Ten Letters from Frank Lloyd Wright to Charles Robert Ashbee

SAHGB Publications Limited

Ten Letters from Frank Lloyd Wright to Charles Robert AshbeeAuthor(s): Alan Crawford, Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Robert AshbeeSource: Architectural History, Vol. 13 (1970), pp. 64-76+132Published by: SAHGB Publications LimitedStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1568314 .

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Ten letters

from Frank Lloyd Wright

to Charles Robert Ashbee by ALAN CRAWFORD

The friendship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Robert Ashbee

[Fig.40a] has often been noticed in connection with Ashbee's introduction to Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgefahrte Bauten.' The following letters, found in Ashbee's

journals, add to our knowledge of this friendship; and perhaps to a sense of its intellectual complexity.

Ashbee first met Wright at some time in late November or early December 1900. He was impressed, and wrote in his journal:

Wright is to my thinking far & away the ablest man in our line of work that I have come across in Chicago, perhaps in America. He not only has ideas, but the power of expressing them, & his Husser house over which he took me, showing me every detail with the keenest delight, is one of the most beautiful and the most individual of creations that I have seen in America. He threw down the glove to me in characteristic Chicagoan manner in the matter of Arts & Crafts & the creations of the machine. 'My God' said he, 'is machinery, & the art of the future will be the expression of the individual artist through the thousand powers of the machine, the machine, doing all those things that the individual workman cannot do, & the creative artist is the man that controls all this & understands it.' He was surprised to find how much I concurred with him, but I added the rider, that the individuality of the average had to be considered, in addition to that of the artistic creator himself.'

This journal entry appears to witness the forging of one of those links that connect the Arts and Crafts to the Modern movement. And it is true that Ashbee, especially in his later writings3 adopted a positive tone in dealing with the problem of machines. But his solution to the problem was quite different from Wright's. To Ashbee, to control machines meant to relegate them to

heavy industry, leaving the production of domestic goods to a revived system of handicrafts. And then, there was so much in his 'rider'. The weak phrase 'the

individuality of the average' diplomatically concealed the fundamental Morrisian ideal, that workmen should take pleasure in their work. Ashbee could see the bearing of this on Wright's vision - he saw that the development of a machine aesthetic would do nothing to make the work of machine- minders any more pleasant.

Ashbee's visit to Chicago was part of a lecture tour on behalf of the National Trust,4 and he left Wright as secretary of an informal committee to push

64 forward the work of the National Trust in Chicago.5 Soon after getting back



to England in February 1901, the Ashbees asked Wright to come over to CRAWFORD:

England. They got no reply until 3 January 1902: WRIGHT-ASHBEE

My dear Ashbee: - I don't propose to let our friendship, so well begun, slip LETTERS

away from me, but what can I say to you to show you my real feelings, when

my dreadful procrastination has given you such doubts - and such surety of

faithlessness. You and your good lady held out to me last Spring one of the most real of

many known temptations and all but brought me to England last July. But

poverty, - and the immediate prospects of a small feast for the family inter- ests (the first in years) held me fast.

The year has proved neither feast nor famine, but a very modest mean, and I am still to[o]poor to come to England. I don't feel that I have grown much either, - in fact I am truly blue...

Your report I read with avidity and your type, I like - contrary to first

expectations. I caught at your name in the 'Review' some time ago and read

your article in one of our magazines. You see my ears are pricked up for news of you and my eyes are on the watch for signs of your work.

I am sending by post a little packet of prints, with most sincere wishes for 'A Happy New Year' and kindest regards to your wife and mother - believe me,

Your friend, Frank Lloyd Wright

To C. R. Ashbee Esq., 1 Great College St., London, South West.

January 19026 The report to which Wright refers is Ashbee's Report. . . to the Council of the National Trust... on his visit to the United States... (1901), and the type 'Endeavour', designed by Ashbee at about this time (Fig. 40b). The article may be an account which Ashbee wrote of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, but this is not certain'. And if the 'Review' is The Architectural Review, Wright probably noticed Ashbee's name in a review of a recent exhibition of pianos, designed by architects, at Broadwood & Sons.'

