Newly listed – a large sized solid wood antique shelf with wrought iron and finial details.  Beautiful dark, rich grained wood.  Perfect for an entryway in an Arts and Crafts or Mission styled home.  Circa 1930s.  An early European piece, made in Spain.  Over two feet wide.  (The wrought iron key shown in the first photo needs to be easily re-attached as shown in photo 2.)

 For more pics and details, go to the sweetcottagecharm Ebay link at right…

Shelburne Museum - Tiffany exhibt

One of the most entertaining, insightful and concise assessments of the early music movement I’ve ever encountered is an essay by scholar/keyboardist/conductor Raymond Leppard.

Authenticity in Music (1988, Amadeus Press) considers the cyclical nature of cultural trends, and the many ways they’ve manifested at different times in recent history. The turn of the 20th century, much like the 1960s, was a time of renewed interest in traditional instruments like harpsichords, and handmade artisanship in everything from weaving and pottery to poetry and folk dancing. Leppard writes, “…the ‘knit-your-own-violin school achieved remarkable things and survived to take its place among the first of those who showed older values still valuable.”

Before the Arts and Crafts movement materialized, the Pre-Raphaelites and Art Nouveau artists around the start of the 20th century had already begun working in very much the same areas with a mission (art for the masses)  and practices (high quality work) furthered in the textiles and designs of William Morris, in print (see: Roycrofters), in paintings and poetry, and in the many unique artistic efforts of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Today was the final day for the Shelburne Museum’s Tiffany exhibit, with four large rooms of the Webb Gallery dedicated to the glass panels, jewelry, ceramics, and – of course – lamps, from the Tiffany Company.

I’ve seen Tiffany glasswork in pictures, but never in person. If you’ve seen some of these same photos of the lamps, the stained glass panels, and maybe even some of the vases or other Tiffany Co. ceramics – I can tell you there is no comparison with seeing them in person. Photos flatten out the layers and depth of color that distinguish the works and make them special.

How it changed my understanding of Tiffany’s artistry and gave me new appreciation for his complete understanding of glass as a versatile, artistic material to see one of the flat wall hanging’s multiple layers of colored glass lit up with a security guard’s flashlight. (Quite happy oblige, he said “that’s what I’m here for!”) The top layer was milky, the middle one opalescent, and only in the third (bottom) layer of glass did we get to the the earthy, mottled emerald glass that gave the whole piece its rich colored foundation. Only backlit did the three layers of colored glass fuse to form the iridescent, deeply wooded garden scene of the panel’s design.  Remarkable.

The exhibit’s accompanying video “Tiffany: Magic in Glass” (produced by the U. of Connecticut) surveyed the interesting back story, including Tiffany’s schooling at the National Acedemy of Design and his leaving the school over its emphasis on form and draftsmanship, over color and composition. Very telling. It is an oversight NOT to also mention Tiffany’s superb eye for form, though, realized in all of his works but none more than his jewelry. I’m thinking in particular of a brooch featuring an exquisite egg-shaped amethyst jewel nestled in an oval thicket of silver filigree, or the pear-shaped green tourmaline gem deeply glowing from the middle of its silver ring setting. Organic forms, all, unusual and perfectly crafted.

Raymond Leppard’s Authenticity in Music makes the case that the enduring values of older generations and cultures are as relevant as ever in today’s world. And, that it’s in the periodic societal re-acknowledgment of this truth that the early music revival and cultural movements like Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement can take root and flourish.

Whether it’s harpsichords, knitting, or stained glass lamps – there’s no question we’re a better world for that occasional rediscovery.

Young Bohemians and Fire
An island of cool in a sea of fire: the block that beat the San Francisco fire

Timeline:
1863: Harvard graduate Joseph Worcester comes west for his health, meets John Muir at Yosemite, and begins to form ideas about the intersection of religion, nature and architecture.
1867: Worcester returns to California, a trained Swedenborgian minister
1867: October 3, Willis Jefferson Polk born in either Kentucky, as he stated to the US census on several occasions, or in Jacksonville, Illinois, as Wikipedia believes. His father was Willis Webb Polk, born Kentucky c. 1838, a craftsman and builder, who became a self-taught architect. His mother (Willis W.’s second wife) was Endemial J. Drane Polk b. KY c. 1842. Willis J. was the oldest child of this marriage. His siblings were Daniel 1869-1909, Endemial 1872-1890, Daisey 1874-? and Trusten 1876-1877.
1876: Swedenborgian minister/amateur architect Joseph Worcester builds home in Piedmont. This structure will be called the first Arts and Crafts house in California.

