Popular Woodworking 2008-08 № 170, страница 63

Out of the Woodwork

BY DAVID MATHIAS

Memories and Milestones

Connecting an Arts & Crafts icon with the men who made it 100 years ago.

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*n a Sunday afternoon not too long ago, I found myself sitting in a home in Southern California looking at the family heirlooms of a friend. It was great fun to watch him display these items with obvious pride in the accomplishments of his family. There were the typical objects: old photographs, business papers and personal items.

There were also drawings of historically significant furniture and tools used by highly skilled craftsmen. My friend's name is Gary Hall. Peter Hall was his grandfather and John Hall his great uncle. Togetherwith Charlesand Henry Greene, the Halls helped create what many hold to be the ultimate expressions of the Arts & Crafts movement in America. The Hall's contributions to the work of the Greenes are well documented, their place in history well deserved. Most fansof Greene & Greene know something of Peter andjohn Hall, the craftsmen. On that afternoon, I got to know a little about Peter andjohn Hall, the men.

In 1905 Peter formed his contracting company and began his relationship with Greene & Greene. John joined him soon thereafter. The relationship between Peter andjohn Hall is often compared to that between Charles and Henry Greene. Peter and Henry were more pragmatic and business-minded, John and Charles more artistically inclined.

Except for the Thorsen house pieces, furniture for the Greenes was made in Peter Hall's workshop. When the furniture business declined, the shop-made wooden boxes for California fruit and candy companies. In 1921, the shop was destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.

Peter Hall was involved for much of his adult life in gold mining. Between 1898 and

The Gamble House Centennial

1908-2008

4, he spent summers mining in Alaska. After he began working with the Greenes, Peter invested in miningcompanies. Most of his investments were lost later in his life, but the family still holds mineral rights to a parcel of land in California.

For a while, Gary and I paged through a businessjournal kept by Peter's secretary. In the book were accounts receivable for contracting work well after the association with the Greenes had ended. In the days before calculators, contractors figured costs using printed tables. Gary has a book of tables that his grandfather used to calculate his costs for lumber (you don't want to know the board foot prices for lumber at that time).

This year marks the centennial of the best-known collaboration between the Greenes and

Halls - the David and Mary Gamble house. The Halls built the Gamble house in only 10 months. Look again at the photos from the Gamble house that appear in this issue (page 66) then consider the previous sentence. Ten months. How did they do it?

The centerpiece of the centennial year is "A New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene," an exhibition of the brothers' designs. The initial installation, at the Huntington Library's Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, will run from Oct. 18,2008 until Jan. 4,2009. It will then travel to the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian (approximately March to June 2009) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (approximately August to October 2009).

The exhibition is a must for any Greene &r Greene fan and an unparalleled introduction for those just discovering the genre. It will include 160 examples of their work including furniture, art glass, metal work, textiles, drawings and archival photographs. Some of the pieces have never before been available to the public. Also on display will be hand tools that belonged to John and Peter Hall - an added bonus for us woodworkers.

Centennials don't come along every day. And those celebrating true masterpieces are quite rare. If you choose not to go to the exhibition though, don't get too discouraged. I'm sure the celebration for the 200th anniversary will be just as good. PW

The Gamble house is the only Greene & Creene home regularly open to the public. More information about tours is available online at gamblehouse.org, or by phoning 626-793-3334. The poster pictured above is available as a limited-edition block print, directly from the Gamble House bookstore. Information about the Huntington exhibition is available online athuntington.org, or by call-ing 626-405-2100.