Ward Willits House Furniture

pharding · Post by **pharding** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:14 am

Does anyone know where I can view the original living room furniture for this masterpiece. I am considering these designs for living room furniture in the Davenport House.

allwrightythen1 · Post by **allwrightythen1** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:49 am

There's a Thomas A. Heinz book called "Frank Llotd Wright Interiors and Furniture" published out of London in 1994 from Academy Editions. Here's a link to it on bookfinder:

http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl ... 795_1:4:77

It has some photos of the Ward Willits interior and views of chairs and tables and such. You could probably glean enough off the photos to have a reasonable reproduction made of some of the pieces.

Have you also tried the FLW Foundation? Did Wright not design furniture for the Davenport house or is there no record of it?

pharding · Post by **pharding** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:41 am

allwrightythen1 wrote:Did Wright not design furniture for the Davenport house or is there no record of it?

Thank you for your suggestions.

The Daveport House did not have furniture designed for it. The floor plans showed a square dining room table and a square desk or coffee table and a piano in the living room. The furniture was not designed but consisted of plan indications on the floor plans.

The Heinz book is helpful. But if I could field measure built furniture, the results would have much more fidelity to the original.

I like the Ward Willets living room chairs because of their appropriateness to the time of the Davenport House, 1901, their uniqueness, and their unassuming aesthetic. They are slightly clunky yet beautiful. They are not refined like later iterations of his furniture. In a way they remind me of the Davenport House with its many powerful Prairie House ideas which were further refined in iterations of the Prairie Houses that were to follow.

allwrightythen1 · Post by **allwrightythen1** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:16 am

Here's some more photos and info for you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/halfback/tags/willitts/

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:13 pm

I recall hearing that the current owner of Willits had the opportunity back in the 80s of purchasing the original dining room table, but balked at the $15,000 price tag. I don't know if what is in the room now is original or not, but I bet he kicked himself for not paying what now would seem to be a very modest price.

Bernard Pyron · Post by **Bernard Pyron** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:28 pm

I Just read Roderick Grant's post of 29 March, 2006 saying the present owners of the Ward Willitts house turned down the chance to buy the original dining room table for $15,000.

In 1961 I acquired that dining room table and five chairs from the Willitts house in Highland Park, Illinois. When my wife and I were divorced in 1967 she got the table and I got the chairs. Then, in the mid eighties when John Eifler was restoring the Willitts house I began to search for the table that Homer Fieldhouse in Madison, Wisconsin had owned at one time. Robert Graves, the son of the winter caretakers of Taliesin, owned it, but would not sell it to me. Apparently he sold it to a Chicago art gallery that sold it to the Wolf Gallery in NY. $15,000 wasn't a bad price for it in the mid eighties, since Thomas Monaghan paid $198,000 in December of 1986 at Christie's for one of the Willitts high back chairs.

I wish I had held on to my three high back chairs until at least about 1990.

The story of my Willitts chairs and photos are at http://franklloydwright.4t.com/ and photos of four of the chairs are at

http://flickr.com/photos/halfback

outside in · Post by **outside in** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:56 pm

All furniture reproductions are to be authorized by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, as they hold the copyright to his designs. I also think its odd that furniture should be invented for the Davenport House, when the Willits House furniture was specifically designed for another house - The integrity of each house is the important issue, and its improper to start mixing furniture designs from one house to the next - it dilutes the integrity and significance of each building.

jackless · Post by **jackless** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:58 pm

so then "outside in" must be saying that since davenport had no furniture designed for it, then it can't have any furniture. after all, we don't want to mix designs. i wonder what furniture "outside in" has in his house? must be the furniture that was designed for it.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:32 am

I agree, jackless, the concern over purity (a quality that does not exist in design) is exaggerated. There is a photo of the living room of Schwartz with a 19th Century Chesterfield in it. The house doesn't make the Chesterfield look any prettier or more comfortable than it was, but the two together looked fine. FLW had chairs all over his living room at Taliesin with Queen Anne legs on them, and that didn't detract either.

outside in · Post by **outside in** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:58 pm

I am surprized that people in a chat room devoted to Wright would so quickly agree that his designs should be copied, used in settings they weren't meant to be, and that his drawings (and copyrights) used without permission from the Foundation he established.

Besides, who would want to willingly have uncomfortable furniture in their house? Be creative.

jackless · Post by **jackless** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:29 pm

please if someone here is a lawyer, correct me if i am wrong, but my impression is works published before 1923 are now in the public domain. hence willits should be public domain.

Deke · Post by **Deke** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:36 pm

Copyright is a very tricky issue. It's true that everything published before, I believe, 1923 is in the public domain. For instance the great Wasmuth portfolio is PD. Which is why there are some low-budget knock offs of those great drawings. Furthermore, copyright protection was not granted to architectural works until the Copyright act of 1990, and then only to works built after that year. This is why you can go to Vegas and see replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Chrysler Building. While it has never been court-tested, the conclusion is that any built work of Wright could be copied. This does not apply to drawings of Wright's which retain the copyright of any creative work - death plus 70 years (it used to be 50 years until the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act). The act of 1990 protected architectural designs drawn before that date as long as they were executed by 2002. So it could be argued that any Wright design is not protected by copyright unless it was built between 1990 and 2002. Furniture is another matter entirely as Wright did file copyright claims on various designs (Johnson Wax comes to mind)...you occasionally see copies of these copyright grants for sale on Ebay. It is pretty safe to say that furniture designed before 1923, is in the public domain.

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:33 am

Deke wrote:Copyright is a very tricky issue. It's true that everything published before, I believe, 1923 is in the public domain. For instance the great Wasmuth portfolio is PD. Which is why there are some low-budget knock offs of those great drawings.

Deke,

I was intrigued by your mention of "low-budget wasmuth knock-offs" and was wondering what you were refering to. Could you please elaborate. Thanks.

Deke · Post by **Deke** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:26 am

Because the Wasmuth drawings are in the public domain, they are often used in various books about Wright. I can't recall titles right off but I think one was about the "Early Years" and another may have been a coloring book for kids. You can find reprints of "The House Beautiful" for the same reason. Likewise drawings for the American System Built project of the 19-teens turn up in posters and gift cards. All public domain. I predict it's only a matter of time before someone reproduces the Wasmuth portfolio again.

Deke · Post by **Deke** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:30 am

Eric,

Okay, I just went to your website and it seems you're well aware of this material. I'm curious what copyright issues you've run into in the reproduction of the Wasmuth drawings. Is the Foundation claiming they are copyright protected?

Deke

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