Original 1920s D&M Tile Mural

Description

The D & M tile company, named after its owners John Davies and John McDonald, operated in Los Angeles from … more The D & M tile company, named after its owners John Davies and John McDonald, operated in Los Angeles from 1928 to 1939. A little is known of McDonald’s, who appears to have worked solely in the capacity of salesman for the company.

John Luther Davies was born in Wales in 1881 And was likely trained as a ceramic artist while working at Doulton and Co. Lambeth, London. He immigrated to the United States around 1910 and worked in Staten Island New York before moving to Kansas City, Missouri. He met his wife Ethel and they had two children. By 1920 the young family moved to Spokane, Washington were Davies worked at superintendent at the Washington brick lime and sewer pipe company. A few years later they moved to Los Angeles.
Davies took a job in Lincoln Heights, near downtown, as superintendent at the pacifically products plant where his career began to take an interesting turn. In an article entitled “Searching for D&M Tile”Art historian Lisa F. Taft describes the site, originally established around 1890, as occupying over 6 acres and being equipped it for the manufacture of sewer pipe, brick, and stoneware. The job proved fortuitous For Davis as he began experimenting with different places in his spare time. By 1927 he had left the company to make tiles on his own.

DNM produced four, five, six, and 8 inch tiles, as well as some circular ones. The designs were mostly Moorish patterns and bright yellow, orange, turquoise, and blue. Among the hundreds of installations, the tiles were used at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California, and double park in San Diego for the X position there in 1935, and on the Grace line ocean liners.


This is an incredibly rare D&M tile co. mural to surface. I could not find any others like it at any price. It features a majestic Chinese dragon with a wonderfuly vibrant color combination. The whole tile scene features six 8”x8” tiles set into a beautiful iron frame to be wall mounted or can be removed and set into a table or wall. This mural would fit wonderfuly in any style home, especially Spanish revival. less