•A thorough exploration of two important tile restoration projectsThis book tells the engrossing story of the Aloha Boathouse and the Iris Bathroom, two extraordinary, large-scale domestic tile projects by the Grueby Faience and Tile Company. The first is a stunning boathouse floor from Newport, Rhode Island; the other, a complete bathroom from Bratenahl, Ohio. These decorative relics from the past might easily have been sold off piecemeal as salvaged panels or individual tiles. Instead, both were extracted from their original sites substantially complete. Acting on its mission to foster public appreciation of high quality craftsmanship and design from the American Arts and Crafts era, the Two Red Roses Foundation made an unprecedented commitment to conserving the thousands of tiles, so that the original vision of these spaces would be safeguarded. This book recounts the story of those rescued installations, the men and women who envisioned and financed them, and the ideas and images that inspired their creation.

The Aloha Boathouse and the Iris Bathroom: Two Installations by the Grueby Faience and Tile Company

Arts & Photography

Montgomery, Susan J.

History & Criticism

Two Red Roses Foundation

•A detailed look at how America's Arts and Crafts movement impacted the furniture design. Arts and Crafts Furniture features many of the most important furniture makers from the Arts and Crafts era in America, including Charles Rohlfs, Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Workshops, Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters, the Byrdcliffe colony, the Stickley Brothers, and Greene &amp; Greene. These early twentieth-century makers and designers believed that traditional, high-quality craftsmanship was essential in a time of steadily growing industrialization in America. Color photographs featuring two hundred objects selected from the Two Red Roses Foundation's extensive collection, are presented alongside archival photographs and examinations of their design and fabrication. A special appendix highlights the designers and craftsmen who appear in the book, alongside the history of their firms and working practices.

Arts and Crafts Furniture: From the Collection of the Two Red Roses Foundation

Cathers, David

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

The Ceramics of William H. Grueby: The Spirit of New Idea in Artistic Handicraft

Grueby Book

Illustrated with 63 color plates and 121 black and white figures.

The Ceramics of WILLIAM H. GRUEBY. The spirit of the new idea in artistic handicraft.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Crafts Quarterly Pr.

In Celebration details the life and art of Ruth Grotenrath (1912–88), an American artist whose work spanned the middle fifty years of the twentieth century. Tracing Grotenrath’s influences and methods of working—from her earliest American Regionalist paintings and WPA murals to the colorful still lifes that captured the imagination of her many fans and patrons—Susan Montgomery depicts the artist’s unique perceptions of her intimate environment and her efforts to reflect the vibrant beauty of the world around her. Her best-known works are sensual, bountiful floral still lifes. In Celebration documents Grotenrath’s rich personal and professional life with her husband and fellow artist, Schomer Lichtner, through interviews, photographs, and newspaper articles. The pair, who became heralded as Milwaukee’s “first couple of art,” supported themselves as artists throughout their lives, even during the Depression and World War II. In the 1960s, Grotenrath traveled to Japan and studied Asian art, which influenced her work for the rest of her life. Grotenrath’s work is represented in the collections of many museums throughout the United States, primarily in Wisconsin and the Midwest.

In Celebration: The Life and Art of Ruth Grotenrath

Museum of Wisconsin Art

In the Moment is a visual account of the life and art of Schomer Lichtner (1905–2006), a much-celebrated artist working in the American Midwest. Susan Montgomery draws on archival materials and interviews with Lichtner and others to trace the development of his long and productive career, which began in the first decade of the twentieth century and continued until his death at the age of 101. The 350 images in this book span more than seventy-five years of artwork, including paintings, sculptures, theatrical sets, greeting cards, and drawings. As early as 1930, Lichtner’s work was shown at the prestigious Carnegie International Exhibition in New York and at museums throughout the United States, especially in the Midwest. During the Depression years, Lichtner and his wife, Ruth Grotenrath, were employed by the Treasury Relief Art Project, a program of the federal government’s WPA, for which they created impressive murals in the American Regionalist style for post offices and other government buildings throughout the Midwest. Lichtner and Grotenrath made their home in Milwaukee, where they were active and much beloved members of the arts community. Lichtner’s mid-career and late work focused on recurring themes of abstract rural landscapes, whimsical cows, and elegant women, including graceful nudes and leaping ballerinas. Lichtner’s work was profoundly influenced by his appreciation of Frank Lloyd Wright (whom he knew personally), Zen Buddhism, and Japanese art. His unique approach, beautifully depicted in this book, was joyous, free flowing, colorful, imaginative, and marked by strong design and pattern.