After this letter there is a gap of six years in the preserved correspondence, until October 1908. Ashbee had written to Wright, saying that he would be

visiting Chicago on another lecture tour, and received the following reply: My dear Friend Ashbee: - Sometime ago I received the note telling of your proposed trip to America. I know of no one whose coming to Chicago would be a greater event in my little world. Meeting with you again will be something to look forward to with pleasure and I hope we can see a good deal of each other...

Your work I have seen reviewed recently and was glad to have a glimpse of it. I wonder how far apart we are now on some of the matters we used to discuss.

With agreeable remembrances of your former visit and looking forward

eagerly to your next, I am Sincerely yours, Frank Lloyd Wright9

The 'work' to which Wright refers was probably Ashbee's book Craftsmanship in Competitive Industry, which appeared in 1908.o 65



ARCHITECTURAL In December the Ashbees stayed with the Wrights in Chicago, and Ashbee HISTORY 13: 1970 invited Wright to come over to Sicily to see the Villa San Giorgio that he was

building at Taormina, and then to go on to Campden. There was some hope of this trip taking place, as Wright had some 'German business"' to do -

presumably the Wasmuth project. But on 3 January 1909 Wright wrote: Dear Ashbee: - Your invitation is a great temptation. How I would like to go with you to

Sicily and to your England. But work has piled up ahead - quite unexpect- edly. Two bank buildings, a hotel and some residence work in Mason City to the tune of about twenty five thousand pounds, - and the Lexington - a wilderness of small apartments, costing some hundred thousand pounds: - all on the boards here now for continuous attention. Add to this a number of fine residences in different parts of the country and you will see that I must make hay while the sun shines, particularly as this year has been a lean one.

No temptation to 'desert' was ever so difficult to resist as this one from you and I shall only postpone the visit - surely I shall join you in England within a year. Your stay with us is now a bright and particular family tradition, which we enjoy going over together often...

As ever, Wright2

Wright eventually went to Europe in the autumn of 1909. There he received invitations to visit the Ashbees in England. On 31 March 1910 he wrote to Ashbee explaining that he had not visited them while in London for personal reasons, and expressing the hope that he would not lose Ashbee's friendship."3

Ashbee answered this letter two weeks later. He said that Wright's action would not make any difference to their friendship, and that he thought that 'men when they have reached a certain stage of mental development, carry their God, - their own Heaven & Hell, - inside them & the ethical problems that grow of this knowledge of good & evil, are matters they alone can solve'."4

Wright replied on 8 July: Villino Belvedere, Fiesole, Italy July 8, 1910

Dear Friend Ashbee - Your kind, - & you can never realize how welcome - letter has awaited an answer longer than I expected - when I delayed it in order that I might know what to say. The fight has been fought - I am going back to Oak Park to pick up the thread of my work and in some degree of my life where I snapped it ... And I shall come to see you on my way - early in September. My contract with Wasmuth in Berlin will keep me until then... I have received a budget from the office lately also which shows two items in which you are concerned unpaid - I enclose check to cover these. They have failed to send the address of the workman who made the last and if you will see that his due reaches him I will be much releived [sic]. This is all the news and all the business.

... Human beings are resilient, recuperative powers in themselves - when 66 young - who shall say when they grow old

. I think I know when they grow



old - now. But you see I am cast by nature for the part of the iconoclast. I CRAWFORD:

must strike - tear down, before I can build - my very act of building destroys WRIGHT-ASHBEE an order - established with much that is virtuous [?] embalmed or at least LETTERS

embedded in it - and it is hard to keep what was best in the life that was in the life that is to be, Yet that is what we would do; you and I- from 'opposite ends of the same stick' as you once put it - And in me this is a dangerous quality to be tempered and made useful by such as you - I have learned much from you already in ways you little suspect - and will learn more. The 'little carven, colored corners of the world' have taught me somewhat of the thing you would have them teach me - I think - I would like to see some of them through your eyes - I have been very busy here in this little

eyrie on the brow of the mountain above Fiesole - overlooking the pink and white, Florence spreading in the valley of the Arno below - the whole fertile bosom of the earth seemingly lying in the drifting mists or shining clear and marvelous in this Italian sunshine - opalescent - irridescent. I have

