Modern Americana is the book that dealer Todd Merrill needed in order to show his clients where the furniture he sells fits in to the history of commissioned furniture in America. He sketches that history with a broad brush and quickly moves past the pioneers of the studio to later artisans. He separates studio artisans such as Wharton Esherick, Sam Maloof, and Wendell Castle from the designer craftsmen Paul Evans and Phillip Lloyd Powell, George Nakashima, and Vladimir Kagan. Among the custom designers mentioned are Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, and Edward Wormley, as distinguished from decorator-designers such as John Dickinson, Paul László, and Samuel Marx. Merrill's purpose is to identify and document studio, decorative, and custom art furniture of the period 1940 through 1990, especially by those who have been discovered by the secondary market. To that end, the authors have chosen some artisans who are not well known, such as J.B. Blunk (1926-2003), a Bay Area woodworker whose work is sold by Reform Gallery in Los Angeles. We learn that a table and an arch by Blunk were sold at Design Miami/Art Basel 2007 for $250,000 each. Another Californian, Jack Rogers Hopkins (1920-2006), a studio craftsman, university professor, and potter who considered himself a sculptor-designer, produced several hundred pieces of furniture. One of his chairs was included in the 2003 exhibition The Maker's Hand: American Studio Furniture 1940-1990 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibition and catalog that Merrill uses as the measure in this field. Little-known Silas Seandel (born 1937) is a New Yorker who works in brass, copper, steel, bronze, and cast stone. Acrylic is Charles Hollis Jones's material, which he often combines with metal; Richard Wright has sold a pair of Jones lounge chairs and ottomans for $5500. Father and son Philip (1907-1987) and Kelvin (born 1937) LaVerne made patinated and sculpted bronze tables and cabinets, combining innovative techniques with traditional styles for one-of-a-kind and limited-edition furniture beginning in 1954. In her essay Julie Iovine separates the work of Philip's brother Erwine and his wife, Estelle LaVerne, manufacturers of wallpapers and furniture. Iovine describes the craft factory of Paul Evans (1931-1987) and Phillip Lloyd Powell (1919-2008) in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1960's to the late 1980's and documents early commissions with stories of clients from her interviews with Dorsey Reading, who came to work with Evans in 1959 and stayed to become his right-hand man. She discusses Evans's work for Directional, his expansion to a larger factory in Plumsteadville, and the creation of the Argente line of welded aluminum, noting that some pieces from "Series in a Field" are commanding six figures today. The brass and chrome Cityscapes from the early 1970's were so successful that Evans spent less than three percent of his time developing new ideas. In time, Directional, the New York firm that marketed Evans at High Point, became increasingly selective and signed up fewer pieces, and the relationship that began in 1964 ended in 1980. In 1981 Evans opened his own showroom in New York City, stocked with prototypes and some motorized furniture. He got a substantial order from a Saudi Arabian princess, but the Plumsteadville factory kept him in debt, and in 1987 he retired. He was 56 years old and headed with his wife to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he had a heart attack and died. A market for his work developed immediately, and since 2005 it has been in high gear. Fakes and copies were made. Iovine says Evans's work anticipated the limited-edition furniture of today. Phillip Powell, with whom Evans shared a studio in New Hope, never wanted to make production furniture or make deadlines. Before Powell died after a fall last winter, he enjoyed watching his work sell at auction for far more than he ever got for it. Roberta Maneker covers the world of James Mont (1904-1978), a designer of interiors for Bob Hope, Irving Berlin, and Lana Turner as well as East Coast Mafiosi Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano. This rogue, roué, and man-about-town who patented designs for bars and claimed to have invented the sofa bed had shops on New York City's Madison Avenue, in Atlantic City and Miami Beach, and in Greece. Demetrios Pecintoglu, a.k.a. James Mont, was born to a Greek-Turkish family living in Istanbul. The family immigrated to the United States in 1922. Mont sat out World War II in Sing Sing Prison for assaulting a female business associate who later killed herself. He had his ups and downs and went bankrupt three times. Maneker characterizes