Sotheby's to Offer the Charles M. Pratt Desk and Chair by Greene & Greene - New York, 16 December 2010
Sotheby’s 16 December auction of Important 20th Century Design in New York is led by the Pratt Desk and Chair by Greene & Greene, the most important work created by the architects and an icon of American furniture. The work will be on exhibition in Sotheby’s New York galleries beginning 11 December, and is estimated in the region of $4 million.
The Desk and Chair is from the Pratt House, the fifth and final of Charles and Henry Greene’s ‘Ultimate Bungalows’ that made them among the most important architects of the 20th century. The masterwork embodies the architects’ style at their pinnacle, and set what became a 15-year auction record for Greene & Greene in 1985 when it was purchased by the present owner.
As in the other Ultimate Bungalows, the furniture for the Pratt House was custom designed, site-specific and superbly constructed. The work embodies the Greenes’ defining design principles, with a purity of proportion, form and line that is balanced by sumptuous textural enrichments. Hand-carved wood inlays on the exterior of the Desk articulate gnarled oak trees, inspired by the surrounding landscape of the Ojai valley. This anthropomorphic depiction of the live oak represents a high water mark in the history of inlay.