1880: Robert Louis Stevenson spends the winter of 1879-80 in San Francisco, awaiting the passage of “a decent interval” of at least 6 months after the divorce of Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne from her husband Samuel Osbourne. Stevenson’s health deteriorates to the point where it is feared he will not survive, so the couple marries only 5 months after the divorce. The only witness at the ceremony is longtime friend Dora Williams, wife of Virgil Williams, director of the School of Design, where Fanny and her daughter had taken art lessons many years before. The Williams offer to let the Stevensons use their cottage near Calistoga for their honeymoon, The newlyweds declined, but eventually stayed in an abandoned mine bunkhouse quite close to the Williams’ place. The Stevensons then depart the U.S. for Europe.
1888: The Stevensons return to San Francisco, passing through on their way to the South Seas.
1890: The Stevensons design and build a large home on Samoa.
1890’s: approximate:

Worcester contributed the design of houses on San Francisco’s Russian Hill, encouraging a member of his congregation to build in a manner to enhance the natural environment of the hill….No other individual was as influential as a designer, a client, a mentor and an associate of the many fine architects who translated this style all around the San Francisco bay region. He was the central figure of a collection called The Worcester Group. The group regularly met in Russian Hill for spirited discussions under his quiet leadership. Among those who participated were artists Mary Curtis Richardson, William Keith and Bruce Porter, architects Howard, Coxhead and Polk, writers Charles Keeler and Gelett Burgess, and neighbors such as Helen Livermore.

1892: Polk designs the structure at 1013-1019 Vallejo, on Russian Hill overlooking Broadway and the city, to be a huge duplex, 1013 for himself and 1019 for Dora Williams, widow of noted artist Virgil Williams.

1894-5: Designs Sierra Club logo, used from 1895-1998

Sierra Club logo designed by Willis J. Polk in 1894

Worcester relied on architects for assistance with his designs, and commissioned A. Page Brown to design the Church of the New Jerusalem. Albert Cicero Schweinfurth and Bernard Maybeck were both designer and draftsman employed by Brown, and are credited with the design of the church. Bruce Porter had provided sketches from a church in an Italian village that is reflected in the exterior of the Swedenborgian church. Both Keith and Porter contributed designs to the Swedenborgian Church (Church of the New Jerusalem) at 2107 Lyon Street in San Francisco (1894-1895). Keith did four great paintings on the north wall of the church. Porter made two stained glass windows, and obtained a piece of medieval glass from Westminster Abbey in London. After the church was finished, Willaim Keith hired his friend Willis Polk to design a house of fitting style to border its western edge.

1897: Fanny Stevenson, widow of Robert Louis Stevenson, returns with her family from the South Seas, and takes temporary lodging at 1019 Vallejo with Dora Williams, who had been the only witness at the Stevenson’s wedding in San Francisco in 1880 and is now also a widow. Willis Polk, I suspect, is living in the same duplex, at 1013, with his parents and younger siblings.
1898. approx: Polk is engaged by Fanny Stevenson to design a duplex mansion home at corner of Hyde and Lombard, on Russian Hill in San Francisco.
1898: approx: Fanny Stevenson and her son’s family move into 2751 Broadway, near the summit of Pacific Heights.
1900:Polk marries Christine Barraga Moore and moves into her mother’s home at 2121 (per census) or 2141 Buchanan. There is presently no building at 2121, just a driveway, uphill from the Buchanan Cleaners. There is a large Victorian house just uphill from the driveway, which may be 2141.

1900: June 4-5 U.S. census enumerator visits 2121 Buchanan St, between Sacramento and California Streets, SF, and lists the following persons: Willis Polk b 1867 KY F. b. KY M.b.KY architect; wife Christine b. 1869 NY F.b. Peru M.b. Spain; Austin Moore stepson b. 1881 Cal F. b. Peru M. b. NY; and Mathilda Barrada b. 1839 Spain F.b. Belgium M.b. Spain.

June 9:a follow-up enumerator (apparently) lists people from the neighborhood who weren’t listed by the original enumerator. On this list are some other/additional persons living at 2121 Buchanan: Willis Polk Sr. b. 1838 KY F.b.KY, M.b.KY, Architect; wife E.J. b.1836 KY F.b.KY M.b.KY, son Daniel b. 1869 architect, daughter Daisy b.1874

The census sheets for the Polk-Williams house enumeration of the area around the 1000 block of Vallejo (where the
December: Fanny Stevenson moves into the Hyde Street part of the Hyde-Lombard mansion, while her son’s family occupies the Lombard half.
1901: Willis J. and family move to Chicago, where he will work under visionary urban planner/ architect and Swedenborgian Daniel Burnham. Burnham had been Director of Works for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1892, and is a prominent figure in the book The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson.