his early work as leaning toward "too-muchness" and his later work as Chinese modern or Hollywood glamour with a Pacific Rim flavor more grandiose than grand. Tommi Parzinger (1903-1981) satisfied the taste of affluent New Yorkers. This German-born and -trained designer worked for Rena Rosenthal, whose fashionable shop at 52nd and Madison Avenue designed everything from perfume bottles to display cases and, in time, furniture known for its fine workmanship, custom hardware, and labor-intensive finishes. In 1939 Parzinger opened his own showroom at 45 East 57th Street. After spending the war years in Bermuda-he was not an American citizen-Parzinger returned and ended his relationship with the Charak Company, which made his furniture. He designed for a number of companies that made furniture, brass, rattan, lighting, and wallpaper, doing custom designs for clients and providing decorators with a full line of furnishings. He had a small factory under the Queensboro Bridge run by Donald Cameron, who in 1949 became his creative and business partner. Iovine calls his furniture non-generic modern that straddles past and present. After Parzinger's death in 1981, Cameron, in partnership with gallery owner Pat Palumbo, reproduced some 25 pieces from the designer's later years. Harvey Probber (1922-2003), an innovator in modular furniture whose early designs were ahead of his time, is now recognized in the marketplace. According to the book, a Nuclear coffee table sold for $14,000 at Sotheby's in 2005; a desk of bleached African rosewood sold for $9000 at a Sollo Rago sale in 2006; and at a Wright auction in 2006 a sling chair sold for $3500, and a set of three occasional tables with terrazzo tops made $8400. T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905-1976), another in Merrill's list of custom designers, had a design studio on Madison Avenue in New York City. He wanted "to bring timeless design to Grand Rapids," and the Widdicomb Furniture Company put into production some of his custom-made pieces from 1951 to 1957 before he returned to his custom-made furniture, particularly designs based on Greek furniture made by Saridis of Athens. Tommi Parzinger became the U.S. agent for this furniture that included Robsjohn-Gibbings's well-known klismos chair and X-form stools. In the 1960's Robsjohn-Gibbings designed for Baker Furniture before moving to Athens, Greece, where he continued to design for Greek clients and for the Urban Furniture Company in Hicksville, New York. He is remembered for introducing Classical designs made of modern materials. Karl Springer (1931-1989), inspired by Art Deco of the 1920's, created a line of furniture with bold proportions and exotic finishes. Born in Berlin, Germany, he came to the U.S. in the late 1950's and worked as a window dresser and made jewel boxes covered with animal skins before moving on to furniture. He, too, had showrooms and workshops in several locations in New York City. His signature was furniture covered in lacquered skins of goat, lizard, alligator, shark, cobra, and even frog, and he was known for reviving the fad for shagreen, long associated with Jean Dunand, Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, and Jean-Michel Frank. Mark Eckman, an industrial designer, made Lucite furniture for him. At the height of his career, Springer had showrooms in Los Angeles, Munich, and Tokyo; workshops in Mexico, the Philippines, and Indonesia; and worked with Italian craftsmen in Murano on a line of lamps and chandeliers. In the late 1980's tastes were changing; Ralph Lauren's traditional styles were in vogue, and reproductions of American furniture were outselling the creations of Springer, Parzinger, and Paul Evans. With his health failing, Springer sold his company before he died of AIDS in 1989. Collectors find it hard to distinguish true Springer pieces, many not signed, from the gypsy copies that abound. Until recently prices did not keep up with original cost, but at Sotheby's 2006 sale of the Tony Ingrao collection, a rare 1979 Springer table with a steel base and a top with feathers under glass sold for $66,000. Edward Wormley (1907-1995) was inspired by Art Deco, Arts and Crafts, and the Scandinavian and International styles. He had a long association with the Dunbar Furniture Corporation in Berne, Indiana, a firm that had showrooms from New York to Los Angeles and Hawaii, and the furniture that he designed in the 1930's and 1940's sold well into the 1960's. A 1948 example of one of his most popular pieces, the Listen to Me chaise, sold at Sotheby's in June 2007 for $66,000. His lightweight forms with clean lines are understated American modern and have a large following, and his tables inset with Tiffany