Lot 883 : FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright - 1869-1959

Auction Location: United States of America - 2006
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Artist or Maker:

A LEADED GLASS DOOR FROM THE DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE, BUFFALO, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1904

Title:

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959)

Description:

A Leaded Glass Door from the Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, New York, circa 1904
executed by the Linden Glass Company, Chicago, Illinois
68 x 28 3/4 in. (172.8 x 73 cm.)

Provenance:

With Struve Gallery, Chicago.

Notes:

PROPERTY FROM THE ROYAL AND SUNALLIANCE COLLECTION

cf. J. Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House Architecture As Portraiture, New York, 2004, pp. 160 and 182 for pictures of the conservatory windows in situ.

J. Sloan, Light Screens The Leaded Glass of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 2001, p. 84; p. 85 for an image of the conservatory doors.

J. Quinan, ed. Frank Lloyd Wright: Windows of the Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, 1999, p. 17 for an image of a window of this design.
D. Hanks, Frank Lloyd Wright Preserving an Architectural Heritage Decorative Designs from The Domino's Pizza Collection, New York, 1989, p. 56 for an image of a window of this design; p. 57 for an image of the conservatory with windows in situ.

With its integrated buildings and adjoining gardens, the Prairie style Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo (1903-1905), was one of Wright's most elaborate and ambitious residential designs. Built for the wealthy executive of the Larkin soap company, Darwin Martin and his wife Isabelle, the complex included the Barton House, for Martin's sister Delta and her husband George, a carriage house, pergola, conservatory and the Martin House itself.

The complex contained some of Wright's finest window designs. For each of the five structures a distinct pattern was created (the Martin House itself had a number of different patterns including one of his most famous, the "Tree of Life"). The elegant glazed door offered here is from the sun filled, glazed conservatory, a stunning room which Wright viewed as the complex's thematic center. Intended to be a visually lighter structure than the others, these windows bear a delicate abstracted floral pattern. Scholar Julie Sloan has pointed out that, although they are among the most original windows in the complex, Wright did not adapt or reuse the conservatory window pattern in any other house.

As the complex currently stands it is only a fraction of its original grandeur. In 1960, three of the five components, the conservatory along with the carriage house and pergola, were demolished to build several apartment buildings.