Considered the first example of a comprehensive planning document in the nation, the fairground was complete with grand boulevards, classical building facades, and lush gardens. Often called the “White City”, it popularized neoclassical architecture in a monumental and rational Beaux-Arts plan. The remaining population of architects in the U.S. was soon asked by clients to incorporate similar elements into their designs.

1903: Willis J and family return to San Francisco.

1906: April: San Francisco earthquake and fire. Stevenson home and the Polk-Williams House are saved.

1906: Daniel Burnham begins his “Plan for Chicago”:

Arguably the most influential document in the history of urban planning, Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago,… proposed many of the city’s most distinctive features, including its lakefront parks and roadways, the Magnificent Mile, and Navy Pier…. shaping the ways people envision the cityscape and urban life itself.

1914: This photograph is taken; Polk looks disturbed.

Willis J. Polk, 1914

1924: Sept. 10: Polk dies in San Mateo (?at Turner Terrace?) of heart failure, following influenza. (obit Oakland Trib Sept. 12) Stepson Austin P. Moore takes over the running of his business (Parry http://www.sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/articles/p/polkWillis.html).
References:
Carl Smith. The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City. University of Chicago.
Erik Larson. The Devil in the White City.
The New Church
Joseph Worcester

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt has been a hurdle I’ve needed to jump all Summer.  I’m approximately 100 pages in and don’t know why this book is taking so long to get through.  I pick it up and put it down fairly regularly.  (The putting down part is most likely the problem).  My goal is to have it read and reviewed by the October 6th release date here in the States.  In the meantime, here is a comparison between the U.S. (top) and U.K. (bottom) covers.  Personally, I think we got gypped.

U.S. Cover

UK Cover

Antique wood carving featuring a charming rural landscape scene with a canoe and an old woodshed or bunkhouse.  A wonderful early piece with phenomenal deep, rich wood color.   Estimated circa 1930’s.   A superbly hand crafted rendering that features great dimensional quality with the shed with pitched roof, handled wood barrel and canoe in the foreground with a thickly wooded background.   Nicely sized with dimensions of 12” x 9”.  Ready to hang with a notched back.   A beautiful old piece for display on the wall – or on a tabletop displayed on an easel.  Excellent for a Mission, Arts and Crafts, Lodge or County styled home. 

See more at my current sweetcottagecharm Ebay auctions at right…..>

If you love the Arts and Crafts Movement, decorative arts, or merely artistically and well designed home furnishings, you may want to head over to the Renwick Gallery before this exhibit ends on June 7.

It is a very managable exhibit and can easily be viewed over a couple of lunch hours if you work in the neighborhood.

According to the organizers, this is the most comprehensive exhibition ever undertaken on the work of Arts and Crafts legends Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene — AND, the first such exhibition to travel outside of California.

If you don’t have the time to go, or even just want to see what its about prior to a visit, more information and an online exhibition can be found here>>

SO MANY INTRIGUING THINGS cross my desk (or inbox) that I’d like to share, but I already have 50-plus drafts for blog posts and it’s getting out of hand.

So I’m going to try something new on the weekends: a round-up of short items of interest (usually Saturday, but this week Sunday, because I had a pre-move stoop sale yesterday that kept me away from the computer).

Let me know what you think.

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1863 CATSKILLS FARMHOUSE AND BARN

This is what you can get in Roxbury, N.Y. (2-1/2 hours from the GWB) for $599K: 13 acres in a serene valley with non-stop views in all directions, plus rolling pastures, stone walls, deeded rights to 3-acre pond, and a 19th century dairy barn.

Don’t want to renovate? You don’t have to. The 4BR, 2 bath farmhouse is fully restored with all new mechanicals, high-end kitchen (Wolf range, etc.), original cabinetry, hardware and floors.

The whole set-up (including the barn) is “triple mint.”

Go here for details and lots more pics.

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OLD FLORIDA LIVES: MAGIC CITY FARM

South Beach not your style? Stay at Magic City Farm in Miami’s Little Haiti section, where a cluster of 1918 cottages and a boathouse along the Little River is available for rentals, as it has been for decades.

