EBAY / Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph, Volumes 1-6

[RJH]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1



Item number: 290020234211

[hypnoraygun]

What is the deal with these books? How can they be worth this much money? Is there pictures, etc that you can not find anywhere else? It just seems a little strange to me..

[Michael Shuck]

Interestingly, I toured the Wichita, Kansas, Allen-Lambe House today, and on Mr. Allen's bookshelf was the entire collection including the four last completing volumes. Ahhh...so close.

[pharding]

What is the deal with these books? How can they be worth this much money? Is there pictures, etc that you can not find anywhere else? It just seems a little strange to me..

It is supply, which is limited, and demand. The photography, overall quality, and comprehensive range of built projects in these books is exceptional, and is at the top of the FLW book list. In my opinion nothing else even comes close except for an original Wasmuth Portflio which is probably worth $45,000 or more. The 3 volume, oversized portfolios of the FLW Drawings actually do come close, but not real close to the 12 volume set.



I am looking for a set of cardboard slipcases for the FLW 12 volume monograph. If anyone wants to sell thoseboxes, please email me.

[RJH]

These Monographs are great! On the paper cover of my copies it says that Vol. 1-11 were originally sold for 18,000 JPY each. Today, that

[MD]

[quote="RJH"]These Monographs are great! On the paper cover of my copies it says that Vol. 1-11 were originally sold for 18,000 JPY each. Today, that

[pharding]

It is a lot of money. However Hennessey + Ingalls in LA has the 12 volume set in mint condition in the original slip cases for $9,500. Powells in SF had a set in excellent condition w/o the slipcases for $7,500. Maybe $2550 wasn't such a bad deal after all.



The monograph includes beautiful photos of the Imperial Hotel taken by Yukio Futagawa before the awful demolition of that great building.



If anyone would like to sell the cardboard slip cases or the dust jackets for volumes 7 through 12, please email me.

[Roderick Grant]

I purchased the lot as they came out one by one. Volume 12 was the first one issued and was expected to be the most expensive, but all hell broke loose as the Yen started to rise against the Dollar and Japan's economy took off like a rocket before crashing in the 90s. By the time the last ones were issued, they were costlier than Vol. 12. Altogether they cost me just over $1600. They are invaluable, but one must be cautious of the text. Bruce has done a yeoman's job of saving the archives, but he has two shortcomings: He does not know that much about architecture, thus makes many factual errors, and he obviously is not without bias. There are unbelievably bad designs that came out of Taliesin (mostly in volume 8 and entirely the work of apprentices unbridled) in the later years, most of which were, thankfully, not built. But Bruce evaluates them with the same reverence he holds for Fallingwater and the rest of the great work. Nevertheless, $2550 for 1 - 6 is a good buy.

[Deke]

I'd be curious which designs you find lacking in those later years. Some are wonderful, but others are...hmmm....the Grady Gammage (?) auditorium for example...yikes. Do you know which designs were apprentice driven?



deke

[Roderick Grant]

Grady Gammage had a troubled history. It started out as the opera house for Baghdad and organizationally made much more sense. By the time it was built, the plan had been so totally reorganized that the interior had little to do with the exterior, which had also undergone unfortunate alterations, mostly by Wes Peters at the insistence of ASU. One of Tom Hienz' newsletters has an excellent article about its genesis.



Most of the really bad designs are residences, one of which was designed (by Rattenbury) for the daughter of Lindholm, builder of the gas station. The Lindholm residence itself is a truly bad design that cannot be laid at FLW's feet. I cannot say for sure who did it, but I would not be surprised if it was done by the same person who did Bulbulian. Without the books at hand, I cannot rattle off the names of the clients for most of the bad stuff; I don't make an effort to remember the lesser works. But in general, if you set aside the great postwar work (Morris, Carlson, Jacobs II, Walker, David Wright, Beth Shalom, Belmont Park, etc.) chances are the rest was left in the hands of the apprentices to a large extent. Most probably passed through FLW's hands for approval, but not all by any means. Guggenheim and Olga occupied much of FLW's attention and energy during that period, so he left too much of the decision making in the hands of others. Parsing it all out, who did what, is a tremendous job, and with most of the people involved already dead, it may never be sorted out entirely.

