Greene & Greene

Robert Roe and Nellie Celeste Canfield Blacker, Pasadena, CA
Alice Lucy Blacker, Pasadena, CA
Thence by descent

Randell L. Makinson, Thomas A. Heinz and Brad Pitt, Greene & Greene: The Blacker House, Salt Lake City, 2000, p. 68 (for additional sets of andirons from the Blacker House)

The Blacker House is widely recognized as the largest property and most elaborate commission that architects Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene developed in their wooden bungalow style.  Dissatisfied with the preliminary designs of architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, Robert R. Blacker and his second wife Nellie Canfield Blacker commissioned Greene & Greene to take over the design of their large residence in the exclusive Oak Knoll subdivision of Pasadena in 1906.  In scale and quality, the Blacker commission was unlike any project the Greenes had ever undertaken in their careers.  By this time the Greenes had developed a strong relationship with cabinetmakers Peter and John Hall since their first collaboration in 1904.  Presented with a virtually limitless budget and the assurance of having superb craftsmen to reliably execute their designs, the Greenes were provided with the opportunity to push their talents to a new level, reflecting their fully refined personal style. 

The Greenes positioned the 12,000 square-foot house on the northwest corner of the property.  They devoted great attention to retaining the natural rugged typography of the Oak Knoll Ranch by designing a naturalistic rock-lined pond surrounded by exotic plants in the center of the property.  The Greenes appropriated many of the flowers and plants on the property as decorative motifs throughout the main residence, further unifying the interior furnishings with the exterior landscape.  While the powerful façade is a masterwork of the Greenes' distinct architectural vocabulary, the interiors and exquisitely crafted furnishings are taken to even greater heights, creating a unified and almost seamless relationship with the structure. 

The andirons presently offered were designed for the master bedroom fireplace.  The central standards are exquisitely articulated with naturalistic plants and vines, matching the same motifs on the master bedroom fireplace fender.  This imagery was likely inspired by the plants surrounding the pond on the Blacker grounds.  The supports flanking the central standard appear to be a modified tsuba shape derived from traditional Asian furniture forms, a recurring motif in the Greenes' repertoire.  Three additional pairs of andirons are presently known which were designed for the Blacker House, including two simple pairs bearing a matte black patina for the living room and dining room, and a more delicate pair for one of the upstairs guest bedrooms cast with abstract plant motifs and finished with a similar matte gold patina.  While all similar in form, the example presently offered displays the most elaborate and complex decorative scheme of the Blacker andirons.