Lot 1014
Measurements 58 1/2 In. X 18 In. W.
- Provenance: Letter from Bonnie Keith to Sotheby's.
- Literature: My name is Bonnie Jean Wild Keith. I was born in 1930 in Racine, Wisconsin, the single child of single parents, with no relatives remaining to whom to leave any of the family treasures. And so, at this time, I am looking for homes for some of my favorite things where they will be appropriately appreciated and enjoyed. The following is the story, as I know it, behind the Frank Lloyd Wright windows / door pictured here. My maternal grandparents were both born in Scotland, came to this country in 1901. My grandfather worked in the Calumet and Hecla Mines in Calumet, Michigan, where my mother was born. When she was very young, they moved to Racine, Wisconsin, and my grandfather became the foreman in the Case Tractor Company's drop forge. He later opened his own hardware store in South Milwaukee, Blackwood Bros. Hardware, 3001 So. Kinnickinnic Ave., which he owned and operated until his death in 1959. He had four brothers and a sister. One brother , Elias, was a Headmaster in the school in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Adam was an engineer for Norge International; Robert was a Supervisor in the city of Milwaukee; and Peter was the black sheep. His sister, Elizabeth, married and moved to Oak Park, Illinois. It was she who met and became friends with Frank Lloyd Wright in those early years. My grandmother was a beautiful, quite charismatic charmer. She visited frequently in Oak Park, and the friendship grew to include my grandparents. As a small child I met Mr. Wright a number of times at my grandparents' house. At that time, however, we were not overly impressed with him. He was just another friend of my grandparent. As an older child I remember the jelly / jam cupboard in Gram's kitchen. The stained glass doors, I was told, were commissioned by Mr. Wright, and given as a gift to my grandmother as thanks for the many good Scottish dinners she cooked for him. She made mouth-watering shortbread, oat cakes, and Cornish pasties, which he especially liked. I was frequently warned not to open both doors at the same time unless the cupboard was very full, because the weight of the doors would tip the cupboard forward, forcing my grandfather ultimately to bold it to the wall. I am a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and spoke with Mr. Wright for the last time in 1952 in Madison, where he was conferring on his Lake Monona Civic Center dream plan. During summer vacations I was among those students given summer jobs at the Johnson's Wax plant in Racine, Where we were witness to the many fascinated architects and students who toured the then revolutionary facility. My parents were champion bridge players and, on occasion, played with the Johnsons at their "Wingspread" home. So, a F.L.W. thread was always run through our family. When my grandfather died in 1959, my grandmother came to live with my mother and father in Racine, and the jelly cupboard was one of the treasures that came with her. It spent its next six years in my mother's kitchen, until my Grandma died in 1965. At that point it went to the basement, where it stored canned goods until my father died in 1986. My mother the came to live with me in Arizona. Since I did not have room for such a large cabinet, we left the cabinet in Racine and took only the doors to Arizona. Hung them in the ceiling-to-floor-lenght windows in my sunroom. My mother died January 27, 1991 and I moved to a 5-acre mini ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming. The doors hung over my work table, looking out at the Bighorn Mountains. But age and infirmity made it difficult for me to cope alone in the harsh climate. So in 1999 I returned to a better climate and support group here in Arizona. It is now my wish to find an appropriate place for the Frank Lloyd Wright doors before I die, rather than to leave their fate to the winds of chance after I am gone. -Bonnie Jean Wild Keith
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