German publisher Schocken; Russian architect J Berlin

St­uttgart branch, Kaufhaus Schocken chain of German department stores.

Joseph Berlin (1877-1952) was born in Mogilev Russia/now Belarus. He studied at St Pet­ersburg Academy of Art graduating in 1911, winning sev­eral architectural compet­itions. Berlin then worked in St Pet­er­s­burg, designing 12+ build­ings for various local councils and banks before migrat­ing to British-ruled Palestine with his family in 1921

Once settled, he got work as Chief Architect in the Public Works Dept of the important trade union, the Histadrut. In his 3 years there, he designed a number of build­ings in Tel-Aviv including the Electric Corporation on HaHashmal St, a text­ile fact­ory and a number of private houses eg Sh­ap­ira House in Bialik St which later became a synagogue. In total Berlin designed 100+ buildings around the country, 83 in Tel Aviv, many of them land­marks which still stand today.

So why did Joseph Berlin agree to design printing works? Haaretz News­paper was founded in 1918, sponsored by the British military govern­ment in Palest­ine, making it the longest running news­paper currently in print in Isr­ael. Haaretz is considered the most in­fluential and re­sp­ect­ed daily newspaper, Israel's newspaper of record. In 1919, it was led by a group of Russian Labour Zionists and the literary section attract­ed leading Hebrew writers of the time.   

Architect Joseph Berlin

Until 1922 the paper was printed in Jerusalem, then it re­opened in Tel Aviv early 1923 under the editorship of Moshe Glick­son. Tel Aviv Council granted the paper financial support by paying in advance for future advertisements. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it was seen as the most sophisticated of the country's dailies.

Apart from the news, Haar­etz publishes feature articles on social and environmental issues, book reviews, investig­ative reporting and pol­it­ical commentary. Its read­ership includes Israel's intelligentsia and members of its political and economic elites. Haar­etz readership has a higher-than-average education and income and most are Ashkenazim.

Salman Schocken was a publisher and co-founder of the large Kaufhaus Schocken chain of department stores in Germany. His classiest shop was in St­uttgart, designed by famous architect Erich Mendelsohn in 1926. St­raight after the Nazis had come to power, Schocken left Ger­many and emig­rated to Palestine in 1934; the department stores he left in Germany were quickly ary­anised.

Schocken founded Schocken Books, publishing books in German and Hebrew. And fortunately he bought Ha­ar­etz Printing Company in Dec 1937.  

Ha­ar­etz Printing Company

first built in the 1930s, renovated in the 1990s

The original Haaretz building was designed in 1932 to the archit­ect­ural designs of Joseph Berlin and his son Zeev. 56 Mazeh St Tel Aviv was com­pletely a residential street at the time when the print works were built. In fact it was surp­rising that permission was granted for a noisy industrial unit that op­erated all night, printing the next day's edition. It was demolished in the early 1990s with only part of the fac­ade pre­ser­v­ed and integ­rated into the modernist building.

Commentators have compared the former print works to the early works of Bauhaus star Walter Gropius and those of Erich Mendel­sohn who designed the de la Warr pavilion in Sussex. It made sense. Berlin was trained in Russia but by the time he was building in Tel Aviv in the 1930s, his projects incorporated many elements of the Bauhaus style i.e few decorative additions, flat roofs, ribbon windows.

Ha'aretz Newspaper left the building years ago but the current owners have kept the original facade, maintaining it excellently. It has strong features, with wide steel framed glass, rounded bal­con­ies and balustrades, and a cantilevered roof. And note the glazed corner stairwell looking into the zigzag staircase, adding drama to the des­ign. Its squared-off corner contrasts with the curves of the rest of the balconies. Look through the door to a repro­duc­ed image of the building back in the 1930's. The only significant diff­erence is that the original image still bore the newspaper name on the facade.

Haaretz is still owned by the Schocken family, now the printing house is in Schocken St Sth Tel Aviv. The glass st­air­case and balcony with rail­ings are striking. The building used to have another structure in the back, which was demolished and replaced by a higher housing building.

In the era of their partnership, Joseph and Zeev Ber­lin des­igned several build­ings in T.A, including Braun-Rabinsky House (1932) cnr Rothschild Bld & Mazeh St. This residential build­ing was designed by the father-and-son team, its design ch­aracterised by straight, unadorned lines. It was designed as a 3-storeyed house with 2 flats on each floor, on either side of a vertical stair­s; this accentuated the corner and funct­ions as the building's axis of sym­metry. See the stairwell and the vertical thermometer window. Since then the pent­house was added to the building, setback from the main façade, while another extension was added at the rear.  