A onetime citrus farm, now owned by former New Yorker Tamara Hendershot, it’s also an animal rescue farm, quirky sculpture garden, popular spot for photo shoots, and celebrity draw (David Byrne and photographer Cindy Sherman have spent the day).

For more info, click here.

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HUDSON VALLEY GARDEN TALK

The Beatrix Farrand Garden Association sponsors a series of garden lectures at the home of FDR in Hyde Park, N.Y., made more delightful by wine and hors d’oeuvres, or tea and cake, served in the garden afterwards. Upcoming this spring:

Tulipomania: Banking with Bulbs During the Golden Age of Dutch Culture, April 26 at 2pm

Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement, June 7 at 2pm

For complete info, go here.

For Jean and others who wanted more information on all those names in my statement, here’s some stuff, like looking inside my head (wow that’s a scary idea!) I am working on my web site, I have lots of images that have never been digitized from my research, but I am having trouble organising it, so it languishes, so for now this will suffice perhaps….

These are some images of Vuillard’s paintings….

This one in particular looks to me like this woman just stepped out of the wallpaper!!

Hope that helps provide a visual clue, maybe my statement should be more pictures!!

Here is a site that has links to lots of information about the Arts and Crafts movement… because I studied it for years I forget that its pretty obscure and not everyone is familiar with the names and ideas behind it, I forgot to mention how obssesive I am in my statement, but I can be a pretty dogged researcher when I am interested enough…

Owen Jones wrote a seminal book called the grammar of ornament, here are some images… I would give almost anything to own a copy!!

John Ruskin believed that the lives of men were being degraded by machines, as were the quality of good produced by machines, he was a socialist, utopian thinker whose most famous work is probably the “Stones of Venice”. He heavily influenced the group of painters known as the Pre-Raphaelites. they were connected to William Morris, who founded Morris and Co.

These are images of his fabulous wallpaper…

and one that is not wallpaper, but too beautiful not to include…

Alan Garner writes young adult fiction, The Owl Service was such an amazing book it stayed with me my whole life, and bubbled up to the surface again after all these years when I started working on this installation… this is a synopsis from Powells of the plot

Something is scratching around in the attic above Alison’s room. Yet the only thing up there is a stack of grimy old plates. Alison and her stepbrother, Roger, discover that the flowery patterns on the plates, when traced onto paper, can be fitted together to create owls–owls that disappear when no one is watching. With each vanished owl, strange events begin to happen . As the kids uncover the mystery of the owl service, they become trapped within a local legend, playing out roles in a tragic love story that has repeated itself for generations . . . and has always ended in disaster.

The ancient love story is from a series of mythical Welsh stories the mabinogion, my heritage is Welsh, maybe that’s why the stories have always fascinated me so… here’s the short version of a lond sad tale from the site above

Blodeuedd

Taking pity on Lleu, Math used his magic wand to create the loveliest woman out of flowers. She was named Blodeuedd. Math had Blodeuedd marry Lleu, and gave him the cantrev of Dinoding to live in.

The marriage did not last, because during Lleu’s absence, Blodeuedd met a hunter named Goronwy the Staunch, lord of Penllyn. Blodeuedd fell in love with Goronwy. Together they plotted to rid of Lleu.

Blodeuedd learned from her husband that he could only be killed by a spear that took a whole year to make, and only if he had one foot on a goat’s back and one foot in a tub full of water. Blodeuedd treacherously gave this information to her lover. Goronwy immediately set about making the spear.

On that fateful day, Blodeuedd persuaded her husband to take a bath on the bank of the river. When Lleu had one of feet on a goat while the other was still in the tub, Goronwy hurled a spear at Lleu’s back. Instead of killing Lleu, he was transformed into an eagle.

Goronwy and Blodeuedd took over Lleu’s domain, conquering Ardudwy and Penllyn. Gwydyon and Math were upset over Lleu’s disappearance, so Math sent his nephew to find Lleu.

After a year of searching for his nephew, Gwydyon found a weak eagle on top of a dead tree. Gwydyon sang a song, to entice the eagle to come down the tree. Gwydyon used the wand on the eagle so that Lleu resumed his own form. Gwydyon found that his nephew was seriously injured and almost starved to death.

Gwydyon nursed Lleu to full health. Lleu was given an army to avenge his injury. When Blodeuedd heard news of her husband recovery, she fled from Mur Castell. Gwydyon caught up with her, transforming her into an owl called Blodeuwedd.

