560: PHILLIP LLOYD POWELL, Exceptional door < Modern Design, 14 May 2021 < Auctions

Modern Design 14 May 2021

Memories of Phill

The owner of the present lot recalls how it came to be:

My late husband and I commissioned Phill, a close friend and neighbor of ours, in 1994 to design and make us an entry door that we would install in the doorway of our house that faced the towpath of the New Hope canal. We had just renovated our house and thought that this would be a perfect time to add some artistry to the building.

Phill was reluctant at first, as he was hesitant about making commissioned items for friends. He finally said he would make us a door, as long as we didn't ask the price, and as long as we wouldn't try to sneak into his workshop to check out the door before completion. We agreed to his terms. But Phill still didn't trust that, so every evening he would wheel the door from his workshop to his house and store it inside so no one could peek!

When the door was completed, Phill hosted an artist's "Door Opening" to unveil it. We invited friends from the local area to his workshop for an exciting evening of wine and hors d'oeuvres. After that, Phill had to figure out how to best transport the door from his workshop to our home. Since he also lived along the towpath, he carefully strapped the door to his cart, and he and my husband wheeled the door about ten houses north, along the canal towpath, to our back deck.

The owners and Phill, foreground, at the "Door Opening"

The door knocker was from one of the many European trips Phill had taken and the smaller lions on the inside of the door were actually brass towel hooks that he'd found. He cut off the hooks and made them into a design for the interior as a continuation of the lion theme.

He was a very creative spirit, and a good friend.

Phillip Lloyd Powell 1919–2008

Celebrated American furniture maker and designer Phillip Lloyd Powell was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1919. Powell is best known for his innovative and hands-on approach to the production of studio furniture that disregarded industrial mass production methods in favor of creating limited runs of meticulously detailed, hand-carved pieces.

A self-taught natural at the craft of woodworking, Phillip Lloyd Powell began creating custom furniture for friends and family as a teenager. Looking to further develop his craft, he enrolled at Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) in 1939 to study mechanical engineering. His academic career was cut short in 1940 when he was drafted into the Army Air Corps. During his service as a meteorologist, stationed in Great Britain, Powell dreamed of returning home and settling in the quiet, river town of New Hope; his dream came to fruition in 1947 when he purchased an acre of land in the Bucks County artists’ community. Powell built his own home and earned a living selling works by noted mid-century designers such as Herman Miller and Isamu Noguchi.

At the urging of his friend George Nakashima, already an established studio furniture maker, Powell began designing his own furniture. He established a showroom in the heart of New Hope in 1953, open only by appointment and on Saturday evenings. In 1955, he began sharing his studio with Paul Evans. The two artists shared a creative space until 1966, growing their businesses and collaborating on select furniture designs. In addition to his detailed woodworking, Powell also created pieces in stone, metal and slate.

Though Powell began his work in the middle of the 20th century, his designs stand apart from the archetypal clean, sharp lines of many other mid-century makers. Along with his fellow Delaware Valley Modernists, George Nakashima and Wharton Esherick, he sought to elevate the natural form of wood and preferred organic curves and materials. A classic example of this is the singular, sculpted fireplace now on permanent exhibition, along with several other important pieces, at the Michener Museum of Art in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. But Powell’s work was also inspired by his love of world travel; The Powell Door, an intricately carved and brightly painted pine door (also at the Michener Museum of Art) suggests the influence of India, Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Morocco.

Owing to the intricacies of his designs and his preference to work alone, Powell is estimated to have produced less than 1,000 pieces before his death in 2008.

Auction Results Phillip Lloyd Powell