Greene & Greene

[Richard Neel]

I was doing some research today on some classic Arts & Crafts pieces to help me with ideas for some tables for my living room. While doing so, I stumbled across the Gamble House website. Here is a link:

http://www.gamblehouse.org/photos/int/index.html

I believe many of you are familiar with the Gamble House but I just had to post the link to this one-of-a-kind treasure. What a true work of art. I was truly inspired by viewing the pictures. Kind of makes you proud to be an American huh?

[Roger Barga]

If you appreciate Greene and Greene then you may be interested in a book by Daryl Peart, a furniture maker in Washington, on Greene and Greene furniture that will be released later this year. I have seen a couple draft chapters from this book and it offers background on the brothers Greene, and the Hall brothers who actually built the furniture, as well as furniture making techniques (tips, plans for jigs, etc). I can't wait to see the book when it's released.

If there's sufficient interest in Greene and Greene furniture I can set up a webpage where folks can download photos of furniture from their various houses.

Roger

PS - I have no association with Daryl but I did spend an couple days at his shop learning from him and have only nice things to say about his work and what a great guy he is.

[Marcus Ward]

Ah Roger I would love to see those pictures. I'm a huge fan of arts and crafts/craftsman era furniture and am getting my shop geared up to furnish our house entirely in the style of Stickley, Green&Green, Ellis, et. al. I'm kind of torn between the Japanese influenced sort of art nouveau style of green&green, charles limbert, etc, and the blocky utilitarian style of stickley. What a set of decisions to make. Maybe I'll do one room in each style.

[Mark Singer]

The Gamble House is one of the great southern Ca. masterpieces! It is worth the trip!

[Jim Becker]

Roger, thanks for the tip about Daryl's book. He's a great guy...I "chatted" with him a few times when I was moderating at WOOD Online. His work (http://www.furnituremaker.com/) is outstanding, too.

[Dan Oliphant]

Richard, if you liked that info, check out the Greene & Greene archives;
http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/greeneandgreene/index.html

Some very nice detail drawings on some of their furniture too.

[Corvin Alstot]

Looks like Daryl Peart's book is available in April of this year. Hopefully the
release date stays on track. If you have not been to the Gamble house, it
is worth a visit. The continuity of design in both the house and furniture is extraordinary.

[Bret Olmsted]

There is a yahoo group dedicated to the Greene & Greene style. It is a fairly active group of furniture makers.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Greene-style-furniture/

[Ellen Benkin]

Many of the original shop drawings were destroyed in a fire but those that still exist are openly available either in books or on line. There are no secrets to the G&G, Hall Bros, furniture other than the craftsmanship.

The Greenes designed furniture for a each house and almost every room was unique. The Hall brothers figured out how to build it in a cost effective way. They were great parners. However, there was a time when the G&G style went out of favor. I had the opportunity to visit an old G&G house in Pasadena last summer. The owner greeted us with the caveat that not one stick of furniture in the house was original. When the first owners sold the house, the second owners hated the furniture so they had a yard sale! The current owners know this because they now have people calling up to offer to sell them some of the furniture original to the house. While the current owner is committed to maintaining an original G&G house, he doesn't want to pay current prices to refurnish it with G&G furniture.

I've been to the Gamble house many times, but it was a unique experience to go through a G&G house that people live in today.

[Tom Donalek]

A similar thing happened to a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright furniture. As his designs went out of style, many, many pieces were sold, chucked in the garage or basement, or, who knows what. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was broken up and burned. (Of course, a lot of his chairs are more for looking at than sitting in...) At today's auction prices, tens of millions of dollars of FLW furniture has been thrown away over the years.

That said, I love the Greene brothers work. In their interior and architectural detailing, there is a fair amount of 'dishonesty'. That is, there are decorative elements that are meant to look like structural elements, but aren't, or connection detailing that conceals the real structural connection. I wonder if this is true in the furniture that they collaborated on designing?

[Gary Curtis]

My woodworking club in Los Angeles arranged for two tours one day this May. In the afternoon, the group of about 30 went through the public areas of the Gamble House. Some areas are excluded.

In the morning, by special arrangement, we had a private tour of The Blacker House, about 1.5 miles away. Also in Pasadena. This a private home, and is occupied by the owner and his wife. The owner is a foremost authority on Greene & Greene. He restored the estate to new condition, spending a fortune in the process. Working from original blueprints in the city archives, recreated the space and grounds to original specifications. He spent much of his time and money re-acquiring the furniture designed by the Greenes for that house. Some pieces, including several now at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, were loaned by the museum so they could be duplicated. With the reproductions ending up in the Blacker house.

Our club status, and the community activism of one member who resides in Pasadena, got us entry. But, you can see everything we saw in a gorgeous photographic book that records every detail of the house exhausively. Actor Brad Pitt was the photographer, and he his love of Arts & Crafts design shows on the page. It is titled, simply, The Blacker House.

Excuse me if I repeat something mentioned already in this thread. But, the name Gamble comes from Proctor & Gamble families. Mr. Gamble came out west in winters for health reasons. He was one of the wealthiest men in America when he built his home in Pasadena. In spite of his assets, I preferred the work the Greenes did on the nearby Blacker House. I bought books on both residences that day, and clearly, the Blacker House book was the finer of the two. Perhaps because of the quality of the photography. It includes some of the measured drawings made by the Greene brothers for much of the furniture and for many of the architectural details.

The morning of our tour, the Blacker House owner stood under the 58-foot timber that spans the roofed entry path to his front door. He explained that construction records for the house included a note stating that one of the Greenes personally went to Oregon to select the tree to be milled for that portico. These guys even harvested the trees!

If you can't find the book at Amazon.com, a phone call to the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce will lead you to it. Superb furniture. Superb furniture drawings. Brad Pitt is given author credit.

Gary Curtis - Los Angeles:)

[Roger Barga]

Gary, interesting story. I'll keep an eye out for book, The Blacker House, the next time I'm at the bookstore.

roger

[Gary Curtis]

Here it is at Amazon, for as little as $16.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879059494/qid=1136777907/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-5573126-3229766?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Gary

[Roger Barga]

I have created an account on Yahoo 360 to share photos of Greene and Greene furniture. This is the first time I have used this service, so hopefully it will work...

The URL is: http://photos.yahoo.com/rsbarga

The photo albums are: gamble house, thorsen house, robinson house, huntington house, huntington 6 and GGJ.

Enjoy.

[Corvin Alstot]

I have created an account on Yahoo 360 to share photos of Greene and Greene furniture. This is the first time I have used this service, so hopefully it will work...
The URL is: http://photos.yahoo.com/rsbarga
The photo albums are: gamble house, thorsen house, robinson house, huntington house, huntington 6 and GGJ.
Roger/ Can't get your photo site to open . . .

[Corvin Alstot]

Gary/
The Blacker book by Makinson I bought thru Amazon just arrived. The book
is worth purchasing if you like Greene and Greene images and reference
material. Thanks for turning me one to the Blacker house, it is pretty
amazing. I guess I always thought the Gamble house was the only
extraordinary Greene and Greene house. Must be pretty amazing to live in
it since it is privately owned. Is the house open for tour at all other than
by special appointment?

[John Piwaron]

Yep, can't get there too Roger. Something about no photo albums have been made public.