In the Moment: The Life and Art of Schomer Lichtner

•A study of beautiful tiles made in North America during the Arts and Crafts movement•Like other Arts and Crafts creations, these tiles counterract the soullessness of mass-production on an industrial scaleThe American Arts and Crafts movement inspired designers and artisans to move beyond the hard, glossy, mass-produced tiles of the nineteenth century. As a result, artists began to explore the endless possibilities for adding to the decorative beauty of rooms with excellently decorated handcrafted tiles. A new demand for color in architecture supported their efforts to produce tiles for walls and floors, friezes, panels, murals, and even entire rooms. Each of the sixteen tile makers represented in the Two Red Roses Collection (including Grueby, William Morris, Newcomb, Paul Revere Pottery, and Rookwood) sought to balance the ideals of fine design and craftsmanship with the pressures of efficient production and financial viability. Profusely illustrated, Arts and Crafts Tile thoroughly documents the Two Red Roses Foundation collection. An appendix provides concise histories of each of the tile companies and the talented men and women who designed and crafted these remarkable works of art.

Arts and Crafts Tile: From the Collection of the Two Red Roses Foundation

Wisteria House is a North Andover, Massachusetts landmark, named for the vigorous vine that has flourished on the veranda for more than 150 years. More properly known as the Field-Hodges House, it belonged to only two families. The last owner, Sarah Moore Field, died in 1988, leaving her home completely furnished and packed to the rafters with the accumulated belongings of three generations and hoping that it would become a historic house museum. It did not. A variety of circumstances required a more creative solution.&nbsp;Wisteria House: Life in a New England Home, 1839-2000 is a key element of that solution. It is a permanent record of the lives lived in a particular house in a particular town at a particular time based on the buildings, furnishings, clothing, personal effects, photographs, correspondence, and financial papers of two upper-middle class families. The text and illustrations address gender roles, childhood and education, household economy, health and medicine, work and leisure, and community history. The themes of public history, preservation, and stewardship underpin the narrative.&nbsp;The story of the Field-Hodges Houses lies at the intersection of well-meaning, devoted amateurs trying to save a beloved old house and professionals charged with the dispassionate consideration of the financial viability and public relevance necessary for a successful historic house museum. The book is unique in that it is the final component of a preservation project. After the building and grounds were secured, the significant collections safely in the hands of public institutions, financial obligations met, and the intent of a Last Will and Testament fulfilled, Wisteria House preserves the history itself. As an example of stewardship, the entire project occupies a notable position in the current debate over the future of historic house museums in America.

Wisteria House: Life in a New England Home, 1839–2000

Historical

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

The newest titles in our Campus Guide series are these guides to Phillips Academy, Andover and Duke University. They present architectural tours of two of America's finest campuses, revealing the stories behind the historic and contemporary campus buildings, gardens, and works of sculpture. Phillips Academy, founded in 1778, blends colonial, Federal, neo-Georgian, and modernist styles. Noted architects whose buildings appear on campus are Charles Bulfinch; Peabody and Stearns; McKim, Mead, and White; and Frederick Law Olmsted. Duke University was officially founded in 1924. Until 1950 it was designed primarily by Julian Abele, one of the few professional African-American architects working in the United States at that time. The campus architecture is best known for its medieval-style Gothic buildings, notably Duke Chapel.

The Campus Guides: Phillips Academy, Andover

History

Reed, Roger G.

Americas

Princeton Architectural Press

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Books by Montgomery, Susan J.