Notice

Great Hall will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from September 10 - November 20, and December 3, 4, 10 and 11. 

Blacker Dining Table

Greene and Greene, Designer John and Peter Hall, Maker
On View

in

Modern, Level 2, North Wing

  • About the Artwork

    Please note: This section is empty

  • Markings

    Please note: This section is empty

    This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.

  • Provenance

    Please note: This section is empty

    Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

    For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

    Provenance page
  • Exhibition History

    Please note: This section is empty

    The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

    We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

    Suggest Feedback
  • Published References

    Please note: This section is empty

    We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

    Suggest Feedback
  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Please note: This section is empty

    A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.

  • Credit Line for Reproduction

    Please note: This section is empty

    The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.

About the Artwork

Architects seldom obtain the opportunity to design a structure and its fixtures and furniture. It is more uncommon for architects to design site-specific furniture that must work in harmony with the overall structure and still serve practical needs. The brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene were able to do both in their work designing the “Ultimate Bungalows” between 1907 and 1910. Containing elaborate woodwork and coordinated furniture, the “Ultimate Bungalows” were Greene and Greene’s very large version of the traditional arts and crafts bungalow. The dining table from the 1907 Robert Blacker House, one of the bungalow commissions, is an important example of Greene and Greene design.

Considered one of the architects’ two most important commissions,1 the Blacker House was the first of the “Ultimate Bungalows” and the most elaborate, subtly detailed, and richly appointed of the firm’s production. The house was unusually large at 12,000 square feet and included a garage, gardener’s cottage, greenhouse, pergola, and porte-cochere. The Greenes were involved with every aspect of the site’s design, closely collaborating with Mrs. Blacker, who insisted that the home conform to her family’s needs.2

Furniture for the Blacker house was fashioned out of Honduras mahogany and enriched with varying amounts of inlay work, including mother-of-pearl, silver, copper, and fruitwoods. A distinguishing feature of the dining table is the extensive use of table-sawed construction and slotted screw fastening—early manifestations of what became known as Scandinavian design. This approach is the result of the firm’s collaboration with the brothers John and Peter Hall, sons of a Swedish-trained cabinetmaker.3

The collaboration between Greene and Greene and the firm of Peter Hall produced furniture that was as much a part of the architecture as it was functional. The focal point of the dining room was its table, placed in the center of the room directly under the lighting tray, a fixture suspended by leather straps from the ceiling-mounted mahogany canopy (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). The dining table worked in concert with the lighting tray above to form a quasi-architectural column for the room. The breakfast room received a similar treatment with a smaller table (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and lighting tray (private collection). A simple, long-stemmed flower motif, fabricated of silver and mother-of-pearl inlay, similar in design to those painted in the dining room’s frieze, unified the furniture of the two rooms. The breakfast and dining rooms contained sixteen chairs, designed to adorn the perimeter of the respective rooms when not in use.4 This arrangement allowed for an unencumbered view of the tables and lighting trays in each room.

Greene and Greene’s design for the dining table provided for enormous versatility. When needed, supports reminiscent of wooden beams in the room’s paneling and concealed under the table’s top could extend to receive one or two table leaves at each end. If occasion called for even a larger surface, the glass doors between the breakfast and dining rooms could fully open to create a single, unified space. The breakfast and the extended dining tables could then be pushed together to form a large banquet table. James W. Tottis

Adapted from Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 81, nos. 1­–2 (2007): 42–43.

Notes
1. The other commission is the 1908 David B. Gamble House in Pasadena, California. See R. L. Makinson, Greene and Greene: The Passion and the Legacy (Salt Lake City, 1998), 92.
2. R. L. Makinson, T. A. Heinz, and B. Pitt, Greene and Greene: The Blacker House (Salt Lake City, 2000), 71.
3. The furniture from the “Ultimate Bungalows” was made by Peter Hall and his brother John, who began to work with the Greenes in 1905.
4. Of the sixteen chairs, two armchairs and ten chairs were intended for the dining room and four chairs for the breakfast room.

Blacker Dining Table

between 1907 and 1909

Greene and Greene (Designer) American,1893-1922 John and Peter Hall (Maker) American, 1900 - 1922

Mahogany and ebony with copper, pewter, and mother-of-pearl inlay

Overall (table): 29 3/4 × 51 3/4 × 81 7/8 inches (75.6 × 131.4 × 208 cm) Overall (each leaf): 51 1/2 × 11 1/4 × 3/4 inches (130.8 × 28.6 × 1.9 cm)

Furniture

American Art before 1950

Founders Society Purchase, Edward E. Rothman Fund, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund, Eleanor and Edsel Ford Exhibition and Acquisition Fund, Gibbs-Williams Fund; gifts from Mr. D. J. Healy, Mrs. Eugene Beauharnais Gibbs, William T. Berthelet, William Brewter Conely, Lillian Henkel Haass, J. Bell Moran, Honorable Sol White, Mr. and Mrs. E. Raymond Field, City of Detroit, and City of Detroit Fire Department by exchange

1994.78

Public Domain

Markings

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance

Hirschl and Adler;
1994-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Current, William R. and Karen Current. Greene and Greene:Architects in the Residential Style. Exh. cat., 1974, p. 56.

Makinson, Randell L. Greene and Greene: Architecture as a Fine Art. 1977, pp. 150-155.

Makinson, Randell L. Greene and Greene: Furniture and Related Designs. 1979, pp. 56-67.

From Architecture to Object: Masterworks of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Exh. cat., Hirschl and Adler Galleries. New York, 1989, pp. 108-109, no. 72.

Karlin, Elyse Zorn. Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts and Crafts Tradition. 1993, p. 224.

The Craftsman Table: Dining Rooms by Greene and Greene, Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright. Exh. cat., Hirschl and Adler Galleries. New York, 1992, no. 4.

“American Decorative Arts Acquisitions 1985-2005.” Bulletin of the DIA 81, 1-2 (2007): pp. 42-43, 62.

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback

Catalogue Raisoneé

Please note: This section is empty

Credit Line for Reproduction

Greene and Greene; John and Peter Hall, Blacker Dining Table, between 1907 and 1909, mahogany and ebony with copper, pewter, and mother-of-pearl inlay. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Edward E. Rothman Fund, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund, et al., 1994.78.

Blacker Dining Table
Blacker Dining Table