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adler & sullivan's 1885 benjamin lindauer house cherry wood fireplace fragment shrouded in mystery

the primary reason for ending nearly every post with "to be continued" or "i will revisit at a later time" is lack of time. i feel weighted down by the stress of chasing deadlines everyday. i've reached a state of mind where i calculate my actions based on minutes in a given day. i feel manically obsessed with this world of documentation, research, salvage, preservation, presentation and so on.

having that out of my system, i feel i can justify why it has taken nearly 7 years to devote some time to a small and elegantly simple, but historically important wood panel. this is an object i look at nearly every day, with wonderment at the circumstances surrounding its journey from one place to another. i'm speaking about a remarkably well-executed, hand-carved solid cherry wood block or panel, salvaged from a towering fireplace mantle that was fabricated for the adler & sullivan bejamin lindauer house (constructed in 1885 and later demolished in 1959).

the hand carved solid cherry wood decorative panel, removed from an interior residential fireplace mantel, contains a striking design in the form of a logarithmic spiral, equiangular spiral or growth spiral, which is a special kind of spiral curve often appearing in nature. the logarithmic spiral was first described by descartes and later extensively investigated by jakob bernoulli, who called it spira mirabilis, “the marvelous spiral.” the corners are bedecked with simple, yet elegant triangular shaped, chamfered recessed panels.

what inspired me to write an expository post on this panel was that i received my signed copy of "richard nickel dangerous years: what he saw and what he wrote," published by cityfiles press. while soaking up the imagery and text on every page, i came across an image that floored me. taken by nickel, the photograph depicts the conditional state of the lindauer house interior, with the mantel i always suspected the panel was salvaged from.

until this point i had no actual picture to verify it. now, it is clear as day - five identical panels or insets arranged horizontally along the frieze. interestingly, there is an image - a "selfie" - of nickel taking a picture of his refection in the mirror of the overmantel - the one i suspected the panel was removed from. clearly, sullivan had a hand in its design, as it was consistent with other 1880's commissions, residential or otherwise.

i wondered why the mirror and mantel were separated. instead of taking the entire assembly, the overmantle is shown with nickel, and as far as the panels are concerned, i only know of myself and john vinci having one. he confirmed this when he was over at my museum earlier this year. where are the other three? i was told several students running in the same circle as nickel and vinci were not only documenting adler and sullivan's early work (as it was being demolished), but grabbing "souvenirs" or salvaging artifacts, as nickel was.

this is much like the cyrus mcormick residence that was outfitted with two radiator grilles. no one knows for sure how the incredibly fragile and oversized grille was removed and ultimately saved. only four were made: one was presumably scrapped, one salvaged and years later sold to bldg. 51, one was made for william winslow (president of the foundry that fabricated them), and another given to louis sullivan himself (which he later gave to daniel burnham to settle some lingering debt). the removal of the two grilles may remain a mystery, but i'm sure with a little time and research, i will be able to pinpoint all the questions i have as to how this piece traveled from mantel to the bldg. 51 collection.

at the very least, i have now confirmed where the piece was located "in situ," which in and of itself addresses questions and concerns that have been plaguing me since i first acquired it. in addition, i've done some research on the house, and mr. lindauer and his business endeavors, which has sent me off on a quest to find anything related to his clothing company. i hope to further enrich the already colorful narrrative of the small wood panel. finding out why and how it was removed as a panel, instead of by salvaging the complete mantel, may take another seven years.

background on lindauer:
born in germany in 1839, benjamin lindauer began his career in men's fashion or goods at a very young age, where he learned the trade of a weaver and shortly after, assumed charge of the cotton and woolen factory owned by family relatives. lindauer came to chicago in 1859, where he engaged in peddling goods between chicago and joliet. he next entered the employ of o. l. anderson, then in the retail dry goods and notion business on west randolph street. from mr. anderson's store, he went into that of martin clayburgh, and remained with him until 1861, when he relocated to mt. carmel, ills. there he engaged in business for himself as a dealer in general merchandise throughout most of the 1860's. in 1866-67 he returned to chicago where he assisted in founding the rohrbach, lindauer & company. the great chicago fire of 1871 resulted in a devastating blow to the firm, but quickly thereafter they managed to begin again after relocating and renaming their business (lindauer brothers & company) after they bought out the interest of founding partner lipman levi in 1872. by the early 1880's the firm employed over 400 people and ranked as one of the largest dealers in men's goods in the west. the company went bankrupt in 1888.

 



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