Wright 20 Auction 12/11/14
Wright 20 Auction 12/11/14
Just posted online is the preview for the upcoming auction for Wright20, including a number of FLW pieces. Most seem to be from existing collections, but the is a lamp from the Biltmore Hotel which shows the intended direction of the interiors. It isn't what I saw of the hotel in the Conference photos, and clearly indicate a dynamic direction.
Imperial hotel chair:
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/2014/1 ... design/156
Similar one sold last year (perhaps better condition):
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/2013/0 ... rch=wright
Notice that it was necessary to use brass/bronze brackets to connect pieces on the back..
I'll ask this before SDR:
Eliminate the unnecessary?!?!
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/2014/1 ... design/156
Similar one sold last year (perhaps better condition):
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/2013/0 ... rch=wright
Notice that it was necessary to use brass/bronze brackets to connect pieces on the back..
I'll ask this before SDR:
Eliminate the unnecessary?!?!
Last edited by peterm on Fri Nov 21, 2014 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bertoia
There was a Bertoia piece at the Cleveland Museum of Art last year. Upon request, the guard would put on a pair of white gloves and hit the sculpture. The sound was glorious. And the Kentuck Knob sculpture has even more strands. Even better.
I really need to make a trip up the the Cleveland Museum of Art, not only to see their Bertoia but also their Tony Smith sculptures.
Kentuck Knob is certainly not to be missed! Not only is it a wonderful Usonian but their sculpture garden is magnificent. I've hinted that if anyone would love to by me a lavish gift, that Somambient sculpture would be top on my list! ;) But since that is never going to happen, I'll be happy living with my wonderful collection of Soleri bells that will someday hang along the walkway from the carport to the house.
BTW I don't know if anyone on this site would be interested, but I saw this craigslist listing for Luxfer Prism Company FLLW prism tiles being sold by someone in Indiana: http://dayton.craigslist.org/atq/4713410974.html
Kentuck Knob is certainly not to be missed! Not only is it a wonderful Usonian but their sculpture garden is magnificent. I've hinted that if anyone would love to by me a lavish gift, that Somambient sculpture would be top on my list! ;) But since that is never going to happen, I'll be happy living with my wonderful collection of Soleri bells that will someday hang along the walkway from the carport to the house.
BTW I don't know if anyone on this site would be interested, but I saw this craigslist listing for Luxfer Prism Company FLLW prism tiles being sold by someone in Indiana: http://dayton.craigslist.org/atq/4713410974.html
I continue to be amazed at how often I see laymen -- journalists, perhaps -- and specialists, too (on Antiques Roadshow, for instance) handling ancient books and papers without gloves. Don't they know paper readily absorbs oils from the skin ? Other experts -- at the Vatican library, the Beinecke Rare Book Library, the Metropolitan Museum -- observe the correct protocols.
I don't see metal parts except screws on the Imperial Hotel chairs. I'm so tired of those chairs I could faint. They really don't appeal to me at all. How many extra parts are there on this one ? I don't object to "unnecessary" elaboration, if the whole adds up to something. The parts here are geometrically consistent, I suppose -- but the result isn't an inviting perch.
Does anyone recognize the "Usonian lounge chair" ? I can't recall seeing that one before. (Wouldn't it be a hoot if it was a fake ?) The back support seems a precedent to the handsome chairs devised by outside in & co. for the Seth Peterson cottage.
SDR
I don't see metal parts except screws on the Imperial Hotel chairs. I'm so tired of those chairs I could faint. They really don't appeal to me at all. How many extra parts are there on this one ? I don't object to "unnecessary" elaboration, if the whole adds up to something. The parts here are geometrically consistent, I suppose -- but the result isn't an inviting perch.
Does anyone recognize the "Usonian lounge chair" ? I can't recall seeing that one before. (Wouldn't it be a hoot if it was a fake ?) The back support seems a precedent to the handsome chairs devised by outside in & co. for the Seth Peterson cottage.
SDR
The Lot 162 Usonian lounge chair is noted thus:
The Pierre Jeanneret Chandigarh pieces (Lots 104, 105, 106, 113) look interesting, its a shame they are not in their original interior.
If someone has the book?provenance: Important private collection
literature: 50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Maddex, ppg. 54-55
The Pierre Jeanneret Chandigarh pieces (Lots 104, 105, 106, 113) look interesting, its a shame they are not in their original interior.
Sure enough -- here are the chairs, photographed in the Cove at Taliesin West. The rear view does not appear in this photo -- and the chairs lack upholstery and are painted. Interesting. Diane Maddex notes their "almost anthropomorphic" form -- "like many of Wright's chairs." Anthropomorphic, maybe; ergonomic, maybe not. Without seat and back pads, the gussets would make the back useless -- wouldn't they ?
The seating angles look good, actually. Comfortable angles for seat and back are related to seating height. With cushions, I imagine these chairs might be quite comfortable if the final seat height is less than 16 inches or so . . .
I'm guessing that the Wright Auction chair has been stripped of any finish, sanded, and supplied with upholstery which it may never have borne before. Note that a pair of Sondern chairs in the auction have received the same treatment.
At least no new finish has been applied. Good move.
