Monday, at last, a question from the U.S.A..
Throughout the mid twentieth century there was one particular furniture designer who was enamored with the American bunkhouse. Building in what some would relate to “roughing it” style he created a complete western look using wrought iron, horsehide, upholstered furniture and peeled logs. His lucky first commissions were linked to a PA publishing mogul and a Coca Cola magnate. After that came big commissions including one for the Standard Oil big daddy. His furniture used first rate materials but was termed “functional, whimsical, and cosmopolitan yet romantic.” One piece featured used gun shells as a lamp pull. He was often curt, rude, distant and more difficult to work with than Frank Lloyd Wright. Think the first version of Riata ranch homestead in the motion picture Giant. He priced his work high for the time but never marked it and as such value was lost. Much of his rough looking furniture was burned when the Western look became tiresome in the fifties. Who was this man?