Greene & Greene

Randell L. Makinson, Greene & Greene: Furniture and Related Designs, Salt Lake City, 1982, p. 125 (for a period photograph of the present lot illustrated in Charles Greene's studio, Carmel)

A good case can be made – and in fact has been made, by historian Edward S. Cooke, Jr. – that the decisive moment in the career of Charles and Henry Greene came when they met another pair of brothers, Peter and John Hall.¹ Swedish-born and Illinois-raised, these highly skilled cabinetmakers had acquired their training in various millwork shops on the west coast. Beginning with their collaboration on the Henry Robinson House (1905-6) in Pasadena, the Greenes and the Halls forged an extraordinary creative partnership, a marriage of architectural vision and consummate craft excellence. 

The present cabinet, made by the Halls for Charles Sumner Greene’s own use in his studio in Carmel, provides a focused encapsulation of their jointly achieved aesthetic. It has several features typical of their work, including subtly shaped handles and gently rounded terminations on the moldings. The material, a Honduras mahogany darkened with fuming (a process involving exposure of the timber to ammonia, which causes a chemical reaction in the tannins), sends quite a different message from the sturdy white oak preferred by the other Arts and Crafts makers like Gustav Stickley. Interestingly, a period photo of Charles Greene’s office shows that the piece stood right next to an oak filing cabinet that he himself had made back in 1903, in the Stickley style.² The juxtaposition shows the progression of his sensibility, and attests to the all-important contribution that the Halls made to that maturation.

[1] Edward S. Cooke, Jr., “Scandinavian Modern Furniture in the Arts and Crafts Period: The Collaboration of the Greenes and the Halls,” American Furniture (Chipstone Foundation, 1993).

[2] Randell Makinson, Greene and Greene: The Passion and the Legacy (Gibbs Smith, 1998), 125.

GLENN ADAMSON