The Wright Stuff
Although
the most of the photographers are uncredited, several have been
identified as from Oak Park, IL, and noted architectural photographers
Samuel H. Gottscho, Jamaica, NY, and G.E. Kidder-Smith of New York,
have been identified. Several of the images boast annotations on verso
and are either stamped "Property of F.LL. Wright" or inscribed "FLLW."
Hitchcock
and Wright's book, In the Nature of Materials, was intended to be a
sort of ex post facto catalogue of the 1940 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: American Architect - described by the
man himself as "the show to end all shows." The Great Depression,
Wright's
prolonged absence from the country, and his turbulent personal life had
resulted in a dearth of commissions for the first half of the 1930s. At
the time of the MoMA show, he was still at the opening of his "second
career," which had been revived by the Kaufmann house (Fallingwater)
and the Johnson office building.
In the Nature of
Materials, published in 1942, was swiftly acknowledged as a standard
work on Wright and remained in print for nearly a quarter century.
Hitchcock had risen to prominence through the 1920s and early 30s,
cementing his reputation with the 1932 International Style show at the
MoMA, co-curated with the architect Philip Johnson. The year after the
book's publication, Wright was commissioned to design a permanent home
for the art collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation - a
project that occupied him for some fifteen years but resulted in one of
the most instantly recognizable buildings in the world.
The
February 14, 2010 auction is timed to coincide with the California ABAA
Book Fair, held this year in Los Angeles, and will be simulcast from
the firm's Sunset Boulevard location to the San Francisco gallery.
For
Fair attendees, Bonhams & Butterfields has gathered together a wide
variety of highlights in literature and Americana as well as a fine
selection of imprints on Hawaii and the South Pacific.
Additional
items of note from the Valentine's Day auction will include two
broadsides of John Wilkes Booth's performances at the Boston Museum,
featuring "The Marble Heart," which was the show Lincoln saw Booth
perform in D.C. in November of 1863 (est. $1,000-1,500); a fine example
of Peter Force's 1848 printing of the Declaration of Independence (est.
$25,000-30,000) and a rare Abraham Lincoln letter thanking those who
helped celebrate former President Washington's birthday in 1862 (est.
$50,000-80,000); a copy of Charles Darwin's first published work, A
Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and
Beagle, 1839 (est. $20,000-30,000) and an archive of over 1000
theatrical scripts, plus contracts and correspondence from the files of
the American Play Company/Century Play Company, a major American
theatrical agency of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The
collection includes material by A.A. Milne, Eugene O'Neill and
Tennessee Willams, among many others (est. $120,000-180,000).
The illustrated catalogue will be available online for review and purchase at www.bonhams.com/us in the weeks preceding the sale.
Previews:
February 5-7, San Francisco (timed to coincide with the Walter Larsen
Book Fair); February 11-13, Los Angeles (timed to coincide with the
California ABAA Book Fair)
Auction: February 14, Los Angeles, simulcast to San Francisco
