50 Favorite Furnishings By Frank Lloyd Wright [Hardcover]

Diane Maddex (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

This gorgeous volume celebrates the splendid furniture, art glass, and metalwork designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the world's noted and America's most popular architect. An illustrated introduction provides an overview of design principles and is followed by three sections: Furniture, Art Glass, and Decorative Objects. Elegant full-color photographs and an authoritative text profile fifty of the best-loved signature designs that the architect created to complement his famous architectural interiors. Written by a Wright specialist, this lush companion to its successful predecessor, Fifty Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright, offers an approachable look at the architect's definitive decorative style.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"It is quite impossible to consider the building one thing and its furnishings another..."

Frank Lloyd Wright, Drawings and Plans of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1910 For Frank Lloyd Wright, design did not stop at the front door. Every item inside a house or an office building was as important as every brick or stone outside. Walls were tinted the restful colors of autumn on the prairie. Furniture was often built in or, where it was "at large," mimicked the lines and materials of the building itself. Glorious windows took the place of blocky walls and brought nature right inside. Decorative objects were few in number but were designed to complement the architecture. As "50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright" handsomely demonstrates, all of Wright's furnishings were meant to be integral parts of the whole composition-works of art in themselves. The fifty favorite furnishings shown here range from Wright's world-famous tall-back chairs to ingenious built-in pieces, from his revered art glass windows to lamps that have become classics, and from vases to china to spectacular textile patterns. Nothing escaped Wright's attention. He built dining sets that created their own room within a room. He tinkered with chair designs for six decades, always searching for the prefect way to accommodate the act of sitting. And he designed plant holders and fireplace kettles as rotund as balloons along with sculptures as tall and angular as a mile-high skyscraper. Throughout his long career, spanning the years 1887-1959, this internationally renowned architect worked to persuade homeowners to simplify and beautify their lives by simplifying their furnishings. Choose just a few good things, Wright suggested, and go to the woods and fields for colors and materials that bring nature home. A showcase for these and many more of Wright's most important ideas for interiors, "50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright" superbly illustrates how the architect clothed his buildings as well inside as outside. Chapter One - Furniture Tall-Back Chair Husser Dining Set Slant-Back Chair Print Table Larkin Desk Set Martin Barrel Chair Robie Sofa Coonley Desk Irving Table-Couch Greene Settle Midway Dining Set Mori Chair Imperial Chair Hollyhock Sofa Hollyhock Dining Set Fallingwater Built-ins Johnson Wax Desk Taliesin Dining Set Cantilevered Desk Taliesin West Chairs Usonian Built-ins Music Stand Lovness Dining Set Rayward Furniture Chapter Two - Art Glass Roberts Window Luxfer Prism Glass Studio Window Thomas Vestibule Dana Windows Tree of Life Window May Skylight May Windows Coonley Triptych Taliesin Window Hollyhock Windows Ennis Window Pyrex Glass Tubing Chapter Three - Decorative Arts Winged Victory Copper Vases Pedestal Lamp Butterfly Lamp "Flowers" Sculpture Golden Mortar Imperial China Taliesin Lamp Glass-Less Light Fireplace Kettle Wood Screens Patterned Carpet Fabric No. 105 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810982137
• ISBN-13: 978-0810982130
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 10.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,551,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Minimal Designs, Maximum Back Pain, and Great Vision!, July 18, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: 50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright (Hardcover)

Most of the 5,000 plus wonderful rooms designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are not open to the public. Even if you could go behind those doors, you often would find that the original furnishings have been moved, replaced, or lost. This book gives you a chance to go where you often cannot go in any other way to see the best original details of furnishings in 50 of the best. Unlike most architects, Mr. Wright designed in such a way that "the rooms inside would dictate the architecture outside." Even inside, he designed all elements of the room, including floor and wall coverings, art glass in many cases, lighting fixtures, furniture, and where everything should be located. He also specified that those who used the rooms should be limited to bringing in only certain types of objects, and for certain locations. For example, ornamental china was allowed on one ledge of the dining room in Robie House.

In working on furnishings, he had a lot of help. Marion Mahoney often finished his designs for furniture and art glass, and saw them through implementation. George Niedecken was often called upon to execute conceptual designs of furniture. Artists helped with sculptures and murals. Artisans crafted many of the items that Mr. Wright sketched.

The furnishings were never meant to be considered separately from the buildings and rooms they were to reside in. Yet this volume can help you appreciate these details that are often tiny in photographs of entire rooms.

I have had the chance to visit many Wright homes and buildings, yet this book greatly expanded my understanding of his work.

This book is primarily focused on furniture, but has a number of important art glass and decorative arts examples.

Mr. Wright designed what have to be the most elegant, minimal chairs . . . and the ones that were probably the most painful to sit in. I had a hard time appreciating the design while thinking about how impractical they are. Well, every genius has limitations . . . and chairs were that for Mr. Wright.

My favorite furniture examples in the book were the print table from the Oak Park house, Robie winged sofa, Coonley desk, and the Johnson Wax desk. Of the art glass, I liked the Roberts window, the Luxfer prism glass, Thomas vestibule, Dana windows, and the Tree of Life window. In the decorative pieces, I enjoyed the pedestal and butterfly lamps, and the glass-faced "golden" mortar.

As you will see from the examples, each one loses a lot by being seen in isolation from the rest of the room. Ms. Maddex does a nice job of describing each item or ensemble in a half-page essay covering the 50 subjects here.

The photography is superb in the 67 illustrations, including 64 full color plates. That's quite important because you will not usually be allowed to photograph these objects, even if you do have the good fortune to see them in a Wright home or public building.

After you finish examining the items you like best, I suggest that you think about what qualities furnishings must have in order to improve the quality of your life. How well does your best furnishing do so now? How can you make that furnishing ease your way into natural living even better?

Relax . . . then, see, touch, and enjoy the beauty all around you!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank Lloyd Wright Excelled at Designing Interior Details, June 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: 50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright (Hardcover)

Diane Maddex's 50 Favorite Furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright is a sensual, visual experience. This book has three sections dealing with furniture, art glass and decorative arts. Frank Lloyd Wright excelled at designing the furnishings of the rooms in the famous buildings that he created. The photos show the craftsmanship and pure beauty of the each form. The author has done a admirable job of selecting a wide variety of pieces to share. I hadn't understood that every item that was inside the house was just as important as the exterior design to Frank Lloyd Wright before reading this book. With that sort of attention to details, it is easier for me to understand why Frank Lloyd Wright stands out as a creative genius. I bought this book for inspiration and ideas for decorating a new "Prairie Style" house. Thanks Diane Maddex for helping me dream.

5.0 out of 5 stars Stained glass books, January 20, 2012

By 

Works of Glass - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 50 Favorite Furnishings By Frank Lloyd Wright (Hardcover)

50 Favorite Furnishings By Frank Lloyd Wright
I bought this book used. It arrived in very good shape and was shipped fast. I have it out in my front shop for potential customers to get ideas from.