Lot 431: GEORGE GRANT ELMSLIE

RUG FROM THE HENRY B. BABSON HOUSE, RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS

measurements note
45 x 97 in. (114.3 x 246.4 cm)

ca. 1913-1914

wool

Tod M. Volpe and Beth Cathers, Treasures of the American Arts and Crafts Movement: 1890-1920, New York, 1988, p. 178
Hans Frei, Louis Henry Sullivan, Zurich, 1992, p. 137 (for a period photograph showing this rug in situ in the Babson House)

PROVENANCE

Mr. and Mrs. Henry B. Babson
Thence by descent

LITERATURE

Robert Judson Clark, ed., The Arts and Crafts Movement in America 1876-1916, Princeton, 1972, p. 65 (for a similar runner designed by Elmslie for the Babson House)
Janet Kardon, ed., The Ideal Home 1900-1920: The History of Twentieth-Century American Craft, New York, 1993, p. 109 (for a similar runner designed by Elmslie for the Babson House in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
Wendy Kaplan, The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America: Design for the Modern World, New York, 2004, p. 260 (for a similar runner designed by Elmslie for the Babson House in the collection of Saint Louis Art Museum)

NOTE

Designed by Elmslie as part of an ensemble of several rugs for the Babson House around 1913-1914, this rug post-dates Sullivan's completion of the house in 1907. Purcell & Elmslie were subsequently commissioned to design a coach house stable, additional leaded glass windows and furnishings for the residence, including the rug presently offered.