shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileMaryland · United States

on the Patapsco River, where it opens to the Chesapeake

Baltimore

Name: Baltimore — on ceramic tile, by WenderVista
Brand: WenderVista

— — the harbour the anthem was written over.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.

— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand

— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines

— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall

— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround

— a note from the studio

“A working harbour that wrote itself into a national song. The bricks of Fells Point still hold the shape of the eighteenth-century waterfront; the row houses climb the hills above in long, painted rows. Out past Locust Point, Fort McHenry holds the morning the flag stayed up. The light off the Patapsco is grey-silver more often than blue, and the air carries the Chesapeake on it. from the studio

from the studio

— bring it home

Baltimore, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?

One tile — square or rectangle.

How big?

the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand

6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb

Surface finish

A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.

How it sits

A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.

$58

Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.

— size

6 × 6 in

15 cm

— weighs

1.6 lb

solid in the hand

— surface

ceramic, hand-finished

art rests beneath a thin glossy finish

— from

Knoxville, TN

our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies

— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Baltimore

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.

— the place

Baltimore sits on the Patapsco River in central Maryland, where the river widens into the Chesapeake Bay. The city was founded in 1729 and named for the Lords Baltimore, the Calvert family who held the colonial proprietorship. It grew on shipbuilding, the Baltimore Clipper, and the trade running up and down the Bay. Today the city holds roughly 570,000 people across neighbourhoods that still read by the wave of immigration that built them: Fells Point, Little Italy, Highlandtown, Hampden. The harbour remains the geographic centre, with the Inner Harbor redeveloped in the 1980s as a public waterfront.

— informed by Wikipedia — Baltimore

— the stone

The signature surface of Baltimore is the formstone-and-brick row house, two or three storeys, marble-stepped, running in unbroken lines down whole blocks. The marble for those famous white steps came largely from the Cockeysville quarry north of the city, the same vein that supplied the Washington Monument. Above the harbour, Fort McHenry holds its star-shaped earthworks from 1798. In the city, the 1815 Washington Monument in Mount Vernon predates the one in the capital by thirty-three years. The Bromo Seltzer Tower and the Phoenix Shot Tower still mark the skyline against the newer glass.

— informed by NPS — Fort McHenry

— the water

The harbour is the whole point. The Patapsco runs about thirty-nine miles down from Carroll County and empties at the Chesapeake just past North Point, and Baltimore grew along its inner branch because the water reached far enough inland to load tobacco and flour out to Europe. The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, is the working animal of these waters, brought in by the bushel through Jessup and sold at Lexington Market and along Boston Street. The water itself reads grey-green most of the year, browner after a Bay storm, and silver at the hour the city turns its lights on.

— informed by Wikipedia — Patapsco River

— where

United States · Baltimore, Maryland

— position

39.2904° N · 76.6122° W

— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.

5 km SE

Fort McHenry

historic fort

2 km E

Fells Point

historic waterfront

1 km N

Mount Vernon

historic district

1 km W

Camden Yards

ballpark

Baltimore

Fort McHenry

Fells Point

Mount Vernon

Camden Yards

— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Baltimore — and about bringing the piece home.

— about the place

Francis Scott Key watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry from a ship in the Patapsco on the night of September 13-14, 1814. The flag still flying at dawn became the lyric that grew into The Star-Spangled Banner.

The inner basin of the Patapsco River at the foot of downtown. Once the working port of the nineteenth century, it was redeveloped in 1980 around Harborplace as a public waterfront with the National Aquarium and the science centre.

Marble was quarried at Cockeysville, twenty miles north, and was cheap and durable enough to use across whole neighbourhoods. Scrubbing the front steps weekly became a civic habit by the late nineteenth century.

Poe lived in Baltimore in the 1830s and died there in 1849. He is buried in Westminster Burying Ground on Fayette Street, and the football team takes its name from his poem The Raven.

Steamed blue crab seasoned with Old Bay, the crab cake, pit beef, and the Berger cookie. Lexington Market, opened in 1782, is the oldest continuously operating public market in the country.

A waterfront neighbourhood east of the Inner Harbor, founded by William Fell in 1730 as a shipbuilding district. The cobbled streets and brick warehouses still hold the original eighteenth-century footprint.

— about the piece in your home

It travels well for people with ties to the city. The harbour, the row houses, and the Fort McHenry skyline read as home for anyone who grew up here. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The deep blues and brick reds of the piece sit comfortably in East Coast Traditional, Brownstone Modern, and Industrial-Maritime rooms. It pairs with dark wood, brass, and natural linen.

Yes. Maritime is back as a quieter, less literal style, leaning on real harbour cities rather than rope-and-anchor motifs. A Medium above a console or a Large over a sofa reads as place, not theme.

Above a standard sofa a single Large is the simplest answer. For wider walls a 4-tile Mural reads as one painting at distance, and a 9-tile Mural carries an open dining wall.

Yes. Order the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any room with steam or splash. The colour lives in the surface and will not fade with cleaning.

A soft microfibre cloth and warm water. No abrasive pads, no ammonia cleaners. The thin glossy finish wipes clean and the colour underneath is permanent.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is curated and finished in our Knoxville studio. No licensing, no stock art, no reprints from outside catalogues.

— if this one stayed with you