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This high-backed stained oak with eleven vertical slats and a drop-in seat upholstered in leather was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Ward W. Willits House in Highland Park, Illinois.
In 1900 Frank Lloyd Wright received a commission from manufacturer Ward Winfield Willits (1859–1950) to design a new house in Highland Park, Illinois. The house and its accompanying furnishings are recognized today as Wright's first residential masterpiece in the Prairie School style. This chair was designed as part of the dining room suite, and, like all of the house's furnishings, it served as an integral part of the architectural scheme. The arrangement of the high-back dining room chairs around an imposing table created a setting that Wright deemed appropriate for formal dining.
The precise spacing of the slats, the rectilinear forms and the lack of decorative elements give a distinctly industrial look to the design. The mortise-and-tenon joints make the construction almost invisible and add to the machine-made appearance. In fact, scribed lines between the slats reveal that this precision is all achieved by hand.
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