other European countries, China and India. The company turns out some of the very finest goods of this class that are made in the world. (1, 2)

Who were these Motts who led the empire known as the J. L. Mott Iron Works from 1832 to 1927? The name “Mott” is an Anglicized version of the French “De La Motte” and dates back to 11th century France. Fast forward to 1635 America and Dutch New Amsterdam (now New York City) and we have Adam Mott, the ancestor of J. L. Mott arriving from Essex, England to settle on Long Island. We have to wait another 163 years until the birth of J. L. Mott, the founder of the “Mott Empire” is born in 1798. (3)

The Rise of J. L. Mott Iron Works

At the turn of the nineteenth century, indoor plumbing, and especially bathrooms were not as important as they are now -- but stoves to cook and heat were. The company that was to become the J. L. Mott Iron Works began in 1822, when Jordan Lawrence Mott, a grocer, designed the anthracite self-feeding coal stove that could use the less desirous and less expensive small lump coal sizes. None of foundries at the time, wanted to cast furnaces from this young upstart’s design, so Mott invented and patented his own cupola furnace. He then built own foundry along the Harlem River in the late 1820s -- the nascent Mott foundry works were beginning to rise. The area around the foundry housed many of the Mott’s employees and became known as Mott Haven in The Bronx. (3, 4)

Mott’s patented stoves were winning awards at the Fair of the Mechanics Institute since its inception of awards in 1832 – five silver medals during the period 1836-39 alone. The people were buying them and the J. L. Mott Company was now truly in business. (5, 6)

Mott continued with patents until he retired from the company in 1857. His patents included those for stove grates, furnaces, cooking ranges, fireplaces, bath tubs, cauldrons and eventually exotic bathroom plumbing fixtures. Also in 1857, he commissioned history painter Christian Schussele of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to paint Men of Progress (now in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D. C.). It captured the growth of the American economy up to the 1850s, advanced by the figures of in the “portrait” -- Cyrus McCormick; inventor of the mechanical reaper, Charles Goodyear; discoverer of vulcanization of rubber, Samuel Colt; inventor of the revolving pistol; Samuel F. B. Morse; artist and inventor of the electric telegraph; Elias Howe; inventor of the sewing machine; Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, among others. A portrait of Benjamin Franklin hangs on the wall above the luminaries. Surprisingly, J. L. did not include himself in the “portrait.” (3, 7)

J. L. Mott, Jr., was born in 1829 on November 10, 1829. He attended the Irving Institute in Tarrytown, New York and later attended the University of the City of New York, but left in his junior year in 1849 to join his father in business. where he would spend his first four years as an apprentice. In 1853, the old company was incorporated as the J. L. Mott Iron Works and Mott, Jr., was “taken into the business” first as a secretary and then as a salesman. In 1866 Mott, Sr. died and Mott, Jr. took over the business and J. L. Mott Iron Works was poised for exponential growth. Mott, Jr. retired as manager of the iron works circa 1905 to devote himself to his art collection, one of the most notable in the United States. He died in 1915. (4, 8, 9)

Innovation and Specialization

“There is not a metal article used in the plumbing business that is not made in the Mott works and in every city of any importance in the civilized world some of the product of this great enterprise will be found. Mott-made goods are recognized as the very best. The best of materials are used and the most experience workman are employed to work the raw material into finished articles.” (10)

The key to Mott’s success that they made high quality plumbing and ornamental items to fit the pocketbooks of the wealthy to the newly-evolving middle-class. After the Civil War, Mott issued extensive trade catalogs that described their wide range of products, including: (11, 12, 13)

·Lawn and Park Fountains
Drinking Fountains
Aquaria and Aquarium Fountains
Flower Vases
Statuary
Settees and Chairs
Gas and Electric Light Posts and Lamps
Bronze Vault Doors and Grilles
Marquise, Vestibule and Storm Doors
Railings and Entrance Gates
Stable Fittings
Copper Weather vanes
Sanitary/Plumbing fixtures (sinks, bathtubs, toilets, etc.).
Cast Iron Fire Hydrants
Manhole Covers
Stoves and Ranges
Iron Pipe and Fittings
Street and Building Gas Lamps
Architectural Metalwork (railings, gates, window guards)
ron Water Tanks
Sewer and Drainage Equipment (manhole covers, drain grates)
Fire Escape Ladders AI
Hollow Ware
Farmers’ Boilers,
Cauldrons,
Steam Kettles,
Laundry Iron Heaters
Stable Furniture.