poked into the unassuming corners where this wondrous brood of Florentines - painters sculptors, sculptor painters and painter sculptor architects worked. I declare you can not tell here; - there was then no line drawn, - between mediums, - The sculptor as joyously painted in marble as the painter sculptured on canvas and both together tangled architecture in either and made it of both. The very music of living -, some of these

things in the aggregate - It would be educational but unkind to classify them as paintings, sculpture and architecture. We could have great fun at it

though. I have read Howells, Ruskin and Vasari on Florenceandthesemen- and in my travels I have been surprised to find that all European culture in the fine arts worth considering except the Gothic of the Middle ages is but a lesser light lit from these Italian flames of the 12th 13th 14th & 15th centuries - an afterglow in the 16th - But we can talk of all that -... I hope Mrs Ashbee is well and that you are prospering - that all goes as it should - but never does for those who work with single minds for love of work - profit- ably. - But profits are intangible things at their best, - counted into the palm at their worst - meanwhile believe me always - your devoted friend anxious somehow to prove it - to serve his own feeling of friendship for you and

wishing to be remembered to the rare lady that is your helper. Frank Lloyd Wright"

The reference to two items in which Ashbee was concerned suggests that Wright employed him, and possibly also one or more members of the Guild of Handicraft. And, unless Wright's office was handling his private finances, it seems likely that they were employed on work for his buildings. It has not been possible, however, to discover what the work referred to was, as the whereabouts of the office records of the Guild of Handicraft, if they still exist, is not known.16 Wright failed to enclose the cheque for this work, and Ashbee replied pointing this out, referring, confusingly, to 'the 3 commissions you speak of...'17

Wright responded promptly but inefficiently, and then had to write on 24 July:

Dear friend Ashbee. I have just found a letter I wrote you some days ago returned to me for more 67



ARCHITECTURAL postage. I was glad to have it returned because it was an unmanly wail and HISTORY 13: 1970 could only lower your respect for me I am sure. I have destroyed it and will

not say the things I said. You know I have been engaged here in the prepara- tion of drawings - for a representative monograph of my work. About 73

buildings are shown by plans and perspective drawings in about 100 plates. The work is in Wasmuth's hands and so far I have had 12 proofs. I am to own this work outright - & have bought it because I believe it will be profitable and there is no cleaner way for an architect to find his money than in the sale of his own works in this way. I have a contract with this house for 1000 copies. Their work is very good - lithography - I must acknowledge but their slow movements drive me to desperation. The German mind is a

ponderous affair I find. I thought of giving them up and asking you to help me find someone else but they are doing a little better and I will wait with what patience I can command. 'I must be patient' is a phraze the Italians use

continually - and I will adopt it. I will send you a proof or two so you may judge of the scope of the work and its character although the better things have not yet been reached. I should like your criticism too. The work is to be in portfolio - the text inserted in loose form in a pocket inside. The plates to carry thin paper cover-sheets with the plans - floor plans - printed on them. There will be some plates printed in grey on cream colored paper, some in sepia on cream - others in grey or sepia on grey paper with white tinted walls - or sky. It is rather large - they employ their largest stones - but I am sick of over-reduction and yearn for a face-full in each project. In addition to this - or rather before I undertook it - they had written me - in America - for material for a Sonderheft to appear in a regular series now in publication. This material to consist wholly of photographs of actual work and plans. Some of the photographs wanted could not be obtained until a month ago and on this account I am told that this portion of the work must go over to the beginning of next year. This work was their enter-

prise - but I had counted on the two appearing together. The monograph giving the office-ideal, - the architects rendering of his vision - his scheme

graphically proposed in his own manner - the Sonderheft, the photographs, of the results in brick and mortar. The article on the work was to have been written by some German in Cologne whom I do not know.

I am tempted to take this out of their hands if I can honestly - do so and give it to someone else or own this too - myself- It would be more profitable I think than the monograph - and wonder what publishing house in London perhaps, or in Germany, beside Wasmuth - could undertake it on short notice. Do you know of one?

