Identifier:
134719
Description:
See description on #80377. NOTE: This lid identified as fitting Basket #80377, per Robin Wright - Native American(Northwest Coast) consultant, University of Washington. Summer 1990.
Date:
1868 – 1900
Materials:
Spruce Root, Bear Grass
Current Location Status:
In Storage
Source:
Gift Of Kendall, David Wolcott
Related Entity:
David Wolcott Kendall (donor)
David Wolcott Kendall, one of the early school of designers, was born October 11, 1851. He was a student, a musician, wood carver, artist, and inventor. He came to Grand Rapids from Indianapolis in 1877. He was colloquially named the "Dean of Furniture Designers." Kendall's widow, Helen Kendall, passed away in 1928, and willed it that the Kendall School of Art be created as a memorial to David. Kendall College of Art and Design remains a prominent art school in southwest Michigan.
David W. Kendall is famous for his McKinley chair, named after President McKinley, who owned one. By 1897, Kendall had the McKinley chair patented. While Kendall was influenced primarily by his European travels and ancient European art and design, he was an early and important advocate for the Arts and Crafts movement.
As a designer he served the William A. Berkey Furniture Company, the Phoenix Furniture Company and Berkey & Gay. His business sagacity and acumen became evident, and eventually he was made general manager of the Phoenix. Mr. Kendall is given credit for the development of antique oak, the sixteenth century, the canary, the cremona, and the malachite finishes, and many other features commonly employed in the modern method of furniture construction. He died February 16, 1910, in Mexico City, while on a tour of inspection and study of architecture and ornament of the prehistoric Incas, Toltec, and Mayan tribes of Yucatan and Central America. He also went to Egypt to study Egyptian ornament and hieroglyphics. Shortly before his death in Mexico he sent a rough pencil sketch of a settee to the factory, which was carefully detailed by William Balbach, his chief assistant.
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