Description:

Frank Lloyd Wright
Taliesin, January 10, 1953
Frank Lloyd Wright Seeks "a little more money" From His Clients While Designing the Guggenheim
TLS
A brief but telling typed letter signed "F.L.W", one page, 10.5" x 8.5", Taliesin, January 10, 1953. Written to his San Francisco representative Aaron Green on Taliesin letterhead, with holograph postscript. Very good. Together with five retained copies of correspondence to clients, a request for a design, and letters between Taliesin employees, including a copy of a significant letter dated January 21, 1952 mentioning that Wright is going to New York with designs for the Guggenheim. Very good condition.

In part: "…This should have come long ago but we will have to settle up now with our clients the Matthews [sic, Mathews] and Mrs. Walker and get a little more money…". Wright adds a handwritten postscript: "Calling you tomorrow [?] L.A. Thanks for the old REVIEW! Circa 1900."

Wright had been contracted to design and build his one and only oceanfront home for Della Walker in 1945. Situated in Carmel-on-the-Sea, the single-story house was completed in 1952. A widow at the time, Walker told Wright that she wanted a house "…as protection from the wind and privacy from the road and a house as enduring as the rocks but as transparent and charming as the waves and delicate as the seashore. You are the only man who can do this—will you help me?"

Simultaneously, Wright was at work on the Arthur Mathews House in Atherton, California. This diamond-shaped Usonian home was designed in 1950 and constructed in 1952, and as with every one of Wright's creations, is "at one" with its surroundings. Little is known of the family who commissioned the house. A third project on the horizon in 1952 the Horace Sturtevant home in Oakland, a two-story house designed for a hillside, which was never built.

One retained letter in this lot details the design for the Sturtevant home and a second discusses the requirements. Another letter mentions the interest of the periodical "The Forum" in featuring the Mathews home. A third is a request for a design by one Mervyn Mazza in San Rafael; research has not yielded any mention of this home.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 10.5" x 8.5"
  • Medium: TLS

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October 30, 2024 10:00 AM EDT
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