I suppose I will have to 'bide their time' however. They are now two months behind agreement, with the work. I am so much in haste because I need the moral support the work in beautiful dress and strong form would give me in the scramble to my feet that lies just ahead. My position is one I cannot see in perspective as another sees it. I have not the angle or - I fear the elevation but I am going to do what I can...

...I leave here September first. Shortly after the tenth I hope to be with you for some days, until I sail...

68 Outside the house in the corner in Oak Park - since I left there a year ago -



the twentieth of next September I have written only my mother - one CRAWFORD:

letter to Guthrie and to you - drop me a line soon - I am glad to know you WRIGHT-ASHBEE

too have made Fiesole yours. Where did you live when here- LETTERS

as always yours devotedly Wright

Villino Belvedere Fiesole Italy July 248

The 'representative monograph' was produced under the title Ausgeforhte Bauten und Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd Wright.'9 The 'Sonderheft' was published in 1911, with the title 8. Sonderheft der Architektur des XX. Jahrhunderts: Frank Lloyd Wright. The 'article on the work' was written by Ashbee, and called 'Frank Lloyd Wright: Eine Studie seiner Wiurdigung von C. R. Ashbee F.R.I.B.A.' The 'Sonderheft' was also published, separately, as Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgefahrte Bauten.20

Wright stayed with the Ashbees at Campden that September, and it was, in fact, during this stay that he asked Ashbee to write the introduction to the

popular edition, a request that was prompted not entirely by intellectual

sympathy: Sept 26 en route to the 'Blucher', 5.30pm

Dear brother Ashbee - I am off- bag and baggage at last and right lucky it is for you too and for me - because I am sure you could not possibly have stood me until another sailing day and we should have quarreled and hated each other over that silly old article - I am afraid - It isn't worth the division it might bring between us and I am sorry I exhibited my 'individualism' so strenuously but at least you have as bad a case yourself - That is why you don't like it on principle. But you have been kind and generous to me anyway and I don't mind telling you that my desire to have you say the foreword for me was a pure bit of sentiment on my part - because I liked you and I turned to you at the critical moment...

- As for you - old fellow you are as rank a case of individualism and as delightful a fellow man as I could wish I only want a crack at you sometime. I want to do a preface to your work when you collect it and launch it - I think I see you squirm and take a malicious pleasure in gloating over your agony - So fare you well -...

As always your friend Wright My conscience troubles me - Do not say that I deny that my love for

Japanese art has influenced me - I admit that it has but claim to have digested it - Do not accuse me of trying to 'adapt Japanese forms' however, that is a false accusation and against my very religion. Say it more truthfully even if it does mean saying it a little more gently. W. Please forward immediately all the proofs that may have arrived before my letter to Wasmuth cuts them off and oblige yours

FLW.1' The 'silly old article' over which Wright and Ashbee disagreed was, presumably, 'In the Cause of Architecture',22 from which Ashbee quoted in his sympathetic, 69



ARCHITECTURAL but not uncritical, introduction. The argument of this introduction runs HISTORY 13: 1970 mostly along expected lines. The interest and value of Wright's work is seen

to lie in his 'determination, amounting sometimes to heroism, to master the machine and use it at all costs, in an endeavour to find the forms and treatment it may render without abuse of tradition'.23 But, on the other hand, this is seen to lead to too great a severity in design:

I have seen buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright's that I would like to touch with the enchanted wand; not to alter their structure in plan or form, or carcass, but to clothe them with a more living and tender detail. I do not know how, and the time is not yet - nor would I like to see Wright do it himself, because I do not believe he could for thus to clothe them would mean a school of

Craftsmanship that would tell of the intimate life of America, and imply a little of that quietude and poetry and scholarship which our English churches and country houses have received from the caressing hands of generations of craftsmen.4

Ashbee here seems to apply criteria incompatible in practice. For the severe, geometrical and 'impersonal' character of Wright's design was an essential

part of that use of mechanization which Ashbee had applauded. But Ashbee's

argument is not genuinely inconsistent. Elsewhere in the introduction he makes the familiar point that the architecture of the Middle West School was

particularly suited to the Prairies;21 but he makes it in such a way as to imply the interesting corollary that it would be unsuitable elsewhere.26 Ashbee did not think that Wright's use of mechanization was the only possible one. He saw it as a peculiarly American one. Though he may be said to have 'intro- duced' Wright's work to Europe, he did not introduce him as a model to be

closely followed. It was his principles, and not his style, that Ashbee admired. The remaining letters add little to the picture of the friendship between

Wright and Ashbee. In February to May 1916 Ashbee was again lecturing in America, on behalf of the Bryce Group and the American League to Enforce Peace. On 9 February Wright invited him to visit Taliesin.

