Newsletter

June, 2015

The California Decorative Style:
The Music Cabinet by Arthur Mathews

Cabinet decorated by Arthur and Lucia Mathews

Arthur and Lucia Mathews were among the leading practitioners of the so-called California Decorative Style, a term coined to define the work of a group of late-nineteenth-century artists who combined the allegories and classicism of the American Renaissance with the bright colors and distinctive topography of their native California. Together the Mathewses presided over the San Francisco art world at the turn of the last century, and when their universe was destroyed by earthquake and fire in 1906, they worked together to ensure that art and aesthetics would play a role in the rebuilding process. Along with local businessman John Zeile Jr., they founded the Furniture Shop, providing commercial and residential clients with designs, furnishings, and decorative objects that would allow them to incorporate the uplifting power of art into their lives.

They developed an artistic style that drew inspiration from the California landscape with a devotion to the high art of the classical past. At the beginning of the last century California was envisioned by its inhabitants as a new Arcadia, a transplanted Mediterranean zone where the pure arts would flourish, over the harsh and ugly aspects of industrialism, in the full light and warmth of the sun.

Arthur Mathews reputation as a brilliant muralist made him a favorite of San Francisco's most wealthy and affluent residents, affording him significant residential commissions. Among his most prominent clients was Francis M. Smith, whose fortune was made through his discovery and marketing of Borax. Around 1900, Smith presented Arthur Mathews with a commission to decorate an ornately carved and gilded piano and a music cabinet for the drawing room of his prominent Oakland estate.

In his comprehensive retrospective The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews, Harvey L. Jones describes the subjects of the music cabinet:

"For its two side panels, he painted figures to express the concepts of sacred and profane with two women dressed in Grecian-inspired gowns and seated on the grass before a grove of trees. The Arcadian spirit of the Arts and Crafts style in these three panels corresponds more closely with Mathews' easel paintings of the period and certainly anticipates his future involvement with decorated furniture."
Painting on the left side of a cabinet decorated by Arthur and Lucia Mathews

The Two Red Roses Foundation is privileged to own this Mathews' music sheet cabinet, an extremely rare find since almost all extant Mathews' decorative objects and furniture are in the collection of the Oakland Museum of Art.


Greene & Greene Stained Glass Windows:
Returned From the Huntington Art Museum
Greene & Greene stained glass window from the Cole House.

Five beautiful stained glass windows from the dining room of the Mrs. Mary E. Cole House, 301 South Orange Blvd, Pasadena, California, were returned to the Two Red Roses Foundation's collection after having been on loan to the Huntington Museum of Art in Pasadena where they were displayed in the Huntington Library-Steele Gallery.

The Mary E. Cole house, right next door to the Gamble House, in Pasadena, California, was designed by famed architects Greene & Greene in 1906. The Cole's large, elegant bungalow style building featured a prominent porte cochere on the front and an open porch on the second story above the first story terrace at the rear. The lower half of the chimneys and porte cochere supports are constructed with arroyo boulders, presenting both an artistic and rustic look. The interior was heavily ornamented with Rookwood tiles and brick for all the fireplaces, leaded art glass panels and handsomely finished woodwork.

Greene & Greene stained glass window from the Cole House

Detail from the center panel of the Cole House dining room stained glass windows

By mid-1906 the Greenes were approaching their full creative powers as architects. Fifteen draftsmen were employed by the firm. Leonard Collins served as head draftsman and the majority of them assisted in the interior decorative arts drawings. Charles Greene would execute pencil sketches of his furniture designs and John Hall would produce the finished drawings for production. The collaboration of Emil Lange, Peter and John Hall and the designs of Charles and Henry Greene culminated in their five masterpieces: the "Ultimate Bungalows" designed from 1907-1909. These five commissions established their international reputation and are the signature designs most recognized by the general public today. The commissions included gardens, lighting, furniture, rugs, fireplace tools and other decorative objects that created the complete concept of an architect designed home. The five designs each had custom furnishings produced by the Hall brothers and represent the finest examples of Greene and Greene design and craftsmanship.

The Cole House windows will be displayed on the Museum's second floor's Architects' galleries along with many other important objects by Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan and Adler, Niedecken, Maher, Greene and Greene and Maybeck.


Two Red Roses Receives Book Donation from
 St. Petersburg City Library

The Two Red Roses Foundation is grateful to have received a generous donation of books from the St. Petersburg City's Main Library. These books will be housed in Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement's library which focuses on decorative arts, design, architecture, and photography.

You Can Help

The Foundation continues to seek book donations from individuals or institutions that will enhance its ability to offer scholars and students a resource center for the study of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. We focus on books and periodicals that relate to mid-20th Century decorative arts. For information on charitable contributions of books, please email us.


Mobile Friendly

Effective immediately, you can view our current monthly newsletter on your mobile device. As a result of an ever increasing portion of consumers utilizing mobile devices to view and interact with the web, we have committed to restyling our entire webpage in order to optimize and enhance the viewing and interaction experience. The job should be completed in two weeks… so says Jason, our IT geek …

Using your Apple, Android, or other mobile device, you can now stay up to date with our foundation and upcoming museum, view the collection, check out our monthly Newsletters, follow TRRF News, read up on current exhibitions, as well as peruse Books for Sale


TRRF Collection Catalogues and Books
Furniture and Metalwork collection catalogues for sale from the Two Red Roses Foundation

The first two catalogues of the Two Red Roses Foundation's collection are available for sale in our online bookstore. We are in various stages of production of five additional catalogues of the TRRF Collection, including Tiles, Pottery, Lighting, Woodblocks, and Photography. You may also buy selections of our used Arts and Crafts books by clicking here or using eBay.

We do not process credit card payments. You may utilize Paypal, who will process your credit card payment even if you do not have a Paypal account, or simply mail a check to our address and, upon its receipt, we will ship your purchase promptly.