The Company added a brass foundry and circa 1870 formed a subdivision to produce enameled ironware. In 1876 the J. L. Mott Iron Works won awards at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with their exhibits of fountains, vases, and statuary; and castings in iron. They were gaining even more market recognition for their products, and they increased their factory footprint to meet the new demand and to become the leader in iron products. (4, 14)

In 1895, Mott began using the Trenton Fireclay & Porcelain Company for their porcelain coated tub requirements and in 1902, the two companies merged. About 1907, the company moved its iron factory from Mott Haven, New York to Trenton, New Jersey. The company had built a new plant across the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the Amboy Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad from the Trenton Fireclay & Porcelain Company in South Trenton, which was connected by a bridge in responses to an increase of porcelain-enameled products. At this time, another company was formed under the name J. L. Mott Company. After the death of Mott, Jr., in 1915, the J. L. Mott Iron Works, the Trenton Fireclay and Porcelain Company and the J. L. Mott Company merged, but operated as separate units. (2, 11, 15)

The J. L. Mott Iron Works had retail outlets from coast to coast, with major showrooms in Philadelphia and New York. They ran product ads in newspapers and trade journals. They were on top of the world.

The Sun Sets on the Mott Empire

The J. L. Mott Iron Works survived the Civil War, and the Panics of 1873 and 1893, but changes were occurring that would signal the end of this grand old firm. There were competitors, yes, but there were also some reorganizations and mismanagement issues as well. The company went through bankruptcy in 1924, and in 1927, the company merged with two other companies. The company went through another bankruptcy in 1931, but the writing was on the wall, the bathroom wall, so to speak. They were unable to strengthen their position, likely a consequence of, at least partially, the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. Or perhaps, and more sadly, “corporate senescence.". What kept them going, was gone. (3, 11)

“Facts are stubborn things.” J. L. Mott, Sr., stated in an 1839 newspaper ad referring to the fact that his stoves were winning awards. Nearly one hundred years later, regardless of product quality, the facts were no longer on the side of the J. L. Mott Company; it shuttered it doors in 1932. (6, 11)

-- Joan Hawk, Researcher and Co-Owner Bedford Fine Art Gallery, December 21, 2024; Use only with the permission of Bedford Fine Art Gallery.

Sources Cited:

https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-sun-oct-06-1899-p-2/
https://newspaperarchive.com/jun-16-1909-p-1/
Mott, Jordan, L. VI, 1986, Mott Street, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, MD.
D’Ambrosio, Anna Tobin, 2005, A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement, exhibition catalog October 2, 2005 through March 19, 2006.
https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-morning-herald-oct-16-1838-p-4/
https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-morning-herald-oct-08-1839-p-3/
https://npg.si.edu/learn/classroom-resource/men-progress
https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-sun-jul-27-1915-p-7/
https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-jul-27-1915-p-9/
https://newspaperarchive.com/trenton-times-oct-12-1906-p-23/
Winkler, Gail Caskey, 1989, The Well-appointed bath: authentic plans and fixtures from the early 1900s, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Preservation Press, Washington, D. C.
J. L. Mott Iron Works 1871, Catalog for Stoves, Ranges, Hollow Ware, Farmers’ Boilers, Cauldrons, Steam Kettle, Laundry Iron Heaters and Stable Furniture, E. D. Slater, Steam Book and Job Printer, New York.
----- 1905, American trade index, National Association of Manufacturers, New York
----- 1876, List of Award made by the United States Centennial Commission to the American Exhibitors, International exhibition 1876, at Philadelphia: United States, S.T. Souder & Company, Philadelphia.
https://potteriesoftrentonsocietyorg/research/records/j-l-mott-company/