Dear friend Ashbee Wont you come to Taliesin - (just 40 miles west of Madison --) for a few days any time convenient to the lecture at

Madison. I shall be most heartily glad

to see - you - If Mrs Ashbee is with you and doesn't mind a publicly con- fessed 'irregular' situation bring her too.

I have a desire to show you that I value and appreciate your friendship -

notwithstanding the painful evidence to the contrary of my ungracious manners when I visited you. I am sure you could not overlook some of my selfishness and absurdity.

Whenever I think of my abuse of your friendship I am much ashamed. [Here Wright gives an optimistic account of his life at Taliesin.]

Here hoping you can come and bide a while - this corner of the earth is not much carved or colored yet - but [illegible] very beautiful - and still little touched by mankind - He has got his barbed wire in here - however but it may be overlooked on bright morning - Till later!

Wright...27 Ashbee stayed at Taliesin and sent back long reports on the Miriam Noel

70 m6nage to his wife.28



In 1934 Ashbee received through the post an elegant prospectus for the Taliesin Fellowship and the following letter:

My dear friend Ashbee: I am sending you a copy of the prospectus of the Taliesin Fellowship, founded and being conducted by myself.

I have taken the liberty of including your name in the list of 'Friends of the Fellowship' believing that this would not meet with your disapproval. [Taliesin seeks support not only from the young, but also from all men of affairs sympathetic towards Wright's ideals.]

High regard for you and your own work along similar constructive lines makes you a friend from whom we solicit continued support and interest in any way you feel free to give it.

Sincerely yours, Frank Lloyd Wright29

The last letter dates from Wright's visit to England in 1939. On a postcard, on ii May, Wright said:

Dear Ashbee, I am sorry not to have seen more of you - my one old friend in England. And we did appreciate the luncheon at your nice old country place - fully expect- ing to see you all again.

But, frankly, I am getting tired. I've been so rushed to and fro giving four hard lectures and many talks beside -

When I tire I get bored and want to escape. After the last lecture tonight and a dinner at the MARS group tomorrow evening we are [?] taking the night train to Paris, on the way home stopping in Dalmatia a few days. I've met some of your old comrades - Lutyens and Voysey in particular - loved them both...

Affectionately my dear man as always Your Frank Lloyd Wright Olgivanna and lovanna Garland's May 11, 39.30

Ashbee died in May 1942, so this was the last time the two men met.

NOTES

SBerlin, 1911. The connection between Wright and Ashbee was noticed in e.g. N. Pevsner 'Frank Lloyd Wright's Peaceful Penetration of Europe', The Architects' Journal lxxxix (1939), pp.731-734; Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), pp.145, 147; and in Edgar Kaufmann Jr's introduction to Frank Lloyd Wright: The early work (New York, 1968). 2 The Ashbee Journals, Dec. 1900. The forty volumes ofAshbee's Journals are kept at King's College, Cambridge. Besides the letters and references given in this article, there are letters from, and material relating to, Catherine Lloyd Wright Sr. All the relevant material is indexed in the Library under 'Frank Lloyd Wright'.

