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Lot Essay
An example of this design is in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number 1982.30ab).
Paul T. Frankl designed this Skyscraper bookcase in late 1926 or in the first half of 1927, which corresponds to the early period of his Skyscraper furniture production. Frankl’s first effort had come in the summer of 1925, when he was vacationing at his cabin just outside Woodstock, New York. Frankl set out to build a bookcase to fit a small collection of art books he owned. When it was completed, Frankl, recognizing the power of the form and its evocative associations with New York City’s new tall buildings, decided to release his first pieces based on the concept of a soaring tower to the public later that year. The Frankl Galleries, on East 48th Street, had no production facilities; Frankl instead commissioned various cabinetmakers to craft his designs. Eventually, as the popularity of the Skyscraper line grew and sales increased, he was forced to contract with less skilled craftspeople, and the quality of his realized designs at times suffered. Frankl offered a few standard designs, but he often produced custom pieces, as is the case with this example. Characteristic of Frankl’s early designs, this bookcase has small squared wooden pulls and a prominent “cap.” The piece bears no label; Frankl only began affixing small paper labels (and, slightly later, metal ones) to his pieces toward the end of 1927 or early 1928. This is a fine and representative example of the earliest phase of American modernist design.
-Christopher Long,
Martin S. Kermacy Centennial Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Paul T. Frankl designed this Skyscraper bookcase in late 1926 or in the first half of 1927, which corresponds to the early period of his Skyscraper furniture production. Frankl’s first effort had come in the summer of 1925, when he was vacationing at his cabin just outside Woodstock, New York. Frankl set out to build a bookcase to fit a small collection of art books he owned. When it was completed, Frankl, recognizing the power of the form and its evocative associations with New York City’s new tall buildings, decided to release his first pieces based on the concept of a soaring tower to the public later that year. The Frankl Galleries, on East 48th Street, had no production facilities; Frankl instead commissioned various cabinetmakers to craft his designs. Eventually, as the popularity of the Skyscraper line grew and sales increased, he was forced to contract with less skilled craftspeople, and the quality of his realized designs at times suffered. Frankl offered a few standard designs, but he often produced custom pieces, as is the case with this example. Characteristic of Frankl’s early designs, this bookcase has small squared wooden pulls and a prominent “cap.” The piece bears no label; Frankl only began affixing small paper labels (and, slightly later, metal ones) to his pieces toward the end of 1927 or early 1928. This is a fine and representative example of the earliest phase of American modernist design.
-Christopher Long,
Martin S. Kermacy Centennial Professor, University of Texas at Austin