SDR
The seating angles look good, actually. Comfortable angles for seat and back are related to seating height. With cushions, I imagine these chairs might be quite comfortable if the final seat height is less than 16 inches or so . . .
I'm guessing that the Wright Auction chair has been stripped of any finish, sanded, and supplied with upholstery which it may never have borne before. Note that a pair of Sondern chairs in the auction have received the same treatment.
At least no new finish has been applied. Good move.
SDR
Clevlenad Museum of Art
Don't come to CMA for the Bertoia--its not on exhibit any longer. The Tony Smith is outside and the Case Western Reserve Tony Smith is outside on the other side of Euclid Avenue.
But there is a window from the Darwin Martin house at CMA!
But there is a window from the Darwin Martin house at CMA!
11 December 2014 Wright20 Auction
Okay,
Just asking . . . which of these contraptions -- er, I mean, items of interior furniture -- would YOU rather sit in?
Wright20 Auction Lot 151
OR:
Wright20 Auction Lot 190
(Screen Name Withheld)
Aw, schucks . . . they both creep me out.
I'm 65% serious about that; seeing photos and drawings of the cast aluminum Price Tower chairs has always made me think first of torture chamber equipment. I'd welcome hearing contributions from other Wright Chat participants that might influence my feeling about them -- I'm resolved to remain as open-minded and fluid as I can about the possible merits of these particular designs.
Bear in mind that Lot 190 is predicted to sell for considerably less money.
WJS
Just asking . . . which of these contraptions -- er, I mean, items of interior furniture -- would YOU rather sit in?
Wright20 Auction Lot 151
OR:
Wright20 Auction Lot 190
(Screen Name Withheld)
Aw, schucks . . . they both creep me out.
I'm 65% serious about that; seeing photos and drawings of the cast aluminum Price Tower chairs has always made me think first of torture chamber equipment. I'd welcome hearing contributions from other Wright Chat participants that might influence my feeling about them -- I'm resolved to remain as open-minded and fluid as I can about the possible merits of these particular designs.
Bear in mind that Lot 190 is predicted to sell for considerably less money.
WJS
I'm so glad you asked !
The poor man was just flummoxed by the problem of the chair. Remember that he wrote that standing and reclining were the proper and natural postures for the human body, or words to that effect. Whether he concluded that before or after trying repeatedly to design chairs, I cannot say.
The "Buck Rogers in the Twenty-first Century" chair for the Price Tower is something else, for sure; it makes the Johnson Wax chairs seem downright conventional, doesn't it. The user would presumably wear matching aluminum headphones with a single vertical antenna sprouting from the top, and silver lamé overalls with a velvet-lined cape matching the upholstery.
The compartment at the rear of the base is to be occupied by robotic servant-voles, I believe.
SDR
The poor man was just flummoxed by the problem of the chair. Remember that he wrote that standing and reclining were the proper and natural postures for the human body, or words to that effect. Whether he concluded that before or after trying repeatedly to design chairs, I cannot say.
The "Buck Rogers in the Twenty-first Century" chair for the Price Tower is something else, for sure; it makes the Johnson Wax chairs seem downright conventional, doesn't it. The user would presumably wear matching aluminum headphones with a single vertical antenna sprouting from the top, and silver lamé overalls with a velvet-lined cape matching the upholstery.
The compartment at the rear of the base is to be occupied by robotic servant-voles, I believe.
SDR
LOL!!SDR wrote: The user would presumably wear matching aluminum headphones with a single vertical antenna sprouting from the top, and silver lamé overalls with a velvet-lined cape matching the upholstery.
The compartment at the rear of the base is to be occupied by robotic servant-voles, I believe.
SDR
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Roderick Grant
- Posts: 11815
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
Price chairs are the worst of FLW's furniture designs, but having sat in one Joel Silver owns (with arms), it is not uncomfortable. Why aluminum is anyone's guess. The hex stool (159), on the other hand, is quite handsome.
The Adelman light fixture (158) I bet was not designed by FLW, but an apprentice. Wasn't there something similar in the Arnold Friedman House in Pecos? A handsome piece.
Looking at the balustrades from Adler & Sullivan's Guaranty Building (165,166) I'm inclined to believe Elmslie designed them, and possibly the Schlesinger & Mayer elevator door medallion (164) as well.
My light sleeping habits make it hard to appreciate things that go clang in the wind, so I could not live with Bertoia's Sonambient at any price. A neighbor had wind chimes on her porch, too close to my bedroom window for comfort, but fortunately windy nights in Los Angeles are as rare as rain. One day they mysteriously disappeared. (I vas in Argentina!)
The Adelman light fixture (158) I bet was not designed by FLW, but an apprentice. Wasn't there something similar in the Arnold Friedman House in Pecos? A handsome piece.
Looking at the balustrades from Adler & Sullivan's Guaranty Building (165,166) I'm inclined to believe Elmslie designed them, and possibly the Schlesinger & Mayer elevator door medallion (164) as well.
My light sleeping habits make it hard to appreciate things that go clang in the wind, so I could not live with Bertoia's Sonambient at any price. A neighbor had wind chimes on her porch, too close to my bedroom window for comfort, but fortunately windy nights in Los Angeles are as rare as rain. One day they mysteriously disappeared. (I vas in Argentina!)