He wrote extensively on his interests, which included archeology, early tool making, German stove plates, and ceramics.

Allen, and later his son Florenze, was proprietor of an iron foundry that produced stove plates, plow points, and kettles.

It was 1803 when David Wood became a part owner of a furnace that sold stove plates through the firm of Smith and Wood.

In addition to tools, it displays furnishings of early America, carriages, stove plates, a gallows, antique fire engines, a whaleboat, and the Lenape Stone.

Also, the stove plate collection of the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke steel mill is exhibited, with artists, modellers and the production sequence of a cast plate from design to final product being presented.

There are several examples of the cast-iron stoves and stove plates that are a distinctly American variation of Rococo design, objects striking for the paradox of delicate decoration and gutsy material.

The tile works turned out colorful Moravian clay tiles (called Moravian because Mercer was inspired by stove plates seen in a Moravian mission), designed by Mercer and more closely resembling small sculptures than they did traditional tile.