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  George Washington Maher “Rockledge” American Arts & Crafts tall chest of drawers 1911-12

  GEORGE WASHINGTON MAHER  (1864-1926)  USA

  Rockledge “Man’s chest of drawers” for E.L. King (unique) 1911-12

  Original vintage cream/white painted surface (some losses to the top surface) on hardwood structure with original bronze drawer pulls (natural patina)

  Provenance: Ernest & Grace King, henceforth descended through the King family; Private Collection, Wisconsin from Hollander Auction Gallery, Milwaukee WI (1982); Private Collection, New York

  Illustrated: The Western Architect, “Geo. W. Maher, a democrat in Architecture”  (March 1914, n. p. – for a period photograph showing this model in situ in the master bedroom), Prairie School Architecture: Studies from “The Western Architect” H. Allen Brooks (Toronto, 1975, p. 179).

  H: 71” x W: 44 ¾” x D: 26 ¼”

  (Gift to The Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach, FL)

  Information and other examples from the Maher / Rockledge commission can be found in the following books and publications: The Art that is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920, ed. Wendy Kaplan, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1987), pp. 396-400,The Ideal Home: The History of Twentieth Century American Craft, 1900-1920, Janet Kardon (New York: Abrams, 1993) cover illus. and p. 205; Geo. W. Maher Quarterly, Oct.-Dec., 1992, pp. 1, 16, 17; Arts, December, 1995, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minn. cover and back cover.

  Examples of artworks from Rockledge are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, NY, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Newark Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Wolfsonian, Miami Beach, FL, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Dallas Museum of Art and the St. Louis Art Museum.

  In 1912 George Washington Maher designed Rockledge, a summer residence near Homer, Minnesota, for E.L. King.  Sited just beneath a cliff along the Mississippi River, Rockledge is considered the finest residence of Maher’s career and a perfect example of his motif-rhythm theory of architectural design.

   

  ***Please note that the chest in the period illustration (as the pairing on view) is the woman’s version chest of drawers, which is slightly smaller and has the open segmental arched top. This chest can now be found in the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum. On the other hand the man’s chest of drawers is a larger piece of furniture and has the segmental arch contained within the overall rectangular form of the back support. As a further note, the rocker is now in the permanent collection of the Detroit Institute of Art, courtesy of Historical Design Inc.

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  Lawrence Hunter Hand Wrought Brass and Walnut Punch Set c.1965

  LAWRENCE HUNTER, San Diego, California

  Punch Bowl set c.1965

  Hand hammered and hand wrought large asymmetric punch bowl with matching ladle, turned walnut pedestal platter and twenty four hand wrought brass and walnut pedestal shape goblets

  Marks: HUNTER spelled out within a large outline of an H (name logo and monogram mark on all pieces)

  Punchbowl H: 13 ½” x Dia: 16”
  Cups: H: 5” x Dia: 3 ½”
  Serving tray: H: 2 ¾” x Dia: 17 ¾”

  Price: $11,500

  By repute, this elaborate punch set was a custom commissioned work for a West Coast collector and likewise was purchased directly from Larry Hunter in the mid-1960’s for $2,500.

  Lawrence “Larry” Hunter grew up in San Diego and received a BA from San Diego State College in the late 1950s. As an undergraduate, Hunter studied with John Dirks, who founded the furniture design program at San Diego State College, and Ilse Ruocco. While completing an MA at University of California, Los Angeles, Hunter worked in clay and was a teaching assistant for Laura Andreson. Hunter was hired to teach general crafts and design classes at San Diego State in 1962, and later inherited the furniture design program from Dirks.
  Hunter was a member of the Allied Craftsmen of San Diego and exhibited furniture regularly in the California Design series at the Pasadena Art Museum and the California Crafts series at the Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento. Hunter led the San Diego State furniture design program until the late 1980s, helping the furniture program to become a vital part of the community. Featured artists will include Toza and Ruth Radakovich, Rhoda Lopez, Jack Hopkins, Arline Fisch, Ellamarie and Jackson Woolley, Larry Hunter, Kay Whitcomb, Ilse Ruocco, and James Hubbell. It was at this same time that Constantine’s, a New York fine wood merchant, offered plans for clocks with wooden works; that John Gaughan made a skeletal grandfather’s clock with wooden works; and that Larry Hunter, who taught at San Diego State, used the clock form to explore kinetic sculpture within a functional format. Hunter eschewed the older traditional adornment of the case and focused upon visible works so that people could watch time actually move.