[Deke]

Is anyone attempting to research this period? I know there is a new "Fellowship" book coming out, but am not sure if it goes into the issue of who took the lead on each project. Is the Conservancy taking oral histories on any of this? If not, I'd be happy to volunteer for such a task. One thing I note in my amateur study of FLW is the use of circles in what I call his "George Jetson" phase. Curious if these circular works may indicate apprentice involvement.

[Roderick Grant]

I just got my copy of the new book on the Fellowship, and the authors confirm that it is more about the social conditions than architecture. Taliesin has been gathering oral histories wherever it can, but since so many of the fellows from the postwar era and most from the prewar era are gone (and Tafel is not doing well these days, either) verifying authorship of design is difficult. John Geiger has been studying the drawings, trying to decipher their origin; of those with whom he is especially familiar (John left in 1953) he is very certain, but of later apprentices, there are a lot of questions that may go unanswered.



The appearance of circles in FLW's late work is of his own doing. No geometry is more difficult to handle in architecture, and FLW did not live long enough to solve all of the problems. The project for Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. in Palm Springs is an example of a work in progress. The series of houses that begin with Windfor and end with Bailleras are pure FLW. If Bailleras had been built, it would be a monument to rival Fallingwater. Many of the variations on the Laurent, Llewellyn Wright, Jacobs II and Jester themes (that are also pure Wright) were largely in the hands of apprentices. Wes Peters, who had his own obsession with circles, was responsible for circular applied ornament that often appears on the late work.

[JimM]

The appearance of circles in FLW's late work is of his own doing

Without a doubt. There are just too many projects incorporating them to assume otherwise. The built independent work of Wes and others clearly shows a literal interpretation of decorative flourishes Wright used to snazz up the presentation drawings. Wright "supervised" work was usually a refined effort, not a mish mash of "art for arts sake".



Not much of this is unexpected, so I suppose that leaves only the salacious tidbits?

[Greg Coatsworth]

I am in complete agreement that these volumes are truly a great set. I also obtained my set as each volume was released and I waited in anticipation for each one. They are proudly displayed on my bookshelf and I still have the protective boxes each one came in. I remember receiving one volume (I don't remember now which one) that I had to return for exchange because there was a flaw in the copy I received. When the pages were bound for this volume, one section of pages was missing and another section of pages was included twice.

I must disagree about the designs in Volume 8. This volume dealt with the projects during FLLW's final years. Due to Mr. Wrights age, I don't see that allowing his staff to help place his ideas on paper should equate to 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'. Many of the staff understood what Mr. Wright wanted. Just look at the work of J. Howe who was at Mr. Wright's side during his final decades. His work is without question some of the finest work produced by the core staff of Taliesin. I believe that Volume 8 contains some of the best work FLLW did even with the help he received. I just wish now that I had another copy of Volume 8 because my copy, sadly, is no longer in great condition. It was and is my favorite volume.

[Mobius]

Congratulations PHarding! An excellent purchase - and thank goodness they're going to an FLW afficionado, and not some speculator who wouldn't appreciate them.



To the posters who have queried the price; it's obvious you have no concept of what an auction is: a willing seller, presenting goods to a collection of willing buyers. The willing buyers compete for the privelege of owning the ietms. As the price increases, the buyers' maxuimum prices are exceeded until only one bidder remains: the winner of the auction.



Theoretically (not in practice!) an auction is the perfect mechanism for finding the price of any item. Only those who bid are entitled to place a **VALUE** on the books, because by bidding, they announce the price they feel is fair, and by association, the value (in dollars) they place on the goods. If the price bidding ever exceeds the value the bidder placed on the item, he will withdraw from the bidding.



As PHarding places the value at $4500, he clearly places a great deal of importnace on these works, (and rightly so by the sounds of it) and fortunately, he is the winning bidder at $2,550 - which means that he has won an astounding bargain in fact!



He has acquired items he desires at little over half of what he estimates the VALUE to be!



Everyone is happy! YAY!



Hopefully now, we won't hear any more bitching about how much things cost, or what people pay for them.