Frank Lloyd Wright

Darwin D. Martin, Buffalo, New York, commissioned directly from the artist

Private Collection

Christie's New York, June 10, 1989, lots 156-157

Private Collection, acquired from the above

McClelland & Rachen, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2004

Grant Carpenter Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age, New York, 1958, p. 145, fig. 94 (for an archival photograph of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

David A. Hanks, The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 1979, pp. 92-93, figs. 91 & 92 (for archival photographs of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin House)

H. Allen Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School, New York, 1984, p. 55, pl. 18 (for an archival photograph of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

David A. Hanks, Frank Lloyd Wright: Preserving an Architectural Heritage Decorative Designs from The Domino’s Pizza Collection, Toronto, 1989, p. 61 (for an archival photograph of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Grant Carpenter Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright: The Early Works of Frank Lloyd Wright, The “Ausgeführte Bauten” of 1911, Toronto, 1982, pp. 51 and 53 (for archival photographs of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

William Allin Storrer, The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion, Chicago, 1993, pp. 100-101 (for an archival photograph of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Thomas A. Heinz, Frank Lloyd Wright: Interiors and Furniture, New York, 1994, pp. 84-85, 90-92 (for the present chairs from the Darwin D. Martin house)

Frank Lloyd Wright: Windows of the Darwin D. Martin House, exh. cat., Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo, 1999, pp. 25, fig. 21 and 28, figs. 24 and 25 (for archival photographs of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, New York, 2004, pp. 137, 166-167, 181, figs. 74, 86, 99 (for archival photographs of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Jack Quinan, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright: Windows of the Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, 1999, pp. 25, fig. 21 and 28, figs. 24-25 (for archival photographs of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Julie L. Sloan, Light Screens: The Complete Leaded-Glass Windows of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 2001, p. 164, fig. 157 (for an archival photograph of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Julie Sloan, Light Screens: The Leaded Glass of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 2001, p. 80, fig. 79 (for an archival photograph of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

Eric Jackson-Forsberg, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright: Art Glass of the Martin House Complex, Petaluma, 2009, pp. 16, fig. 8 and 20- 21, figs. 12-13 (for archival photographs of the present chairs in the Darwin D. Martin house)

The present offering, a pair of Frank Lloyd Wright Spindled “Barrel” Armchairs designed for the Darwin D. Martin House, represents an iconic form by one of the 20th century’s most celebrated architects. Two of the original six created for this early Buffalo project, these chairs are the earliest known examples of one of Wright’s most enduring furniture designs – occupying a critical place in both the history of the Martin House and Wright’s evolving Prairie-style interiors.

Darwin D. Martin, Vice-President of the prominent 20th century firm, The Larkin Company, first encountered Wright’s architecture on a visit to Oak Park, Illinois in the early 1900s. Impressed by his brother’s newly-erected Wrightian home and the architect’s visionary approach, Martin commissioned Wright to design two new houses on a newly acquired plot of land in Buffalo, New York. Like the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Illinois, another key early Prairie-style commission completed just before the Martin House, Martin gave the architect a “blank check” budget and complete creative liberty to design as he saw fit. Completed in 1905, the end result remains one of Wright’s most significant and extravagant early Prairie-style projects – a self-described “domestic symphony” – and is exemplary of Wright’s design ethos: the holistic unification of architecture, interior design furnishings, and the surrounding landscape into a gesamtkunstwerk: a “total work of art.”

With the creation of the barrel chair, Wright solved what he referred to as the “unfortunate necessity” of sitting. Executed in oak, the chairs present a barrel-shaped silhouette with vertical slatted spindles connecting to a circular, fabric-upholstered seat. The spindles rise from the seat to meet an oak backrest, peaking at the chair’s crown and gently sweeping outward and down in a continuous arc. Two arms flare outward from both sides, inclining slightly up to enclose the sitter in a comfortable and supported position, before reuniting with the barrel-shaped, semicircular legs. Conveying both structural clarity and visual balance, the chairs simultaneously echo the Martin House’s geometric linearity, while the graceful curves soften and notably depart from the otherwise angular Prairie-style design vocabulary. 

Ranking as the earliest examples of this seminal model, these chairs represent a foundational moment in Wright’s furniture design – one that he would return to time and again even beyond his Prairie-style commissions. After revisiting the Martin house in 1936, Wright was evidently inspired to return to the form, adapting it for projects including Taliesin North in Wisconsin, along with Herbert F. Johnson’s Wingspread home in Wind Point, Wisconsin. Though the design evolved slightly over time, the essential silhouette endured, with the Taliesin chairs featuring a deeper cushion that transformed the seat into a full-spherical form.

Indicative of Wright’s integrative, all-encompassing vision, the present offering serves as an exemplary case study of the architect’s explorations with interior furnishings. Marrying form and function with the utmost precision, these Spindled “Barrel” Armchairs are a timeless hallmark of Wrightian design. Furthermore, of the six chairs realized for the home, the present pair are the only two that will ever trade from the house, representing a distinctly unique opportunity to acquire an emblem of design history.