Braun-Rabinsky House, Tel Aviv, 1932

by Joseph and Zeev Berlin architects

Read 1. Baruch Ravid’s book: Josef Berlin, Architect: Between Little Tel Aviv and the White City (2005) and 2. Adrian Yekkes, Josef Berlin in Tel Aviv.

L. Capability Brown landscape gardens

Known as the Father of British Landscape Architecture, Lancelot Cap­ab­ility Brown (1716-83) started life as an estate worker's son. The Northum­b­erland lad trained as a gardener's boy at the local country house, Kirkharle Hall. By 1741 he had reached Stowe, a Bucking­hamshire estate where he became responsible for one of the loveliest landscape gardens in England. He stayed at Stowe for ten years and got married in the local church.

Croome sits in Brown's landscape.

Note the architectural reflections in the lake

Claude and Poussin’s view of the Roman Campagna inspired naturalistic garden design and Brown refused to create formal, symmetrical French Baroque gardens. Instead he designed naturalistic, picturesque spaces with undulating grasses, tree clumps, curving lakes and flowing rivers. He wanted to create landscapes like those the C18th Grand Tourists saw in Italy.

Naturalistic did not mean untouched. Capability Brown surveyed the land he had available to him and considered how to transform the English landscape with his designs. He did whatever needed to be done: moved entire hills, created vast lakes and managed distant views. Because wide open expanses, views and vistas were so important, landowners had to cooperate with Brown. Brown asked the landowners to redesign their houses so that the views could be better seen from the front rooms & they have agreed immediately

And the landowners would have paid! By the 1760s Brown was earning a fortune, usually £500 for one commission! As an accomplished rider he was able to work fast, arriving on horseback to survey an estate and prepare the plan in detail. Where he did not even have time to visit, Brown created a design on paper and let a subcontractor get on with the job.

His 170 surviving landscapes include the World Heritage Sites at Blen­heim Palace, Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey, Alnwick, Chatsworth, Syon Byk and Compton Verney. In these places and others, Capability Brown set the standard for contemporary and future landscape designers, and probably landscape artists as well; he created the landscape style that I think of as typically English.

Bowood House, 1880, 

Wiki

Brown laid out the western lawns and removed the early C18th formal gardens. Lawns and trees replaced a canal and parterres on three sides of the house, and also created pleasure grounds in what had been a plantation. Brown turned the lakes into a single expanse of water by removing the dam between the upper long pool and the middle pool, making way for a new bridge. In 2016-7, an influential group of organisations and landowners marked the 300th anniversary of Capability Brown's birth with a nation­wide festival celebrating his life - guided walks, musical event, theatre productions and family activities. And Capabili-Teas, C18th-style tea parties.

Money raising and organising was done by the Landscape Institute, on behalf of a partnership which included the Association of Gardens Trusts, English Heritage, Garden History Society, Historic Houses Association, National Gardens Scheme, Parks & Gardens UK, Natural England, Visit Britain, Visit England and National Trust. Their first goal was to bring the special quality of Brown’s landscapes to a wider audience, both nationally and internationally. The second goal was to have as many of Brown's parks and gardens open to the public as possible. The third goal was to fix Brown at the forefront of modern thinking on design, and on the management of the natural environment.

A remarkable collection of watercolour paintings and drawings, once owned by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, went on show at Hampton Court Palace. Never displayed before, the exhibition of 60 detailed views of the palace, park and gardens nicely captured Hampton Court during the time when Capability Brown served there as Chief Gardener to King George III. This intriguing collection appar­ently had remained forgotten in the State Hermitage Museum archives in St Petersburg.

Hannah Northam's portrait bust of Brown

2016

No portrait bust existed of Brown. So Haddonstone, maker of architectural stonework, commissioned sculptor Hannah Northam to create a new stonework piece. Examine the bust and see that it does indeed look like Brown's 1773 portrait by Nathaniel Dance (National Gallery). The completed work went on display at Blenheim, and in Haddonstone’s own show gardens in East Haddon near Northampton.

The festival showed a play called Mr Brown’s Directions that was produced at Burton Constable. And Capability Brown themed guided garden tours were held at Bowood House in Wiltshire. Visitors were taken along the lake, to the hidden cascade and through the arboretum, followed by a lunch in the House Restaurant. The rest of the day was free to explore the historic Georgian house and grounds.

