The Roof Beautiful. A Simple and Concise Story of the Origin and Use of Roofing Tiles

Chicago, IL: Ludowici - Celadon Company, 1921. Good. Third edition; 10 1/4 x 8; pp. [2], 5-32; textured pictorial wraps; numerous color- and black-and-white illustrations; a bit of wear to edges and corners of wraps; staples with small rust spots; pp. 13-14 quite-inexplicably replaced with a thin, transparent film - with the original illustrations and text + a facsimile drawing collaged on it; in good to very good condition.A scarce booklet with beautiful illustrations, it was published as an advertisement for and distributed to customers of the Ludowici - Celadon Company - a business tracing its origins 400 years back to Italy, to the Ludovisi family, known for their expertly crafted roof tiles. In 1857, descendant Carl Ludowici founded Carl Ludowici Ziegelwerke in Ensheim, Germany. Ludowici's American roots began with the founding of the Celadon Terra Cotta Company in Alfred, New York. It would be renamed the Celadon Roofing Tile Company in 1900 and, after purchasing the Imperial Clay Company, the Ludowici-Celadon Company in 1906. Ludowici - Celadon has created roof tiles for many landmarks through the 19- and 20th-centuries and today, including the White House, the New York Life Building and the New York State Capitol, Wrigley Field, and most of the buildings at Disney World.