Not all of the items are from the Sturges house. But you're right, even 75 lots can quickly fill 1200 square feet...
My favorite lot from the auction (aside from the Wright and Lautner pieces) is #176, the beautiful painting by John McLaughlin.
For sale: Sturges House - Brentwood, CA
Peter - thanks for posting this.
Other than lot #98, all of the furniture up for auction is listed as being from "John Lautner" and/or "Commissioned c. 1965 (or 1970) for the George D. Sturges Residence" (i.e. - all 'Post-Wright').
On the other hand, Lot 98 - two End Tables is listed as coming to this auction as "PROPERTY OF ANOTHER OWNER". And it's year is listed as "1939", with the provenance being "George D. Sturges, Los Angeles (commissioned by Frank Lloyd Wright); Thence by descent".
So, it would appear that the only furniture original to the Sturges House is being put up for auction by someone outside of the Bridges/Larson Foundation. I hope whomever ends up purchasing the house will shell out the extra (estimated) $6 - 8K to reacquaint these two pieces with the home. Small potatoes when the house is supposed to go for $2.5 - 3M.
Does beg the questions, though, what happened to the rest of the original furniture? And, when did it get sold off?
David
Other than lot #98, all of the furniture up for auction is listed as being from "John Lautner" and/or "Commissioned c. 1965 (or 1970) for the George D. Sturges Residence" (i.e. - all 'Post-Wright').
On the other hand, Lot 98 - two End Tables is listed as coming to this auction as "PROPERTY OF ANOTHER OWNER". And it's year is listed as "1939", with the provenance being "George D. Sturges, Los Angeles (commissioned by Frank Lloyd Wright); Thence by descent".
So, it would appear that the only furniture original to the Sturges House is being put up for auction by someone outside of the Bridges/Larson Foundation. I hope whomever ends up purchasing the house will shell out the extra (estimated) $6 - 8K to reacquaint these two pieces with the home. Small potatoes when the house is supposed to go for $2.5 - 3M.
Does beg the questions, though, what happened to the rest of the original furniture? And, when did it get sold off?
David
Last edited by DavidC on Fri Jan 29, 2016 8:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
A couple of oddities: The tables do look "Wright" -- but -- the taper to the leg, while suitable to the design, is not what I'd expect from Wright, post Prairie. The slight asymmetry is interesting -- as is the slightly crude way that the horizontal dado in the back which accepts the shelf is run to the edge of the piece, beyond the width of the shelf. The lack of visible fasteners at the back of this shelf is refreshing, however.
A period photo of these in situ would be very helpful. Is there a trove of Guerrero photos out there, somewhere ? A single Sturges interior in his "Picturing Wright" shows nine chairs and three or four tables -- but not this piece, nor anything with the two-bar motif featured on it.
Aha ! There are ten Sturges photos here -- see dots at bottom of first photo. (The sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth photos have been reversed.) The last photo shows two tables with asymmetrical slab backs -- but they are clearly not to the design of the tables offered at auction. All tables (excepting the low record cabinet)(?) have thick tops.
http://www.guerrerophoto.com/portfolio/sturges/
Maybe this pair was intended for the bedrooms. Are there two mirrored bedrooms on the plan ? Yes there are, and a pair of small cabinets or tables are on the plan as well, shown between door and bed.
For the record, the Futagawa interiors published in Monograph 6 show different furnishings altogether than those which appear in Guerrero's photos. The Goetsch-Winckler-style dining or side chairs, with pads, are the canted-leg variety in the early photos, straight-front-leg in the Mono shots, where they are not associated with the dining table. The dining table base is different, and backless seats with thick cushions are shown around it, in the later photos, which have Lautner's (?) Origami chairs and metal floor lamps, missing from the period photos. None of the tables with asymmetrical canted-edge backs, in Pedro's shots, are present in Futagawa's.
Nor are any the original panel-back tables shown with that back placed against a wall; the bedroom side tables (?) are proportioned in a way that indicates, according to the plan drawing, that their backs would have faced the bed or the door, not the wall. These small tables could, however, have been placed at right angles to the placement shown on the plan . . .
The main-space suite of furniture is all of a piece in its design. Could this pair of bedroom tables have been early Lautner designs ? They make an interesting contrast to Lautner's suave and streamlined Origamis and lamps.
SDR
A period photo of these in situ would be very helpful. Is there a trove of Guerrero photos out there, somewhere ? A single Sturges interior in his "Picturing Wright" shows nine chairs and three or four tables -- but not this piece, nor anything with the two-bar motif featured on it.
Aha ! There are ten Sturges photos here -- see dots at bottom of first photo. (The sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth photos have been reversed.) The last photo shows two tables with asymmetrical slab backs -- but they are clearly not to the design of the tables offered at auction. All tables (excepting the low record cabinet)(?) have thick tops.
http://www.guerrerophoto.com/portfolio/sturges/
Maybe this pair was intended for the bedrooms. Are there two mirrored bedrooms on the plan ? Yes there are, and a pair of small cabinets or tables are on the plan as well, shown between door and bed.