Compton Verney in its Brown landscaped park

near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Was Capability Brown always admired? Of course not.. tastes come and tastes go. Brown's reputation declined somewhat after his death, because his landscape style was gentle and undulating. It was not remotely dramatic nor did it express the full conflict of wild nature. In the C19th Brown’s critics were bored with his work.

one of Compton Verney galleries

Many thanks to the Lancelot Capability Brown: a Research Impact Review, University of East Anglia.

 

Shirley Temple, young film star oppressed

Shirley Temple (1928-2014) was born in in Santa Monica Cal. As a child Temple showed interest in dancing and singing so in 1931, her mother decided to enrol her in a Dance School Los Angeles. There she was scouted by Charles Lamount, Casting Director for Educational Pictures studio. Lamont & producer Jack Hays offered her a contract. They cast in a 1932 series of short films called Baby Burlesks (sic) where preschoolers reenacted famous films & current events and Temple was clearly the star. At 3 Shirley landed a role in her first feature film, The Red-Haired Alibi, 1932.

In 1933 a talent agent recognised her dancing in a hotel lobby and quickly signed her to Fox Film Corporation. Her key film came in May 1934 with Fox Studios' Stand Up and Cheer under producer-director Jack Hays. In Dec 1934, she starred in Bright Eyes with James Dunn. In one scene, Bright Eyes showed the toddler singing her signature song: On The Good Ship Lollipop in a very short babydoll dress, being held and touched by a dozen grown men. For the next few years Shirley made box office hits and was even honoured with a Child’s Acting Oscar. With curly hair and dimples, she captured America’s heart. Shirley made 40+ films in major studios: RKO, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount etc.

....

 

Stand Up and Cheer, 1934

 

Bright Eyes, 1934

Shockingly, parents weren't allowed on the set with their small child. Instead her mother made costumes, gave acting lessons and styled her hair nightly into ringlets. The film topics seemed inappropriate eg one of the first characters she played was named Morelegs Sweet Trick. The overt sexualisation of Hollywood's youngest starlet began immediately. Her role was in the film War Babies where she played a prostitute named Charmaine, aged 3! She wore an off-the-shoulder blouse and a nappy held with a huge safety pin, dancing for other children as soldiers who fought over her and give her lollies. In Polly Tix in Washington 1933, she was a strumpet sent to seduce a senator. She wore a bra and was filing her nails. She later turned up to the senator's office wearing pearls and told the toddler playing the senator she'd been sent to entertain him. Temple noted in her autobiography, Child Star, that the films were a cynical exploitation of her childish innocence, even racist or sexist. 

In Dec 1933, Temple signed with nearly bankrupt Fox Studios! Founded by William Fox in 1915, his Studios thrived in the silent-movie era. But by the early 1930s, it was operating at a loss, owed millions and share prices had plummeted. 2 weeks before signing her contract with the studio, she had been cast in Stand Up and Cheer with James Dunn, who played her father. While their parts were small, the pair was soon cast in more films. Little Rich Girl 1936 also had scenes of Temple being fondled by grown men in normal early-Hollywood paedophilia.

Although Temple was very popular, she was underpaid. Her family fought for her to receive just compensation as a child actor, esp since her brand was used in popular merchandise eg clothes, sheet music, soaps. Stand Up and Cheer’s premise was that depressiveness was the result of a lack of optimism, so auditions were held to find actors to cheer people up. Temple and James Dunn were partners in a dance sequence. Without enough time for her to learn new choreography, she taught Dunn a dance that she knew already, with a potential 7-year extension at $150 a week. They signed the contract in Dec 1933 and her mum was paid to accompany her on set. Shirley’s autobiography noted it was a cloud that hovered darkly over the next 7 years.

Temple & Dunn's next film was Baby, Take a Bow, premiering Apr 1934. She was also loaned out to other studios for thousands of dollars, many times what she was personally paid. But Fox Studios had struggled ever since the 1929 stock market crash, and in 1934, Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures to become 20th Century Fox. Vanity Fair wrote said: They didn't buy the Fox studio; they bought Shirley Temple. In her first year with Fox, she appeared in 10 films.

She was most valued during the nation’s economic crash, Great Depression. Her films’ jovial themes provided Americans with an escape, proving to be a big box-office draw for struggling audiences who wanted to see optimistic films. Pres. Roosevelt said: During the Depression, it was splendid that for just 15c an American went to a movie and looked at a baby’s smiling face.

