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Table, from a dining set
Frank Lloyd Wright Matthews Brothers Furniture Company
1904
28 3/4 x 54 3/4 x 60 3/16 in. (73.03 x 139.07 x 152.88 cm) (overall, without leaves)
Gift of funds from the Regis Corporation
Accession #: 99.29.1a-c
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Frank Lloyd Wright designed this imposing dining room suite for the house of Mr. and Mrs. George Barton in Buffalo, New York. Delta Barton was the sister of Darwin D. and William E. Martin, two of Wright's most important commercial and residential clients. The Martins awarded Wright nine commissions in Chicago and Buffalo, including the Larkin Administration Building, home of a mail-order business founded by John Larkin and Elbert Hubbard, who went on to lead the Arts and Crafts group called the Roycrofters.
Wright designed the Barton house and its furnishings to complement the grander house of Darwin D. Martin. The dining chairs resemble other early Wright chairs in having tall backs decorated with narrow vertical spindles connected to a broad crest rail. Grouped around the table, the tall backs create a "room within a room." The unusual octagonal motif of the spindles continues in the table's base and legs.
Soon after the Bartons' house was completed, Mrs. Barton gave her dining set to her brother William E. Martin, who commissioned Wright to design a table and chairs for the breakfast room of his Chicago house. These two suites are the only designs in which Wright used octagonal elements.
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