In the present article no attempt has been made to correct mis-spellings, repeated or omitted words, loose punctuation &c. Editorial remarks have been inserted where words were found hard to read or illegible. For reasons of space, it has been necessary to omit the least important passages. Where these are more than conventional expressions, they have been paraphrased. One letter,

CRAWFORD:

WRIGHT-ASHBEE

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7'



ARCHITECTURAL

HISTORY 13: 1970

72

of 31 March 1910 and part of letters of 8& 24 July 1910 have also been omitted, as

permission to quote them was not given. A short account of Ashbee's career was given by B. G. Burrough in The Con-

noisseur clxxii (1969), pp. 85-90 & 262-266. 3 Should We Stop Teaching Art? (1911) and Where the Great City Stands (1917). 4 The National Trust appears in Wright's An Autobiography (New York, 1933) as 'the Natural Trust for planes of historic interest and natural beauty, .. .' (p. 165). 5 Cutting from a Chicago paper, probably The Chicago Tribune, Ashbee Journals, March 1901. 6 Ashbee Journals, 3 Jan. 1902. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. 7 In Vol.III of 'The Ashbee Collection', a set of photograph albums kept at the Victoria & Albert Museum, there is a cutting of the heading of what may be the article referred to. It reads: 'Arts and Crafts in England / By C. R. Ashbee / A Brief Sketch of the Development of the Movement by a Distinguished Architect and Craftsman.' Neither the name nor the date of the magazine is on the cutting. 8 Architectural Review ix (1901), pp. 172-176. On Ashbee's piano the black keys were

replaced by purple ones. 9 Ashbee Journals, 24 Oct. 1908. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. This letter is addressed 'To Mr. C. R. Ashbee, London, England. October 24 - 1908' and is on Wright's special vellum-like paper, with the brown and red square and Oak Park address. 10 London and Campden, Glos., 1908. 11 Ashbee Journals, 25 Dec. 1908. 12 Ashbee Journals, ? 1970, F.L.W.F. 3 Jan. 1909. This letter is addressed to 'Mr. C. R. Ashbee / Stanford University / California / January 3 - 1909' and written on Wright's special paper. 13 Ashbee Journals, 31 March 1910. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. 14 Ashbee Journals, 13 April 1910. This entry is a pencil version of a letter to

Wright. It is not clear whether it is a rough draft or a copy of the letter sent. Ashbee often kept such versions of his letters when he was writing on subjects or to people he thought were important. 15 Ashbee Journals, 8 July 1910. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. 16 Mr Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer kindly checked the archives at Taliesin West for me, but found no reference to this work. 17 Ashbee Journals, 14 July 1910. Version of a letter from Ashbee to Wright. 18 Ashbee Journals, 24 July 1910. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. For Ashbee in Florence, see

Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry (1940), p.71. 19 Berlin. The introduction by Frank Lloyd Wright is dated 1910. 20 I do not know why this separate issue was made. Perhaps Wright did attempt to take the 'Sonderheft' out of Wasmuth's hands, and a compromise was reached, Wasmuth issuing the number in the series as planned, but also pro- ducing a separate issue for Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgefiahrte Bauten was re- issued in 1968 as Frank Lloyd Wright: The early work (New York, Introduction by Edgar Kaufmann Jr). In this edition Ashbee's introduction has been printed from the 'original English text, which, in the German edition, appeared only in German translation' (publisher's note). Part of the introduction, however, is printed in German, because it was 'not included in C. R. Ashbee's original text' (p.9). This part contains remarks on Japanese influence on Wright. Possibly Ashbee revised his original text following Wright's letter of 26 Sept.,



and so this part of the introduction was separated from the rest and not preserved with it. I do not know of any reason for supposing that the part printed in German in 1968 was not by Ashbee.

References below to Ashbee's introduction are to the 1968 edition. 21 Ashbee Journals, 26 Sept. 1910. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. 22 Frank Lloyd Wright, 'In the Cause of Architecture', Architectural Record xxiii (1908), pp. 155-221. 23 Frank Lloyd Wright: The early work (New York, 1968), p.4. 24 ibid., p.8. 25 ibid., p.4. 26 ibid., p.7. 27 Ashbee Journals, 9 Feb. 1916. ? 1970, F.L.W.F. 28 Ashbee Journals, 25 Feb. & 14 April 1916. 29 This letter is not in the Ashbee Journals, at Cambridge. It is tipped into a copy of An Autobiography (New York, 1933) which Wright sent to Ashbee. I am grateful to Miss Felicity Ashbee for lending me this book. 30 Ashbee Journals, 11 May 1939. ? 1970, F.L.WF.

Note: I am indebted to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and to Miss Felicity Ashbee for permission to quote from unpublished material. The copyright of the letters of Frank Lloyd Wright belongs to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and is marked in each instance '? 1970, F.L.W.F.'.

