20th century AD

Magazine Antiques, July, 2001 by Mary Anne Hunting

Among the Deskey objects acquired by the Brills to complement the surviving original furnishings in the house are a suite of yellow bedroom furniture manufactured by Valentine-Seaver of Chicago (Pl. XV), and, for another bedroom, a laminated-wood suite and mirror from Deskey's Amodec (American Modern Decoration) line (see P1. XVI). They recently acquired an electric clock of about 1930 (see the cover), probably a custom design by Deskey never intended for mass production, with works by the Warren Telechron Company (1926-1946) of Ashland, Massachusetts. [44] The Brills are also proud of their acquisition of a billiards table designed by Deskey for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company of Chicago. This model was made soon after the war, when Deskey was hired to modernize the appearance of the firm's equipment.

Not only have the Brills expanded their Deskey holdings but they have built an impressive collection of examples of twentieth-century industrial design. Its genesis lies in Eric Brill's fascination as a child with the Pan Am double-decker Stratocruiser propeller airplane made by Boeing. One of his favorites among the some two hundred examples now in the collection are a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle of 1969, which he admires for its "clean, powerful shape," and a General Trains painted aluminum toy model of the Union Pacific M10,000 (see Pl. V). Other examples range from clocks, cameras, and harmonicas to an aluminum and wood kettle designed by John Gordon Rideout (d. 1951) for the Wagner firm in Sidney, Ohio, and a large vacuum tube hi-fi power amplifier of about 1963 designed and originally owned by Saul B. Marantz (d. 1997), a designer of audio components (see Pl. XI).

However, it is in the original kitchen (Pl. XIV), a domesticated American machine in its own right, where some of the most distinctive items are displayed. The aluminum, steel, and rubber Streamliner meat slicer next to the sink was designed by Egmont H. Arens (1887-1966) and Theodore C. Brookhart (1898-1942) about 1940 for the Hobart Manufacturing Company (founded 1897) in Troy, Ohio. The Speed-weigh scale on the opposite counter was designed about 1935 by Harold Livingston Van Doren (b. 1895) for the Toledo Scale Company (1901-1986) in Ohio. The Model 150 vacuum cleaner designed in 1936 by Henry Dreyfuss for the Hoover Company (founded 1908) in North Canton, Ohio, is one of five in the collection. Brill also esteems the Sentinel "wafer" clock on the wall, designed about 1945 by Dreyfuss for the E. Ingraham Clock Company of Bristol, Connecticut. The aluminum and steel thermos pitchers in the dining room (see Pl. XIII) were designed by Dreyfuss in 1935 for the American Thermos Bottle Company in Norwich, Conne cticut.

The collection fits perfectly into the modern interiors created by Donald Deskey, who was later recognized as "one of the giants of the industrial design movement in the USA." [45] Together with the pioneering modernist Edward Durell Stone and the progressive original owner Richard Mandel, he helped to create a total work of art, still valued today for its authentic modem expression, especially by Eric and Nannette Brill--the owners, caretakers, and greatest admirers of all.