With
spring comes an itch to move: I’ve been dying to get out of town.
So
it was perfect timing for “Cities within a City,” the first of the Southern
California Institute of Classical Architecture’s local tours.
I
drove about an hour south of Los Angeles Saturday morning with a fresh iced coffee,
and met a host of new and familiar friends at the fountain at Malaga Cove
Library in Palos Verdes. A herd of lithe young men were stretching on the grass
by the plaza, their bicycles propped nearby.
They
would ride the ragged coastline of the Pacific Ocean, hidden from view just
beyond the stands of pepper and eucalyptus trees.
The
inscrutable sound of peacock cries echoed around the hills.
After
a morning tour of the plaza and the public buildings at Malaga Cove, we
convened in the courtyard of my friend Steve Shriver’s home out near Portuguese
Bend for an intimate al fresco lunch. The home was built by Los Angeles
luminary Gordon Kaufman. The Shriver family has lived at The Farmstead, as it’s
called, since 1984. A humble set of apartments, they were actually the service
buildings of a grand imagined but unrealized Italianate home overlooking the
ocean.
Steve
is an artist, and this is an artist’s home. Surfboards are propped in the horse
stables. The coastal land is settling constantly, revealing fissures and charm
in the thick plaster.
One
bit of charm the home recently revealed is an age darkened folio that Steve
found in the attic: the sheaf contains a set of watercolor renderings of light
fixtures that were designed for the home when it was being built in the 1920s.
Steve
had mentioned these drawings to me some time ago, knowing my interest in
antique lighting. I could not have anticipated my delight in finally seeing
them in person.
A precisely metered cursive, penciled almost 100 years ago, captions the drawings. Gentle wrinkles and a wide border naturally frame each drawing.
The watercolor renderings would fit in the palm of your hand. The B.B. Bell Company proposed a series of wrought iron lights for the Levinson Estate, aka The Farmstead. There is little information about B.B. Bell floating in the ether, but they are credited with lighting the Adamson House in Malibu, and Greystone, the Doheny Mansion in the hills not too far from where I live and work in Los Angeles.
The
Bell artist handles the bleeding color deftly, revealing the twist in the iron framing,
spikes rising like a crown around a glass lantern body, the open mouth of a
dragon peering down from a wall bracket.
I
imagined the bare terraces of the peninsula when it was first being developed
in the 1920s, and in turn the Bell designer imagining how his dark, scrolling
lanterns would sway in the sea breeze. Wall sconces hanging from elaborate
brackets would illuminate the gate posts of the quiet, thick walled villa.
Some
of the fixtures were less Mediterranean – simple geometric forms fashioned from
sheet metal. The artist mottles the dark colors representing the metal as if
anticipating the patina that sea air and salt would bring naturally over time.
To catch the likeness not just of metal, but light, and glass. My heart leapt at these:
The
crackling edge of a pale color used to render the glass seems to glint off the
page.
When
I think about the photographs of our lights that I print by the dozens, I am
stunned. (And that’s not at all to diminish the artistry of our in house
photographer, Jerome. His detail shots regularly make me catch my breath). But these
renderings are one of a kind, and stand as art in their own right, with no need
of the artisan-made lights that they conjure.
Sadly,
the lights were never made. I wondered if that might be because the main house
was never built, but the notes make it clear that they were proposed for the
outbuildings. The captions note fixtures for Entry, Lavatory, Service Porch,
Outside of Tool Room, Bath Lavatory, Servant’s Hall. Humble spaces to support a
grand villa.
And
those numbers? 1920s pricing!
Steve
does have some beautiful lanterns on the gateposts before his home. And I saw a
light on the Villa Francesca just down the road that looked a lot like one
drawn for the Farmstead. Villa Francesca is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. Whether or not the light is by Bell, I think the spirit lingers here.
Entertain and educate your inner classicist with the Institute of Classical Architecture:
http://www.classicist-socal.org/
Visit the light side, where this was originally posted:
