"Thistle" window

George Washington Maher (American, 1864–1926)

Louis Millet (American, 1856–1923)

1901

Object PlaceChicago, Illinois

Medium/TechniqueLeaded stained and opalescent glass

DimensionsOverall: 50 1/4 x 21 3/8 x 3/8 in.

Credit LineFrank B. Bemis Fund, Bequest of Mrs. James Lawrence, and by exchange from the Charles Amos Cummings Bequest Fund and museum purchase with funds donated anonymously in honor of Catherine Anderson

Accession number2006.1437

On View

On view

ClassificationsGlass

Collections

Americas

ProvenanceDesigned for the great room of the James A. Patten House, Evanston, IL, built 1901; presumed removed at the time of the house's demolition in 1938 and sold to an unknown buyer; by 1942, owned by Chester Oberly of Fort Wayne, Indiana [see note 1]; date unknown, Oberley house (and 3 sets of windows-- 2 triptychs and one set of 3 panels) purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Krause (Eugene and Jewell); several subsequent owners of Fort Wayne house; 1973, house purchased by Dr. and Mrs. William E. and Marybell J. Brandt, by that time, two sets of windows were reportedly deinstalled and stored in attic, one triptych remained installed in the upstairs library; 1993, set of 3 panels and one triptych were purchased by Joel Fremion, antiques dealer, Fort Wayne, Indiana from the Brandt family [see note 2]; 1993, the set of three panels was purchased by Thomas Cain, Fort Wayne, Indiana for $1,500; 2006, the set of three panels was purchased from Cain by American Decorative Art 1900; 2006, one window panel was purchased by the MFA. [see note 3.] (Accession date: September 20, 2006).

NOTES:
[1] Chester Oberley was the CEO of Tokheim Corp., a gas pump corporation. In 1942, he hired A.M. Strauss, a noted Fort Wayne architect, to design a house for him. In Strauss's plans for the building (now in the archives at Ball State University Architecture Library, Muncie, Indiana) it is noted that "windows by others" were planned for the house in three locations.

[2] Second triptych was moved from upstairs library to a space off the first floor kitchen by the subsequent owners, Dr. Robert and Connie Godley, who purchased the house in 1994.

[3] One window panel was purchased by the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA and the third was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.