Goronwy the Staunch tried to make amend and peace with Lleu. Lleu refused to accept any compensation from Goronwy unless he agreed to place himself in the same situation when Goronwy wounded him.

Goronwy had no choice but to accept his punishment. It was Lleu who now wielded the spear, while Goronwy stood on a goat and the tub of water. Goronwy asked it he could place a rock between the spear and where he stood. Lleu agreed to the term.

However the rock was no protection for Goronwy. Lleu’s spear pierced through the rock and killed Goronwy.

After this, Lleu won back his home, and lived there until he became king of Gwynedd when Math died or abdicated.

From all of that comes the idea of women made up of patterns, and so escaping and or hiding in the wallpaper….

Lastly I ought to include a link to poor Charlotte Perkins Gilman who was in her day one of the most famous women in the world, and wrote women and economics about the necessity for financial Independence  for women many many years ago… she belonged to a group known now as the material feminists, who were less interested in the vote and more interested in financial security and independence for women… a goal still not reached in pay parity, but I digress… also amongst this group was Louis Comfort Tiffany’s partner Candice Wheeler, who almost no one has ever even heard of despite the fact they founded “his” company together, candace also designed wallpaper…

Her work did get a retrospective at The Met

See I told you it would be easier just to look at the pretty work and NOT KNOW what it was about!!!

Here we have a wonderful example of a presentation drawing, done in gauche on paper, and measuring 88 x 70 c/m. Notice the rendering technique used to relay each detail of the design prior to the projects execution. At the bottom of this drawing you will see the “plan” which explains the intended shape and placement of the handles.

Here we have the original photograph of the finished piece which is nice to compare to the drawing in the previous post (Loving Cup ISJ, Presentation Drawing). I’m also showing you the cost slip which tells us the date it was made, that it is Martelé, and the production process involved.

I’d also like to add a request to anyone who may know the location of this or any other of the pieces referred to on this blog to comment and perhaps add an image.

I was quite pleased to find this presentation drawing, not only is it in such good condition but it is signed by William Codman. At first I believed it to be a design of William C. Codman, the originator of Gorham’s Martelé style, but upon identifying it as IHE and IHF the records date this set to November 3, 1930, nine years after William C. Codman’s death. My feeling is that this design is then by Codman’s son, also named William, who became Gorham’s art director sometime after William C.’s retirement.

Here we have a packet of photo cards which show black coffee set IHE and tray IHF. The Brown University Library has several units of card file drawers filled with these packets. They were used by sales representatives to show or send to perspective customers, many times they were glued into albums and “taken on the road”. I find these photo cards to be a great resource tool for identifying unmarked drawings and photographs as well as to see a piece in its original presentation.

Notice the label, as well as giving the dimensions of the pieces it verifies that the design is Martelé by saying so, and by the mark .9584 Fine.

I have found very few blue prints for Martelé designs, so far only three. These two from the collection of the RISD Museum are of Black Coffee Set IHE, and Tray IHF. Since Martelé pieces were special order and hand made, rather than mass produced it’s possible blue prints were not used in the majority of the line. Also it’s important to note that set IHE and IHF were made around 1930 which is quite late for Martelé, therefore blue prints may not have been used for earlier pieces.

Here we have the black coffee set, IHE, and the matching tray, IHF, as it exists today in the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art.

In this post I’d like to share with you an excerpt from a Gorham publication titled, “The Art of the Silversmith and Its Development” (An address delivered by John S. Holbrook before the School of Applied Design for Women, New York). I find this to provide good insight to Gorham’s philosophy towards design in relation to industry and more specifically to Martele and the Arts and Crafts movement. Also you may notice they’ve pictured the ewer and plateau from the Met website, mentioned in my last post.

One piece in the collection of the Brown University Library I find to be of particular interest is this design drawing of a candelabra.  This ink on tracing paper drawing, although severely damaged, demonstrates the design process in the earliest stage.  Notice the owls and butterfly at the foot of this piece, the fairy on the central stem, and the morning glories which adorn each arm.  I’ve also attached a photo of the finished piece to demonstrate the final step in the design process.  Included here as well is the costing slip, notice at the bottom it says Martele-”Paris”, this candelabra (2387) was made for the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Have you had the chance to view the ewer and plateau on the Met: Decorative Arts link, under our Museums category?  If so, you might find this original photograph and the costing page of interest.

The photo was taken from an album used by sales representatives to show product to perspective customers.

The costing page documents the amount of labor, materials, and methods used in the creation of these pieces (look at columns NY and NZ).