A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF C. R. ASHBEE'S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS

The following list is simply an orderly presentation of the evidence to be found, mainly in the principal documentary sources. These are: C. R. Ashbee, A Book of Cottages and Little Houses . . . (1906); drawings in the RIBA Drawings Collection (chiefly for buildings in Cheyne Walk); drawings in the care of Mr George Hart (for buildings in Chipping Campden); The Ashbee Collection, a set of four photograph albums which once belonged to Ashbee and is now at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The list is almost certainly not exhaustive, and probably not accurate. The dates are meant to cover broadly the period of building. A few minor works, monumental in character, have been included; but all interior decorations, church screens &c, on however large a scale, have been excluded.

The Carlyle House, Cheyne Row, London. 1892(.).

Restoration. The Magpie and Stump House, 37 Cheyne Walk, London. 1894.

For his mother, Mrs H. S. Ashbee. Ashbee's London architectural office was in this house. Demolished 1969. Much of the interior decoration is preserved at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The Wombourne Wodehouse, near Wolverhampton. 1895-97. Alterations to the west front; addition of a billiards room and a chapel. For Col. T. B. Shaw-Hellier.

Nos.72-74 Cheyne Walk, London. 1897. No.73 for Mr E. A. Walton. After his marriage in 1898, Ashbee lived in No.74, until 1902. Destroyed by a

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73



ARCHITECTURAL parachute mine, 17 April 1941, which also destroyed Nos.71, & 75 HISTORY 13: 1 97 o Cheyne Walk, and much of Chelsea Old Church.

The J. M. W. Turner House, 118-119 Cheyne Walk, London. 1897-98. Restoration; addition of a studio at rear. For Mr Maxwell Balfour.

SS. Peter & Paul, Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex. 1898-99. Restoration. Nos.38-39 Cheyne Walk, London. 1899. No.38 for Miss C. L. Christian. St Mary's, Stratford, Bow, London. 1899. Restoration, with Thackeray

Turner, W. R. Lethaby, Philip Webb and C. Winmill, for the SPA B.

Badly damaged during the second world war. The Court House, Long Crendon, Bucks. 1901. Restoration. For the National

Trust(.). Hallingbury Place, Bishops Stortford, Essex. c. 1901. Addition of a billiards room and conservatory. For Col. Archer-Houblon. The whole building has since been destroyed by fire.

Nos75 Cheyne Walk, London. 1902. For Mrs W. Hunt. Destroyed 1941.

Woolstaplers' Hall, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1902. Restoration. The Ashbees lived here from 1902 to 1911.

Studio behind Dover's House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1902. For Mr G. Loosley.

Market Place, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. Date uncertain; after 1902. Repairs.

Two cottages at Broad Campden, Glos. 1902-03(i). Conversion of derelict

buildings. C. R. Ashbee's own property. Coombe End, Whitchurch, Berks. 1902-03(i). Addition of one wing. For Mr

J. Rickman Godlee.

Cottage in the High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903. An existing cottage was demolished and the materials used to build a house on a different plan, but in a similar style. For Mr W. N. Izod.

Block of two cottages at Catbrook, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903. For Mr J. B. Gripper.

Elm Tree House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903. Conversion of the house; Ashbee had his Campden architectural office here.

Conversion of derelict malt house at the back, for use as workshops by the Campden School of Arts & Crafts; this building has since been

destroyed. Thatched Cottage in Watery Lane (now Park Road), Chipping Campden,

Glos. 1903. Conversion. For Mr R. Martin Holland. Slated Cottage in Watery Lane (next door to the above). 1903. Conversion.

Also for Mr R. Martin Holland.

Cottage on Lord Gainsborough's Estate, Sheep Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. c. 1903. For Lord Gainsborough

The Island House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903(.).

Restora- tion. For Mr E. Peter Jones. The house has been altered since.

The Thatched Cottage, Westington, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1904 Addition of a gable; conversion of a stable into a studio. For Mr Paul Woodroffe.

Roberts' House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. Date uncertain; 74 after 1904. Conversion.



