history

• Ursula LeGuin’s gorgeous Berkeley Maybeck home for sale

  
  

  From the listing:

  Located in North Berkeley among architecturally significant homes and prominently sited at 1325 Arch Street, this 5-BD Swiss Chalet-style house was designed by Bernard Maybeck in 1906, a true architectural jewel. Shielded from the street, a wisteria-covered arbor greets you as you enter. Filled with the brilliance of its heritage and the beauty of natural materials, it has been restored with exceptional attention to its lustrous originality while blending modern features and amenities. Spaces for gathering and other rooms for private contemplation blend throughout. Redwood interiors, wraparound balconies, private flourishing garden, & magnificent views to SF, Golden and Bay Bridges & Mt. Tamalpais. The feeling of union with the environment can be experienced throughout. The suppleness of the wood, anchored with copper nails, can best be appreciated as the sun flows in through the many windows and doors. The flourishing garden offers a private portal to flora & fauna of surrounding lush landscape.

  Anyone know who updated the wood? Parts look more modern, although they certainly match Maybeck’s original interior & intent. Looks like it could have been Kip Mesirow or another Berkeley woodworker of a similar aesthetic & high level of skill.

• Frank Lloyd Wright gallery opening

  

  It's a bit off the beaten path, but if you find yourself anywhere near Racine, WI (just a bit south of Milwaukee) you could not do better than to stop at the SC Johnson headquarters, where a new gallery devoted to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright is opening this week. The initial offering – a broad meditation on Wright's most popular Prairie-style work – will run for a year, to be followed by other exhibits focusing on various aspects of the architect and designer's work.

  Several buildings at the SC Johnson campus are Wright creations, so you'll want to schedule a tour to see those as well.

• Horta’s staircase for Hôtel Tassel

  In scientist Emile Tassel’s Brussels home, this staircase was designed and built in 1893 by the great Nouveau and Deco designer and architect Victor Horta, who also designed other parts of the house – which is generally considered the first true Art Nouveau structure.

  

   

• The Craftsman: issue 3

   
  

  The third item in our continuing series is Volume 1, number 3 of The Craftsman: December 1901 (3 meg PDF).

• The Craftsman: Issue 2

   
  

  The second item in our continuing series is Volume 1, number 2 of 
  The Craftsman: November 1901 (3 meg PDF).

• The Craftsman: Almost Every Issue, Now Online

   
  

  I've recently been gifted a large archive of every issue (bar two – issues 8 and 9 from the 1916 volume are missing) of Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman, beginning with volume 1, number 1 in October of 1901. I'll be posting one every few days for the coming weeks, starting with the first issue today. 

  Here you go: Volume 1, number 1 of The Craftsman: October 1901 (3 meg PDF)
  

  Thanks very much to the archival-minded friend – another big fan of the public domain – who passed these on to me!

• Voysey clocks & more

  from our friend Christopher Vickers:

  Following on from the CFA Voysey Clocks postings here last August [Voysey clocks; Chris Vickers & Voysey], readers may be interested in Christopher Vickers new page featuring many of the period Voysey clocks still known to exist.

  Chris would be very interested to receive further information / images of Voysey clocks, or really anything at all designed by Voysey!

• Gustav Stickley library table, from the Metropolitan Museum collection

  

  Library table, ca. 1906
  Gustav Stickley (American, 1858–1942); Craftsman Workshops
  Syracuse, New York
  Oak, leather; H. 30 in. (76.2 cm), Diam. 55 in. (139.7 cm)
  Gift of Cyril Farny, in memory of his wife, Phyllis Holt Farny, 1976 (1976.389.1)

  Inspired by William Morris, Gustav Stickley founded The United Crafts
  (later known as Craftsman Workshops) in 1898. Stickley was greatly
  influenced by Ruskin and Morris, his travels to Europe, and important
  contemporary journals such as The Studio and Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration.
  Initially managing the firm as a guild, Stickley participated in
  profit-sharing with his employees, but as the operation grew, regular
  factory standards were implemented. The Craftsman line was introduced
  to the public in 1900. This hexagonal library table is made of oak with
  a leather top ostensibly adhered by overt circular tacks, and utilizes
  visible joinery with tenon-and-key joints. Illustrated in the November
  1902 issue of The Craftsman, the Arts and Crafts periodical
  published by Gustav Stickley between 1901 and 1916, the hexagonal
  library table became a popular item in Stickley’s sales inventory.

• Sacramento Historic House

  Tracy Doolittle lives here in Sacramento and is just as much a fan of our beautiful old houses as I am. For $300, she’ll do very extensive history on your home, finding out a timeline (and biographical highlights) of its past owners & residents, a permit history, the original property or historic neighborhood map, and other information – including, sometimes, historic photographs. She has also written a how-to article if you’d like to attempt this yourself.

  A useful service, certainly. Tracy also has a website, Sacramento Historic House, which profiles several representative properties (including the beautiful and enormous Cranston-Geary house, in whose listing she gives a shout-out to us). Several of the most impressive Victorians are already listed, and it looks like she’s adding new structures all the time. There’s a blog, too, with many recent entries focusing on the historic homes and castles she encountered on a recent trip to London.

• Christopher Vickers & CFA Voysey

  
  I first encountered Christopher Vickers’ work when a friend showed me photos of a clock he built (he’s also reproduced another famous Voysey clock with which you may be more familiar). Based on C. F. A. Voysey’s original plans, the clock is built from 7,000-year-old bog oak, and is inlaid with (faux) ivory. The original was built by Voysey in 1921 for a client – the same one for whom Voysey designed the beautiful Holly Mount in Beaconsfield. Voysey was known for his clocks, of course; apparently, he loved the confluence of lettering, machine, and furniture that these tiny and complicated objects represented.

  Vickers is a scholar of all things Voysey, and 20th-century British design in general, with quite a bit of background on this great and often overlooked designer / artist / architect on his website; my own love of Voysey’s work springs mainly from my interest in typography and Voysey’s wonderful and expressive hand-lettering (see the wallpaper advertisement here, taken from Mr. Vickers’ site) – so seeing Vickers’ exceptional work, and through it his obvious love for the combined subtlety and detail that I’ve always appreciated in Voysey, really impressed and resonated with me.

  My favorite piece of Voysey-designed furniture in Vickers collection is this replica dining chair with arms, originally designed in 1902. Vickers’ reproduction sells for £1850, and appears to be completely true to the original.

  Other impressive bits of Mr. Vickers’ work include unique items of Arts & Crafts lighting; a number of beautiful and useful chests in a variety of sizes and configurations; beautiful and sturdy tables, including some based on Voysey designs for Hollymount and other homes; inlaid wooden boxes; cabinetry and shelving, including several that feature hardware hand-forged by Vickers; and a number of pieces of metalwork, produced in the Gimson-Cotswold tradition in just the way we like it: "by hammer & hand."

  Vickers’ work is art and craft, and some of the finest contemporary A&C furniture I’ve seen. If you’re interested, you can see pieces on display from September 10 to 24 at the 2nd annual Arts & Crafts Exhibition in Gloucestershire’s Prinknash Abbey Park; from September 13 to 28, you can actually visit his workshop in Frome, as it will be open to the public during Somerset Art Weeks. His work will also be included in the Ernest Gimson and the Arts & Crafts Movement exhibit in Leicester, November 8 2008 through March 1 2009.