Greene & Greene

Robert Roe and Nellie Celeste Canfield Blacker, Pasadena, CA, 1908-1944
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Otto Bockelman, by acquisition of the house and contents, late 1940s
Max and Marjorie Hill, by acquisition of the house and contents, circa 1950
Private Collection, Texas, 1985-1995

Randell L. Makinson, Greene & Greene:  Furniture and Related Designs, Salt Lake City, 1979, pp. 58-59 and 100
Wendy Kaplan, The Art that is Life:  The Arts & Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920, Boston, 1987, p. 403
Sheila Schwartz, ed., From Architecture to Object: Masterworks of the American Arts & Crafts Movement, New York, 1989, pp. 18 and 114-115
Randell L. Makinson, Greene & Greene: The Passion and the Legacy, Salt Lake City, 1998, pp. 100-101
Randell L. Makinson, Thomas A. Heinz and Brad Pitt, Greene & Greene:  The Blacker House, Layton, UT, 2000, pp. 48, 76-77 and 79
Wendy Kaplan, The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America: Design for the Modern World, New York, 2004, p. 268 
Edward R. Bosley and Anne E. Mallek, eds., A New and Native Beauty:  The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene, London, 2008, pp. 12, 55, 175-176, 239 and 264
Judith A. Barter, Apostles of Beauty:  Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago, New Haven, CT, 2009, p. 112

Overall in excellent condition. The mahogany frames appear to retain their original finish throughout, displaying an exceptionally deep rich color which beautifully accentuates the leaded glass panels. The mahogany surfaces show minimal gentle wear, a few light surface scratches and abrasions, a few scattered transparent drip marks, and some scattered tiny paint drips to the top scroll devices and top surfaces consistent with age and gentle use. There are a few minor surface abrasion marks to the corners of the top scroll devices. The lantern is fitted with eight leaded glass side panels (displaying four different designs), and an octagonal shaped leaded glass underplate. These leaded glass panels are in excellent stable condition, with very few cracks to the leaded glass throughout. There is some minor separation in a few areas between the leaded glass panels and mahogany frame. The lantern retains its original mahogany ceiling supports and oval brass ceiling plate with brass screw pegs. The ebony pegs utilized to conceal the screws on the ceiling supports are replacements. The lantern is fitted with a metal dish that supports two vertical sockets—all of these components appear original. The bottom socket provides illumination downward to illuminate the interior of the lantern, while the top socket serves as an uplighter to bounce light upward to the ceiling which works very effectively. The lantern retains its original painted and silvered molded glass reflector (the silvered side is utilized to bounce light upward), which sits inside the socket dish. The top of the lantern is fitted with two half-octagonal shaped pieces of white opalescent glass to retain the light inside, also original to the lantern. The leather straps have been recently replaced and safely secure the lantern. The lantern presents beautifully in person with great sculptural presence and scale, and is equally attractive when seen with and without illumination. When illuminated, the leaded glass displays an exquisite and subtle earth-toned color palette. When non-illuminated and viewed with reflected light, the iridized cathedral glass displays a fully saturated range of luminous colors. A superb example of one of the Greenes' most successful and complex lighting designs.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957) and his brother, Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954), were the foremost architects of the American Arts & Crafts Movement on the West Coast.  The majority of their work is concentrated around Pasadena.  The house for Robert R. Blacker, a retired Michigan lumber baron, is the largest of Greene & Greene's iconic Japanesque "Ultimate Bungalows," comprising over 12,000 square feet.  Construction began in early 1907, with interiors completed by Peter and John Hall, the architects' master craftsmen, in September of 1908.  The Greenes also developed the landscaping of the five-and-a-half acre lot.  The largest feature was a pond—now gone—set close to the house where it was visible from the living room.  Like an oasis in the sere California terrain, it was planted with water-loving species including the lotus and lilies that inspired the decoration of the living room.  With woodwork of polished mahogany, this large room was enlivened by a gilded frieze of low-relief lotus leaves and flowers that extended upwards onto the earthen-toned ceiling.  The gilding twinkled subtly in the warm glow cast by six suspended octagonal lanterns made of mahogany with panes of stained glass depicting water lilies.  The inspiration for these lanterns may have been traditional Japanese bonbori, hexagonal paper lanterns, narrower at the bottom than the top, often painted with flowers or other images.  Bonbori dangled from horizontal rods, much as these lanterns were hung on delicate metal rods or, later, leather straps attached to wooden brackets on transverse beams in the ceiling. 

The frames were fabricated by Peter Hall.  The stained glass was made by the studio of Sturdy Lange in Los Angeles.  This firm was a partnership between Harry Sturdy (dates unknown), an artist and decorator from Chicago, and Emil Lange (1866-1934), a businessman from Davenport, Iowa.  The partnership lasted only about five years, between 1906 and 1910, during which time they created the finest of Greene & Greene's stained glass.  The lanterns are similar in materials and construction to other stained glass Sturdy Lange produced for the Greenes, including the celebrated front door, windows, and light fixtures of the David B. Gamble house (Pasadena, 1907-1909).  The glass, in warm tones of brown, moss, amber, ecru, and white, is heavily iridized on the surface to reflect a rainbow of colors when the lanterns are not lit.  This glass, similar to that used by Frank Lloyd Wright for his windows in the Susan Lawrence Dana house (Springfield, IL, 1902-1904), was made by American glassmakers in Brooklyn, West Virginia, or Indiana.  Like the lampshades of Tiffany Studios, the pieces of glass are assembled with copper foil to form a strong, rigid panel.  The foil was trimmed and modeled into an uneven, thick-and-thin line that is also textured with ridges and mounds, lending shape and organic form to the flowers and leaves. Borrowing another technique from Tiffany Studios (and others), pieces of glass are layered here and there, so that the center of a lily pad or the petal of a flower projects from the surface of the panel, adding additional dimensionality.

The six lanterns illuminated the living room in two rows of three.  The Greenes designed five side panels and three bottom panels.  The side panels were organized into three arrangements that utilized four of the designs, repeating them twice in the same order: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4, 4-2-3-5-4-2-3-5, and 5-2-1-4-5-2-1-4.  Each arrangement was used for two lanterns.  Each lantern in the pair has a different bottom panel, ensuring that no two lanterns are identical.  The pairs of lanterns were placed diagonally from one another.  Lot 30 is 5-2-1-4-5-2-1-4 and hung in the middle by the window.  Lot 31 is 4-2-3-5-4-2-3-5 and was located in either the southwest or northeast corner (the fireplace was located on the north wall).  This complicated arrangement provides both diversity and continuity, and illustrates the architects' passion for detail.  The Blacker lanterns, like the front doors of the Blacker and Gamble houses, are some of Greene & Greene's finest stained-glass work.

--Julie L. Sloan