WCCO-TV, the local Minneapolis CBS affiliate reported this morning that a Frank Lloyd Wright Chair being sold on eBay was a reported stolen chair.
It was listed as a Johnson's Wax chair being sold on a live auction by Wright and the auction reached $10,000.00 and was closed due to it being an alleged stolen chair!
I'm assuming that 'CCO got this off one of the news wires, so apparently this is being sent to all news departments.
I found this news pieces online
on the Green Bay Gazette website:
RACINE (WIS): Racine police are investigating whether a chair put up for sale on eBay as a Frank Lloyd Wright creation was stolen from the Wright-designed headquarters of S.C. Johnson & Son.
The chair was spotted on the auction site on Tuesday, prompting S.C. Johnson officials to call police, company spokeswoman Kelly Semrau said.
"The chairs that look like that were only made for our building," Semrau said.
Police tracked the chair to the Wright Auction House in Chicago, which planned to sell it online, police Sgt. Bernie Kupper said. The owner, who cooperated with officers, told investigators a Milwaukee antiques dealer had brought the chair to him.
The chair was still at the Chicago auction house today, Kupper said. No arrests had been made.
The chair is metal with wheels, and has red circular pads on the seat and back. The only chairs of that style were designed by the renowned architect for the S.C. Johnson Administration Building in 1936.
The chair was offered for $5,000 under a listing for a "Frank Lloyd Wright chair from Johnson Wax." The highest of its four bids reached $10,000 before eBay security, alerted by Racine police, shut down the auction.
Kupper said it was unlikely the chair is a replica, and added that none of the Wright furniture was ever given away.
S.C. Johnson was reviewing its inventory to see whether a chair is missing.
Hmphf!
Interesting! Barry, you ain't kidding! Chicago has an amazing history of scheming, graft and down-right lawlessness! It's a city that reflects both a 'wild west and eastern puritanical history. I've been fascinated with it since reading this book: 'The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America' by Erik Larson. It's about the 1893 World's Fair and talks a lot about Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham, et. al. and how they were so instrumental in shaping Chicago and that particular fair. Amazing read, check it out sometime.
I wouldn't call Wright's furniture ugly
but it was very austere, and probably uncomfortable. I can't think of any other archetect of modern design who imposed all of his furniture and furnishings into the contruction of his houses. Imagine, comissioning a Wright house and wanting to put in different furniture! Wright would have a cow and three llamas!
I think the chair in question is nifty looking, but like some of the most advanced designs from that era, it belongs in a museum.
Ultimately, Wright is not one of my favorite furniture designers.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Hill House 1902-3
Had all architet designed furniture, I believe
( I have provided a link)
http://www.armin-grewe.com/crm/crm-hillhouse.htm
Also not so comfortable
I've been to the Armin Grewe House and to the Willow Tea Room and the Glasgow School of Art. In all cases the furniture is just as uncomfortable looking as FLW's is. I wonder if that's a function of architects designing furniture. their mindset is lenear and proper furniture conforms too the human body and is too curvy.
In that case I wonder what Zahia Hadad would come up with for furniture...but wait Frank Gehry's efforts are stinkers too! Hmmmmm.....
another
Lautner designed the furniture in the re model of the Sheats / Goldstein house
I was watching a programme on the Price tower on Monday night, they had a chair (can?t remember the name it was posted on here recently) wasn?t a fan when I first saw it by itself however in the Wright interior it looked great!
Have you guys seen The House that Mackintosh built? It?s a DVD (condensed from a TV series) about the restoration of 78 Derngate, you can pick it up very cheaply on Amazon it?s a great watch
I wonder what became of the Tippy Chairs.
"Wright designed not only the building, but the office furniture, which was built by Steelcase. Wright's original chair design was the famous three-legged "tippy chair," shown at left, which had a disconcerting tendency to tip over if its occupant didn't sit perfectly straight. When this was pointed out to Wright, he countered that it would be good for employees' posture. Legend has it that Wright's client H. F. Johnson, Jr. met with him, and while Wright was seated in one of the chairs, dropped a pencil. Wright reflexively leaned over to pick it up -- and toppled. He then agreed to design the four-legged version."
(I love Wright's bombastic ego-- when told his chair design was flawed, he blamed the sitter's poor posture!)
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