20th century AD

Magazine Antiques, July, 2001 by Mary Anne Hunting

(26.) "House of Richard H. Mandel," p. 79.

(27.) Deskey manuscript for "Modern Decoration Moves to the Country," p. 55, in box I, "Correspondence, Personal Papers, Speeches and Writings" (Deskey Archives). This statement was edited out of the final article, which appeared in country Life (American edition), vol. 65 (March 1934).

(28.) Ibid.

(29.) Detroit News, February 23, 1930.

(30.) Ibid.

(31.) P. 42. Because the Donald Deskey drawings at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City were unavailable at the time this article was researched, I have had to rely heavily on this book, even though it does not provide an in-depth analysis and often lacks original sources of information.

(32.) "Mandel House: A Home Resulting from Close Cooperation...," p. 36.

(33.) See Dianne H. Pilgrim, "Design for the Machine," in Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgrim, and Dickren Tashjian, The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941 (Brooklyn Museum and Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1986), p. 283; and Hanks and Toher, Donald Deskey, p. 42.

(34.) The original textiles included a cafe-au-lait-colored rug, beige- and brown-striped curtains, and yellow and brown plaid furniture upholstery.

(35.) I would like to thank Steinway and Sons of New York City for providing this information.

(36.) Similar chairs were in the beauty parlor of the Abraham and Strauss department store in New York City (see Hanks and Toher, Donald Deskey, pp. 100-101).

(37.) Similar fixtures are illustrated in Machine Art (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1934), Fig. 276. In an advertisement in the August 1935 issue of Architectural Forum (p. 54), Versen claimed that he was responsible for the lighting throughout the Mandel house.

(38.) A stunning out-take from this shoot was recently shown in the Edward Steichen exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. I would like to thank Gail Davidson of the Cooper-Hewitt for drawing this to my attention.

(39.) See Carol Herselle Krinsky, Rockefeller Center (Oxford University Press, New York, 1978).

(40.) Illustrated in Hanks and Toher, Donald Deskey, pp. 109-110, Figs. 127-128. Witold Gordon's book illustrations include Sherry Mangan, Cinderella Married or How They Lived Happily Ever After (Boni, New York, 1932) and Manuel Komroff, What Is a Miracle? (American Artists Group, New York, 1941). The artist also painted a six-thousand-foot-long mural on the facade of the Food Building No. 3 at the 1939 New York World's Fair. illustrated in Views of the New York World's Fair (Quality Art Novelty Company, Long Island City, New York, 1939).

(41.) According to the Manhattan telephone directory, the firm was also known as Schmieg and Company (1908-1924) and Schmieg and Kotzian (1937-1962). I would like to thank Catherine Hoover Voorsanger at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for providing a copy of a brochure by Schmieg and Kotzian.

(42.) In 1934 Deskey employed a similar design for a dining room in the Contemporary American Industrial Art exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (illustrated in Toher and Hanks, Donald Deskey, p. 19, Fig. 15).