tiles and his case pieces with Japanese woodblocks, inspired by the designs of Greene and Greene, are avidly sought. San Francisco designer John Dickinson (1920-1982), the first in Merrill's decorator-designers category, limited his color palette to beige, camel, gray, and white. In the 1970's he designed witty interpretations of Georgian paw-foot chairs and tables, and his Greek X-leg table is a tribute to Robsjohn-Gibbings. With a studio and showroom in San Francisco, he worked for I. Magnin, designing dressing rooms and interiors for the Chicago store in 1971. Macy's in San Francisco commissioned him in 1978 to design a suite of custom furniture. By the mid-1970's he was producing three-legged African-inspired stools in white plaster, which are now among his most popular pieces with collectors. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has 250 pieces of Dickinson-designed furniture, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a galvanized tin skirted table in its collection. The San Francisco firm of Randolph & Hein, which made the pieces for the Macy's commission, still produces some of Dickinson's upholstered seating and some lamps. Merrill documents the work of some little-known designers. Arthur Elrod (1926-1974) had a short career with clients in Palm Springs and Chicago. His glamorous modern furnishings sometimes turn up in vintage furniture shops but rarely at auction. The work of William Haines (1900-1973) is defined as Hollywood Regency. A former silent film star, he became a Hollywood decorator. His signature round-back Hostess chair and its variation, the Conference chair, designed to surround tables and often upholstered in leather, are among his signature pieces. After Haines's death in 1973, his assistant, Ted Graber, continued the firm, and among his significant commissions was the Reagan White House. Paul László (1900-1993) is closely associated with California Modern, an elegant style with European touches, bold color, and textures. Although he worked in Stuttgart, Germany from 1927 to 1936, designing entire interiors, with everything custom made, he said he was not influenced by the Bauhaus. He immigrated to the United States in 1936, settling in Los Angeles, where he became known as the millionaire's architect. He opened an architectural office on Rodeo Drive and commissioned furniture and decorations from a team of artisans, controlling every detail of his projects. László is credited with designing the first printed toilet paper and is known for his handwoven lampshades by Maria Kipp, often used on bases of hand-painted glass. He designed commercial properties, shopping malls, club houses, and the Rodeo Room and the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He also designed some commercial lines for Herman Miller, Brown Saltman, Heywood-Wakefield, and Ficks Reed. None are illustrated. Samuel Marx (1885-1964) is known for his Deco-inspired modernism. Based in Chicago from 1910 to 1962, he produced much of his work for a small group of private and corporate clients, J. Paul Getty and Edward G. Robinson among them. Born in Natchez, Mississippi (not Louisiana, as the book mistakenly states), he went to prep school and MIT and then spent two years at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His first commission was for the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in New Orleans. In Chicago he built residences for well-to-do clients in Glencoe, which were described in Interiors magazine as "unctuous ornate modernism." The furniture of his own design was produced by Chicago furniture maker William J. Quigley. He also commissioned textile designer Dorothy Liebes to provide his fabrics. Marx's work has become better known since New York dealer Liz O'Brien's study, Ultramodern: Samuel Marx, Architect, Designer, Art Collector, was published in 2007. A coffee table of black glass tiles covered in silver leaf, which Marx designed in 1949, sold at Sotheby's in November 2007 for $73,000. He designed for specific projects individual pieces, generally of generous proportions and opulent finishes, often to set off artwork. He liked crackle lacquer finishes, and used Lucite and gold leaf and kappa shell for wall surfaces. Marx also designed retail and restaurant spaces, May department stores, and various houses for the May family (his third wife was a May). Even though this book has a limited number of illustrations, it provides a road map for further exploration in a field that is just beginning to find its place in the market and in the history of design. It is not academic, and there is no index, but it does include a long bibliography. It is a useful book for anyone covering this marketplace for the popular press.