The Cedars, Westington, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1905. Removal of CRAWFORD:

one wing; additions: gable oriel and bay windows. For Mr St John Hankin. WRIGHT-ASHBEE

Little Coppice, Iver Heath, Bucks. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Mr H. LETTERS

Wrightson. The Shoehorn, Orpington, Kent. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Mr

Henry Fountain.

Cottage at Abbots Langley, Herts. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Trinity College, Oxford.

The Stanstead House, Dromenagh Estate, Iver Heath, Bucks. Date uncertain; before 1906.

Five Bells, Dromenagh Estate, Iver Heath, Bucks. Date uncertain; before 1906.

Cottage at Findon, Sussex. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Mrs William Hunt's nursing home.

Cottage in Watery Lane (now Park Road), Chipping Campden, Glos. Date uncertain; between 1902 and 1906. Conversion. For Mrs H. W. Wrightson and Mrs Thompson.

Block of three thatched cottages at Catbrook, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1906.

Fifty-two industrial cottages in the area of Birchfield Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. 1906. For Mr E. Peter Jones.

The Poor House, Holcombe Rogus, Devon. 1906. Restoration. For the Rayer family.

The Norman Chapel, Broad Campden, Glos. 1905-07. This house was built on the basis of a derelict chapel, which had been used as a dwelling-house. For Mr Ananda Coomaraswamy. The Ashbees lived here from 1911 to 1919.

House in the Stefania, Budapest. 1905-07. For Mr Zsombor de Szasz.

Uplands, Ledbury, Herefordshire. Date uncertain; before 1907. Addition of a wing. For Mrs Curtis.

Byways, Yarnton, Oxon. 1907. For Mr H. A. Evans. House at Wroxton, Oxon. Date uncertain; probably after 1908. For Mr

Fitzgerald. The Cottage, Brimscombe, Glos. Date uncertain; probably after 1908. For

Mrs Graves Colles. Manor Gate Cottage, Ockley, Surrey, Date uncertain; probably after 1908. Mackies Hill, Peaslake, Surrey. Date uncertain; probably after 1908.

Conversion and addition of studio wing. For Miss Liddle. Villa San Giorgio, Taormina, Sicily. 1907-09. For Col. T. B. Shaw-Hellier.

Porthgwidden, Cornwall. Date uncertain; before 1910. Rose garden, and the addition of a verandah. For the Spottiswoode family.

Chelsea Old Church, Cheyne Walk, London. 1910. Restoration. Badly damaged 1941. (Attribution doubtful.)

Nos. 1049-1054 Squirrels Heath Avenue, Sidra Park, Romford, Essex. 1911. In association with Gripper & Stevenson, architect.

No.71 Cheyne Walk, London. 1912-13. For Mrs C. L. Trier. Destroyed 1941. House at Sidcot, near Winscombe, Somerset. 1912-13. For Mr S. Maltby. Parish Church, Seal, Kent. 1913. Repairs to the vestry. 1914. Repairs to the

tower. 1936. Repairs to the east window. 7



ARCHITECTURAL Jerusalem. 1918-22. Repair and reconstruction of the Citadel, Rampart Walk HISTORY 13: 1970 and ancient markets; laying out of gardens. For the Pro-Jerusalem Society.

Godden Green, Sevenoaks, Kent. 1924. Alterations. 1936. Swimming pool. The house belonged to Mrs Ashbee's family. The Ashbees lived there from 1923 to 1942.

Church at Shoreham, Kent. (.)1925.

Repair to the porch. The Hatch, Godden Green, Sevenoaks, Kent. 1932. Conversion .For Lady

Campbell.

MINOR ARCHITECTURAL WORKS BY C. R. ASHBEE

Street lamp-cum-drinking fountain, Tamworth, Staffs. Date uncertain; before 1898.

Gravestone for Col. T. B. Shaw-Hellier, Taormina, Sicily. c. 1911.

Carey Gates, Harvard, Mass. Date uncertain. Gates at Poyston, Haverfordwest, Herefordshire. Date uncertain. For Dr

Henry Owen.

76



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Documents

Ten Letters from Frank Lloyd Wright to Charles Robert Ashbee