For the record, the Futagawa interiors published in Monograph 6 show different furnishings altogether than those which appear in Guerrero's photos. The Goetsch-Winckler-style dining or side chairs, with pads, are the canted-leg variety in the early photos, straight-front-leg in the Mono shots, where they are not associated with the dining table. The dining table base is different, and backless seats with thick cushions are shown around it, in the later photos, which have Lautner's (?) Origami chairs and metal floor lamps, missing from the period photos. None of the tables with asymmetrical canted-edge backs, in Pedro's shots, are present in Futagawa's.
Nor are any the original panel-back tables shown with that back placed against a wall; the bedroom side tables (?) are proportioned in a way that indicates, according to the plan drawing, that their backs would have faced the bed or the door, not the wall. These small tables could, however, have been placed at right angles to the placement shown on the plan . . .
The main-space suite of furniture is all of a piece in its design. Could this pair of bedroom tables have been early Lautner designs ? They make an interesting contrast to Lautner's suave and streamlined Origamis and lamps.
SDR
See Lot 93, the Heritage Henredon round table...was there a stone top variant? I thought all tops were wood.
I like the tongue in cheek listing of Lot 146, the VW Beetle made famous in the Futagawa photos.
The Lautner floor lamps would look great in any Usonian, particularly one with a diamond or triangular grid, or one I own.
Lot 310 is just elegant.
I like the tongue in cheek listing of Lot 146, the VW Beetle made famous in the Futagawa photos.
The Lautner floor lamps would look great in any Usonian, particularly one with a diamond or triangular grid, or one I own.
Lot 310 is just elegant.
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Roderick Grant
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Those large tables in the living room period photos were designed with the top equal in height to the dining table, and the depth equal to half the width of the dining table, so that they could be used to extend the table, placed solid back to solid back. When Sturges built the new house over the hill with the FLW living room repeated at a larger scale (to accommodate Mr. Sturges' height), they probably took those free-standing tables with them.
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Roderick Grant
- Posts: 11815
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
Aren't the Lautner lamps great?DRN wrote:See Lot 93, the Heritage Henredon round table...was there a stone top variant? I thought all tops were wood.
I like the tongue in cheek listing of Lot 146, the VW Beetle made famous in the Futagawa photos.
The Lautner floor lamps would look great in any Usonian, particularly one with a diamond or triangular grid, or one I own.
Lot 310 is just elegant.
The Beetle... It could be sold as a great design object even without the provenance. I assume it is the very same Beetle from the Futugawa photo?
The Heritage Henredon table definitely had the option of a slate top. There is an original advertisement somewhere in a 50s magazine I have showing the stone top.
https://lamodern.com/auctions-2013/auct ... ryID=21090
This lot for two end tables lists the commission date as 1965, and has this note:
This lot for 8 stools lists a commission date of 1970, and has the exact same note about Lautner (BTW, are there other stools in which the structural fins rest only on 4 points, and are raised off the ground in the middle?)
The two origami chairs list the same 1965 commission date, and have the Lautner note.
https://lamodern.com/auctions-2013/auct ... ryID=21097
These two end tables are listed as original to the house, dated 1939. But as others have noted above, they are coming to the auction from another owner, and so presumably haven't been with the house for some time.
This lot for two end tables lists the commission date as 1965, and has this note:
https://lamodern.com/auctions-2013/auct ... ryID=21088Executed under the supervision of John Lautner based on a model originally conceived by Frank Lloyd Wright
This lot for 8 stools lists a commission date of 1970, and has the exact same note about Lautner (BTW, are there other stools in which the structural fins rest only on 4 points, and are raised off the ground in the middle?)
The two origami chairs list the same 1965 commission date, and have the Lautner note.
https://lamodern.com/auctions-2013/auct ... ryID=21097
These two end tables are listed as original to the house, dated 1939. But as others have noted above, they are coming to the auction from another owner, and so presumably haven't been with the house for some time.
Just found out a bit ago that the Hollyhock docents are getting a tour of the house on Sunday; I'll report back on condition. The realtor did warn that the boards on the deck and roof terrace are rotting ... 
Docent, Hollyhock House - Hollywood, CA
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright
This link was posted on Facebook by a Mcm LA group:
http://issuu.com/lamodern/docs/frankllo ... 2F33221185
http://issuu.com/lamodern/docs/frankllo ... 2F33221185
Heh. Thomas Hines goes Wright one better: he eliminates the Sturges entry door altogether in his description. And, he invents a new category of one: Sturges is Wright's "California Usonian" -- as if Hanna, Bazett, Buehler, Berger, Mathews, and Bell/Feldman weren't Usonians as well, by any definition . . . !
SDR
SDR
Spent a lot of time Sunday looking for that secret door into the kitchen ... I'm still looking ...SDR wrote:Heh. Thomas Hines goes Wright one better: he eliminates the Sturges entry door altogether in his description. And, he invents a new category of one: Sturges is Wright's "California Usonian" -- as if Hanna, Bazett, Buehler, Berger, Mathews, and Bell/Feldman weren't Usonians as well, by any definition . . . !
SDR
Docent, Hollyhock House - Hollywood, CA
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright