Refining a Style
The Pinnacle of Materials and Craft:
Greene & Greene
Design for piano case, 1912
Graphite on tracing paper
Charles M. Pratt house, Ojai, 1908–11
Charles Sumner Greene Collection (1959-1),
Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley
This object is not on exhibit at the Renwick Gallery
The Greenes are known to have designed several cases for upright pianos, including for the James Culbertson house in 1907 and the Gamble house in 1908–09. Among Charles Greene’s personal papers is an article from The Architectural Review of 1905 on “The Designing of Piano Cases,” showing examples by English Arts and Crafts designer Charles Robert Ashbee, among others. The piano had become a necessary component in any artistic home and was therefore worthy of an artist’s attention. Charles and Henry were both musical and would have understood the importance of including such an instrument among their designs for interior furnishings.