But Temple was also abused. Rumours spread that she was actually a 30 year old woman posing as a child. Critics pointed to her stocky build & adult teeth, although the teeth came on a dental plate she wore on set to conceal her gaps. Some claimed that her famous blonde curls were a wig. In reality her ringlet curls were maintained by a torturous nightly process and a weekly vinegar soak that burned her eyes. These rumours caused the Vatican to send Fa Silvio Massante to investigate the claims of her being an adult.

The sexualisation of the child was awful on screen, but much worse behind the scenes. During the production of her many films, the child actors endured heaps of both physical and sexual abuse. Years later, in Child Star: An Autobiography, Temple described the Baby Burlesks series as a cynical exploitation of childish innocence. She explained that if any preschool aged children misbehaved on set, they were locked in a windowless booth called the Punishment Box, forced to sit on solid ice for awful periods. And the producers always forced her to work while injured, even after a serious eardrum operation.

In 1940 at 12 Temple met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer, Arthur Freed, where he exposed him-self to her. After seeing her nervously giggle, Freed threw Temple out of his office. This horrid man went on to produce wildly successful films incl Singin' In The Rain, Wizard of Oz, American in Paris and Annie Get Your Gun. Being a known paedophile clearly didn’t harm his professional success.

Famous British novelist, Graham Greene wrote the worst film reviews. Referring to her Captain January 1936, Greene wrote "Her neat & well-developed rump twisted in the tap-dance" An 8 year old?? In a 1937 film review, Greene wrote "Wearing short kilts, she was a complete totsy; watch the way she measures a man with agile studio eyes, with dimpled depravity." Temple & Twentieth Century Fox successfully sued Greene for libel, but what damage was done to the little girl then?

 

Captain January, 1936

At 17, Temple was a victim again when producer David O Selznik of Selznik International Pictures tried to sexually assault her. She escaped him unmolested but this was not the last time she faced with horrid Hollywood men. Off-screen, Hollywood was clearly a sinis/ter place for young actors. Shirley still remembered the predatory behaviour she endured at 12. Her legacy still remains a staple of Hollywood culture, but don’t overlook her pain.

In 1939, California Child Actor's Bill/Jack Coogan Act was passed. Coogan had been an early child star when he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in The Kid, 1921. He earned a fortune, but it was spent by his stepfather. The legal battle led to Calif passing a bill that specified working conditions and ensured that 15% of a child actor's wages were saved in a Coogan account. But because Shirley’s dad became her (bad) business manager, of $3 mill that she’d earned altogether, she had only $44,000 left in her trust account.


Shirley Temple Black served under four presidents,
Politico.

Temple retired from films at 22. Despite once being Hollywood's best paid star, she had to continue working because most of her money had disappeared. Eventually she decided to look elsewhere and by 1967, she considered politics. She joined the Republican Party and stood for Congressional. Although Temple didn’t win, her campaign began a long career in public service. In 1974, she was appointed as US Ambassador to Ghana. Then as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia for Pres Bush where she played a crucial role in international diplomatic relations. She also served on the Board for major organisations eg United Nations Association, National Wildlife Federation, Bank of America and Walt Disney Co. In 1998, Temple was hon-oured at the Kennedy Centre for her role in early film culture. She was honoured by Screen Actors Guild and American Centre for Films for Children, although Temple’s ambassadorships were the best jobs in her whole life. In 2014 she died at 85.

Thanks to BBC, 16th Dec 2024

Small Regency metamorphic furniture

The 1963 Bulletin of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art noted a little-known London inventor, George Remington, took out a 14-year patent on a globe table in Dec 1807. A few months later, the rights to produce his invention were bought by cabinet makers Morgan and Sanders Co.

English globe writing desk, c1810, Morgan & Sanders.

This company had produced a working model of Remington's patent by 1809, when their first article appeared in the Ackermann's monthly Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics. A more complete description of this model was published in the  Ackermann’s Repository in Feb 1810. This second article called the model Pitt's Cabinet Globe Writing Table in honour William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806). He was the British politician who'd been the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at 24! He remained in office, on and off, until his death in 1806 and was famous for leading Britain during the great wars against Emperor Napoleon and his French armies.

