Wright Chat

Meisolus · Joined: 06 Jun 2010 Posts: 110

I was looking through the forum earlier and I realized we don't have a dedicated thread for the Wasmuth Portfolio. Or if we do I entirely missed it.

Personally I would love to have a good reproduction copy of it, but even the 1960s version is out of my price range at present. I'm sorry that this indiegogo version didn't make it four years ago. I'm tempted to contact the original poster and see what happened:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/frank-lloyd-wright-s-masterpiece-wasmuth-portfolio#/

His copy seems to be in excellent condition, which is a great rarity. I had never heard that only 15 copies survived the Taliesin fire. That number seems extremely low, but maybe someone else on the forum can confirm.

Here is something else that ended more recently:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Frank-Lloyd-Wright-Ausgef%C3%BChrte-Bauten-1911-Architecture-First-Edition/253493142323?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

It's a copy of the so-called "Little Wasmuth" which accompanied the larger portfolio. I'm not sure if the price they asked was reasonable or not, but I have to believe this is quite rare. It says that it was water damaged in the Taliesin fire.

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 15491 Location: San Francisco

Well done; better late than never ?

Here's the Dover paperbound oversized (10 3/4" x 13 5/8") edition of the Portfolio:

https://www.amazon.com/Early-Work-Frank-Lloyd-Wright/dp/B000KUUPRS

If you can live without the colored inks and special papers, this is a perfect reference: all the plates, and Wright's introduction and notes to the plates, in English. One of the all-time publishing bargains, in my opinion.

SDR

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 15491 Location: San Francisco

Here's the dope on the Dover edition of the Portfolio:

And here's what's found in the Bramhall edition of the "little Ausge":

HOJO · Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 40 Location: Belgium

Reproduction needed? You can print it.
Website University of Utah -> Search: Wasmuth Portfolio

Volume 1: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=204451
Volume 2: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=204452

Meisolus · Joined: 06 Jun 2010 Posts: 110

SDR, I'd be curious if the images in your reprint copy of the Little Wasmuth are as good as the originals. This is something I always wonder about, generally speaking, with any kind of reprint. Since they posted several good quality images on the ebay page above, what do you think of a side by side comparison for one or two?

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 15491 Location: San Francisco

Here are quickly-made, hand-held camera shots of plates from the my Bramhall Ausge. In general I find more density in these images than in the copy of the original offered on eBay. As for resolution, the centers of my images should represent
what's printed. Look at my borders to see the degree of off-focus; the borders of the printed photos are crisp and sharp. It appears that the claims made in the Publisher's Note (above) are factual . . .

Dana -- showing open entrance gates. No photos show the gates closed.

Dana

Barton (identified as "Martin Wohnhaus")

Coonley -- window muntins and cames in my copy are sharp

Heller -- partial image

Husser

Unity Temple

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 8136

Rizzoli published a hard cover in 1990, 10"x15", with titles in German. It's long out of print, but used book shops sometimes have them. I believe the Dover edition is also out of print. Dover recently changed hands, and the new owners have stopped printing many of the old books, including all but one of Don Hoffmann's 7 books.

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 15491 Location: San Francisco

My Dover is the one with the bright blue cover. The glue has let go in the binding, but that's par for the course -- despite Dover's sometime blurb about
superior bindings. It is marked in pencil "$7.95" -- the list price printed on the back cover. I got it at a local used-book store at some point. My Bramhall
is in perfect condition -- I think the dust jacket is in storage -- and also came from a local store, price not marked.

The used-book stores were the source for many of my older volumes. Too bad so many of them are long out of business. (A number of those stores had
named beginning with "A" -- I don't know why. The large "Green Apple" is still alive on Clement.)

SDR

Meisolus · Joined: 06 Jun 2010 Posts: 110

Let's do a side by side. The photos from the ebay listing of the original are on the left, and SDR's are on the right.

In terms of clarity, I'd say they are basically equal. I don't see a higher level of fuzziness in the reproduction. Especially since the reproduction prints are larger, that could be an advantage. However, since the originals are a bit lighter, you do get a bit more detail than the reproductions. In the Husser image, if you look in the central portion of the octagonal porch, there is something a bit more going on there than the darker one. I can see a bit more detail under the cornice on the Heller House, and the staircase on the left at Unity Temple is noticeably clearer. But unless you are scrutinizing them for detail (like you're trying to make a model or something), I don't know that there is a whole lot of difference.

Sorry I couldn't make the originals bigger, but that was the size they were posted on ebay. Enlarging them, which could play with the resolution, didn't seem like the best idea.