In 1906 Charles and Henry Greene were at the launch point of their "ultimate bungalow" period for which they are best known, and through which they achieved heights of Arts & Crafts design unparalleled in many ways. In that year they drew up plans for the Bolton House in Pasadena, and along with it a full set of furniture plans. In the Bolton House furniture they employed for the first time mahogany as a wood, and square ebony pegs as a design element.

Of the Bolton House furniture, the best known pieces are from the entry hall - a pair of chairs and a table. As the current owner of the Bolton House, I wanted to reproduce this furniture so I could re-create the entry hall exactly as it was in 1907, when Belle Barlow Bush (the first occupant of the house) received the original furniture from the workshop of the Hall brothers, and placed it for the first time just inside the front door.

In early 2010 I commissioned Richard Weigand to reproduce this furniture. Fortunately, an entry hall chair and the table had survived the last 103 years and were on display at the Huntington. The Huntington kindly allowed me to inspect these pieces at close range, carefully measuring and photographing their details. Armed with this data, Richard was able to reproduce the entry hall chairs to the exact dimensions and with the exact finishing details employed by the Hall brothers in 1907. Richard used old-growth Honduras mahogany, from a large log salvaged from a river bottom in Honduras, to come as close as possible to replicating the look and feel of the original chairs.

Richard's pair of chairs are now in place in the entry hall of the Bolton House, and they contribute significantly to re-creating the look and the atmosphere of the house when it was first built by Greene & Greene. Richard is a master woodworker, and the chairs are a work of art. I am extremely pleased with the results.

Tom Reitze
The Bolton House
Pasadena, CA

Not For Sale