Morgan & Sanders were already known as specialists in the field of metamorphic or multi-purpose furniture, producing a wide range of items that included armchairs and tables which converted into library steps or beds. I have examined this phenomenon before in the blog. What made the globe metamorphic? From the outside the piece looked like any other terrestrial globe. But when opened, the secretaire was complete with a series of small drawers and compartments, neatly designed and tucked out of sight. The writ­ing slope was also neatly designed, tilting upwards when in use but otherwise inset flush into the desk. 

The secretaire fully opened (top) and half opened (below)

Note the writing slope set flush into the table top, the pigeon holes and drawers

At a time of ongoing war in Europe, it seemed sensible to market this globe to army and navy officers; senior officers needed fully functional furniture that could be easily transported. But the Regency era (expansively defined as 1795 on) was also a period fas­cin­ated with mechanical science and besotted with world globes. Thus I cannot rule out the idea that the globe was designed for middle class families who simply needed elegant library furniture.

Some auction houses described the globes as Biedermeier in taste and Viennese by materials. At least one globe-shaped work table was auctioned as a Biedermeier piece, made in Vienna in the c1815-1820 era. Apart from the fact that the names Morgan and Sanders London were not inscribed on the lock plate with their patent number, what made the auctioneers believe it was Viennese?

Two factors need attention: date of manufacture and materials used. As Biedermeier was hugely popular between 1815 (Congress of Vienna that ended the Napoleonic Wars) and 1848 (onset of European revolutions), the dates might be just about be right. But possibly it was the maple veneer, bird's-eye maple, fruitwoods and ebonised wood that sounded Viennese. Britain’s globes would have been made from mahogany and satinwood.

The name of a Viennese craftsman, Josef Danhauser, was mentioned in a few auction catalogues. Was he a follower of Morgan and Sanders’s metamorphic furniture? Imitation was very common in the world of the arts, but we would need to know who came first with the globes – Morgan and Sanders in London or Danhauser in Vienna.

A globe-shaped work table

In all the globe furniture, the external design remained relatively constant - the globe shaped body had brass ribs with quadrant shaped doors, four bold downscrolled gilt OR ebonised legs, on brass feet that could be plain OR winged and clawed. The lower section of the globe sometimes had two drawers, built so flush into the mahogany that they cannot be seen in the photos.

But once opened, the space could have been intended for very different purposes - as a secretaire, a sewing table or a work table. The internal elements were naturally designed to suit the user and his/her purpose. A hinged writing and reading slide would not, for example, have been placed in a sewing box. Parquetry brickwork decoration would have been more attractive in a work table; in a secretaire, cedar lined pigeon holes would have been more useful.

To give an indication of size and value, Sotheby’s Amsterdam globe was 118 cm high and 90 cm diameter (Apr 2006 auction). At the Feb 2013 auction, Christie’s globe was slightly smaller - 109cm in height with a diameter of 84cm. This second globe realised £37,250 or USA $57,000.

Luton Hoo was built for the 3rd Earl of Bute by the neo-classical architect Robert Adam, starting in 1767. The magnificent new house soon became the perfect site for stunning Regency furniture. Two years after Sir Harold Augustus Wernher 3rd Baronet died in 1973, the house's treasures were sold off by Sotheby’s in London. Sotheby’s catalogue makes for important reading about Regency furniture. Readers might also like to locate B Austen’s article, Morgan & Sanders and the Patent Furniture Makers of Catherine St, in Connoisseur, vol. CLXXXVII, #753, Nov 1974.

** I have seen plenty of George III mahogany knife boxes before, but examine a pair of George III mahogany revolving cylinder cutlery boxes auctioned by Thomas Coulborn in Sutton Coldfield. Attributed to Thomas Chippendale the younger (1749–1822), they wrote that the use of the lion head above a pilaster terminating in a lion’s foot was consistent with the designs of a number of the leading designers of the Regency period. Amongst Thomas Sheraton’s later drawings in his Dictionary and his Encyclopaedia, readers saw revolving elements in bedside commodes with similar inlay and mechanical design. 

Mahogany knife boxes 1805, opened (left) and shut (right)

They are 60 cm high

Unfortunately the location of the actual designs for these amazing items remains unknown. But the success of their invention was undisputed; clearly created to cause delight in both their mechanical ingenuity and their great architectural presence, the knife boxes embodied the victorious spirit of Regency design. The revolving central section of graduated tiers of cutlery racks and the lifting lid were not literally metamorphic, but the viewer would not have been able to tell what the knife box was, once the doors had been shut and the lid had been lowered.