Frank Lloyd Wright

executed by Linden Glass Company, Chicago, IL

Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, NY
Arthur Jaffe, Kissing Bridge, NY, circa mid-1960s
Private Family, Kissing Bridge, NY, acquired from the above through acquisition of residence

Thomas A. Heinz, Frank Lloyd Wright:  Glass Art, London, 1994, p. 105 (for the end panels in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum)
Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright:  Windows of the Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, NY, 1999, p. 15 and front cover (for a related laylight from the Darwin D. Martin House Living Room)
Julie L. Sloan, Light Screens:  The Complete Leaded-Glass Windows of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 2001, p. 167 (for the end panels in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum)
Eric Jackson-Forsberg, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright:  Art Glass of the Martin House Complex, San Francisco, 2009, p. 59 (for the end panels in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum)

Overall in very good and stable condition. This laylight panel has been recently stabilized and cleaned by Venturella Studios, a museum-caliber conservator specializing in leaded glass window conservation. The laylight panel with approximately 20 cracks to the glass tiles dispersed throughout, all of which appear stable. This is a relatively low number when taking into account the vast number of glass tiles required to execute this large and complex composition. These cracks have been sensitively stabilized with hextal (an archival resin that will not discolor over time and which also minimizes the appearance of cracks). One small glass tile located at one of the corners of the panel appears to be replaced (this tile is clear glass and the other corner tiles are white opalescent glass). The glass tiles with some occasional small and minor surface flecks to the perimeter edges adjacent to the cames. The brass cames with scattered traces of surface oxidation and discoloration throughout consistent with age. The cames with a few occasional seam separations to the mitred corners (all appear stable). The perimeter caming surrounding the panel with a few very small and old drilled holes, presumably from a prior installation and only visible under close inspection. The caming at the perimeter corners with some minor irregular bending. The green cathedral glass utilized throughout this laylight panel is intensely iridized, and when viewed in reflected light displays an extraordinary range of fully saturated and luminous color as seen in the catalogue illustration. The iridescence shows a spectacular range of jewel-toned hues, including rich aqua blue, magenta, turquoise, emerald green and golden yellow tones. A superb example of this rare and striking Wright leaded glass composition for the Darwin D. Martin House, one of Wright’s most important early commissions. A simple thin wood frame has been recently constructed for stability around the outer perimeter caming of the panel. Sotheby’s has also constructed a custom-designed white-painted wood light box for exhibition purposes, which will be made available to the successful purchaser should they desire.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1903, Darwin D. Martin, an executive of the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo, New York, commissioned the Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a series of buildings, including an estate for himself.  It comprised a large house with an attached pergola, conservatory and a garage/carriage house.  The primary residence contained over 400 leaded-glass windows, executed with fine brass caming delineating at least nine different patterns of windows, cabinet doors and laylights.  In the 1950s and 1960s, many of the jewel-like windows and laylights of the Martin house were removed or destroyed.

The eastern half of the ground floor contained an open-plan space encompassing the living room at the center, flanked by the dining room to the north, the library to the south and a large veranda to the east.  This space was enclosed by leaded-glass windows and French doors in a pattern now known as “Wisteria.”  The windows of these spaces were revolutionary in their abstract design, composed of predominantly clear glass touched by sparks of iridized colored glass—these were especially unusual designs compared to the predominant use of opalescent picture windows and floral leaded-glass lampshades during the period. 

Wright began using laylights in his buildings as early as 1898, when he created two complex designs for his office in Oak Park, Illinois.  It was part of his effort to eliminate the boxiness of the typical American house, which he achieved through the use of expansive bands of leaded-glass windows instead of opaque walls.  These and the laylights “brought the outside in,” as he said, by enabling the inhabitants to see through the walls to the gardens and plantings.

The present lot is one of five sections of the living room laylight, located in recessed coffers framed by the ceiling moldings, above the doors to the veranda.  They were lit by natural light during the day, unlike other laylights in the house that were artificially illuminated.  The end panels of this laylight are in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum; the locations of the remaining two sections are unknown.  The design is loosely based on elements of the floor plan, particularly the pier clusters around the front hall, “wrought,” as Wright said, “from the warp and woof of the structure.”¹

The laylights of the Martin house, like all of Wright’s laylights, were made with mostly colored glass, to obscure the structure of the skylight or the artificial light fixtures above them.  The present lot features instead translucent white and yellow opalescent glass, and moss green and amber cathedral glass, intended to imitate the quality of sunlight passing through bowers of leaves.  The cathedral glass was also iridized, or fumed with metallic salts, to create a multi-hued reflective surface, similar to that of Tiffany’s Favrile glass.  The kaleidoscopic pattern of the laylight has very little clear glass and is far more intensely colored than any windows in the house, even the famous "Tree of Life" windows, making the laylights perhaps the most beautiful of the Martin house glass.   

—Julie L. Sloan

¹ Frank Lloyd Wright, “In the Cause of Architecture,” March 1908, in Frederick Gutheim, ed., In the Cause of Architecture (New York:  Architectural Record Books, 1975), 59.