Solon and Schemmel Tile Company

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The oldest dated S&S tile installation (1922). Backesto Park Fountain in San Jose, California.

Solon and Schemmel Tile Company (S&S) was a

Sacramento.[3]
Their tiles were used by Helen Bell Bruton and her sister Margaret Bruton to create the Fleishhacker Zoo (currently San Francisco Zoo) Mother’s House mosaics. [4] The business was eventually subsumed into Stonelight Tile and is one of the only major California tile manufacturers from the 1920s to have survived to the present.[5][1]

History

Tile work on the Central Classroom building at Albert Solon's Alma Mater, San Jose State University

Albert Solon (1887-1949) immigrated from England to the U.S. in 1912. He studied at

San Jose Normal School (later San Jose State University). He was employed as the pottery director at Arequipa Sanatorium in Fairfax, a ceramic therapy program for tuberculosis patients, before moving to San Jose and teaching ceramics at the San Jose Normal School.[6][1]

In 1920, he joined with Schemmel to found S&S tiles[1][2] Solon designed the tiles and Schemmel headed the business. Both men lived in Willow Glen during the 1930s and 40s. Their work for Willow Glen sites included Willow Glen Theater (demolished)) and the façades of homes on Telfer Avenue, Kotenberg Avenue and Willow Glen Way.[1]

Schemmel retired in 1936 and Solon joined up with Paul Larkin. They changed the company name to Solon & Larkin and worked together until Solon retired in 1947.[1][2] Schemmel died in 1950. Four friends from UC-Berkeley took over the company in 1953 and changed the name from the Larkin Tile Company to Stonelight Tile. They owned the company until 1979.[1] It was bought by David Anson.[2]

Solon's family

Albert Solon came from a family with a long history in ceramics. He was the grandson of Léon Arnoux, art director of

San Simeon. Gilbert Solon (1879-1929) worked at the Royal Worcester Porcelain Co. Ltd. in Worcester, England.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Legacies". Archived from the original on 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2013-07-09. September 11, 1996 Willow Glenn Resident
  2. ^ a b c d e Stonelight Tile website Archived 2012-01-18 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ http://www.sacramentoheritage.org/files/st.f_tour_front.pdf Sacramento Heritage
  4. ^ "Oral history interview with Helen and Margaret Bruton, 1964 December 4 (An interview of Helen and Margaret Bruton conducted by Lewis Ferbraché on 1964 December 4 for the Archives of American art New Deal and the Arts Project.)". Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  5. ^ "Stonelight Tile".
  6. ^ "Guide to the Camille Solon Drawings Collection, 1900-1952".

Further reading

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