Front doors from the Robert R. Blacker House, 1907
Charles Sumner Greene (American, 1868–1957) and
Henry Mather Greene (American, 1870–1954), designers
Peter Hall Manufacturing Company and Sturdy-Lange Art Glass Studios
Pasadena, California
Teak, glass, lead, and bronze
77 1/2 x 149 x 2 in. (196.85 x 378.461 x 5.08 cm)
General Acquisitions Fund with additional support from Friends of the Decorative Arts, 20th-Century Design Fund, Dallas Symposium, Professional Members League, Decorative Arts Acquisition Fund, and Dallas Glass Club, 1994.183.a–c

The Greene brothers were preeminent among the West Coast architects whose work is part of the arts and crafts movement. Of all their buildings, the Blacker House of 1907, from which these doors come, is one of the most significant. It was the first and largest of a series of “ultimate bungalows” dating between 1907 and 1909. Located in Pasadena, California, the Blacker estate consisted of a main house, garage, gardener’s cottage, greenhouse, and garden pergola. The long, heavy timbering, the numerous porch railings, and the interior hanging lanterns mark the Blacker House as among the Greenes’ most Asian-inspired work. Its lighting fixtures, including the living room lantern (now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), are all created of leaded glass and feature plant images.

Of all the features that made the Blacker House exceptional, the art glass doors and windows are of special significance. These front doors consist of three large leaded-glass panels framed in teak, which depict vines meandering up trellises. In their complexity, size, and color, the only other examples of Greene and Greene glass that rival them are the front doors of the Gamble House of 1908, with their large, central tree motif.