Architectures of Display Through an international range of case studies from the 1870s to the present, this volume analyzes strategies of display in department stores and modern retail spaces. Established scholars and emerging researchers working within a range of disciplinary contexts and historiographical traditions shed light on what constitutes modern retail and the ways in which interior designers, architects, and artists have built or transformed their practice in response to the commercial context. Anca I. Lasc is Assistant Professor of Design History in the History of Art and Design Department at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. Patricia Lara- Betancourt is a design historian and research fellow at The Modern Interiors Research Centre, Kingston University, London, UK. Margaret Maile Petty is Professor and Head of the School of Design in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Routledge Research in Interior Design The Routledge Research in Interior Design series provides the reader with the latest scholarship in the field of interiors. The series publishes research from across the globe and covers areas as diverse as the history and theory of interiors, evidence- based case studies, technology, digital interior design, materials, details, monographs of interior designers, and much more. By making these studies available to the worldwide academic community, the series aims to promote quality interior design research. For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/ architecture/ series/ RRINTD Titles in the Series Architectures of Display Department Stores and Modern Retail Edited by Anca I. Lasc, Patricia Lara- Betancourt, Margaret Maile Petty Architectures of Display Department Stores and Modern Retail Edited by Anca I. Lasc, Patricia Lara- Betancourt, Margaret Maile Petty First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Anca I. Lasc, Patricia Lara- Betancourt, Margaret Maile Petty; individual chapters, the contributors. The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Lasc, Anca I., author. | Lara-Betancourt, Patricia, author. | Petty, Margaret Maile, author. Title: Architectures of display : department stores and modern retail / Anca I. Lasc, Patricia Lara-Betancourt, Margaret Maile Petty. Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge research in interior design | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017011133 | ISBN 9781472468451 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315567792 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Store decoration. | Display of merchandize. | Department stores. Classification: LCC NK2195.S89 L37 2017 | DDC 729–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011133 ISBN: 978- 1- 472- 46845- 1 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 56779- 2 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Out of House Publishing Contents List of figures vii Notes on contributors xiii Architectures of display: An introduction 1 PATRICIA LARA- BETANCOURT, ANCA I. LASC AND MARGARET MAILE PETTY PART I Displaying Modernity 15 1 “A world of furniture”: The making of the late Victorian furniture shop 17 TREVOR KEEBLE 2 Displaying dreams: Model interiors in British department stores, 1890– 1914 31 PATRICIA LARA- BETANCOURT 3 Home economies: The T. Eaton Company’s Thrift House, 1926– 1950 47 SUSAN HAIGHT 4 The art of window display: Cross- promotion at Bonwit Teller and MoMA 63 SANDRA ZALMAN 5 William Pahlmann and the department store model room, 1937– 1942 77 BEVERLY K. GRINDSTAFF 6 Baroque lines in a modern world: The retail displays of Dorothy Draper 92 JOHN C. TURPIN vi Contents PART II Technologies of Display 107 7 “The Age of Show Windows” in the American department store: Techniques and technologies of attraction at the turn of the twentieth century 109 EMILY M. ORR 8 Drawing power: Show window display design in the USA, 1900s– 1930s 125 MARGARET MAILE PETTY 9 Automatic show windows: Frederick Kiesler’s retail technology and American consumer culture 140 LAURA McGUIRE 10 Prop art: Harald Szeemann and the Warenhaus Gebrüder Loeb AG, Bern 155 ANNA-SOPHIE SPRINGER 11 From retail stores to real- time stories: Displaying change in an age of digital manufacturing 167 MARK TAYLOR AND YANNIS ZAVOLEAS PART III Contested Identities/ Contested Displays 183 12 Exotics to erotics: Exploring new frontiers of desire within Parisian department store décors 185 KEVIN C. ROBBINS 13 Dovetailed displays: Show windows, habitat dioramas, and bird hats 202 EMILY GEPHART AND MICHAEL ROSSI 14 Department stores and their display windows during the prewar Third Reich: Prevailing within a hostile Nazi consumer culture 217 DOUGLAS KLAHR 15 The cultured corporation: Art, architecture and the postwar office building 233 ALICE FRIEDMAN 16 “Knife/ Fork/ Spoon”: The Walker Art Center and the design and display of “Contour” sterling flatware service, 1949–1 951 249 ALEXA GRIFFITH WINTON 17 Galerías Preciados (1943– 1975): A Spanish cathedral of consumption and its display strategies during the Franco years 265 ANA MARÍA FERNÁNDEZ GARCÍA Index 280 List of figures I.1 “An Enchanted Experience: Once Upon a Time in New York… A Central Park Setting for Sleeping Beauty,” Holiday window display at Saks Fifth Avenue store on December 25, 2014. [Source: Alexander Image/Shutterstock.com] 2 I.2 “An Enchanted Experience: Once Upon a Time in New York… Little Red Riding Hood’s Hairy Encounter at The Plaza,” Holiday window display at Saks Fifth Avenue store on December 25, 2014. [Source: Alexander Image/Shutterstock.com] 3 1.1 A printed trade image of John Davis, Upholsterer, Appraiser, Undertaker and House Agent, 136–138 Tottenham Court Road. (Annotated, 1857). [Source: London Borough of Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, LCP.942.143] 24 1.2 Photographic view of “One of the Model Rooms” exhibited by Heelas Sons & Co, Reading, c.1895. [Source: Heelas Sons & Co, catalog, John Lewis Partnership Archive. Ref: 194/A/4(1)] 27 1.3 Photographic view of the “Decorating Department” at Heelas Sons & Co, Reading, c.1895. [Source: Heelas Sons & Co, catalog, John Lewis Partnership Archive. Ref: 194/A/4(1)] 28 2.1 “A Hall in the English Renaissance Style. A page from Mr William Whiteley’s New Illustrated Furnishing Catalogue,” The Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher, 1 October 1888. 34 2.2 “Two Interiors at the Ideal Home Exhibition,” The Cabinet Maker and Complete House Furnisher, April 16, 1910. 35 2.3 “Bed Sitting Room,” Heal & Son, trade catalog, 1902. 37 2.4 Heal’s The “Mansard Flat,” newspaper advert, The Ladies Field, 1918. 38 2.5 “The Flat Hall,” Waring & Gillow’s showroom, trade catalog, c. 1900. 39 2.6 “Dining Room in Modernized Jacobean,” Substantial and Inexpensive Furniture, Waring & Gillow’s trade catalog, c. 1900. 42 3.1 Thrift House – main floor, House Furnishings Building, exterior, 1926. [Source: F229-308-0-2043, T. Eaton Company fonds. Eaton’s Archives photographic and documentary art subject files, Merchandise-Ont- Toronto-House furnishings-Furniture-Model Homes, B411202 Container B-551] 48 3.2 Thrift House – main floor, House Furnishings Building, hallway, 1926. [Source: F229-308-0-2043, T. Eaton Company fonds. Eaton’s Archives photographic and documentary art subject files, viii List of figures Merchandise-Ont-Toronto-House furnishings-Furniture-Model Homes, B411202 Container B-551] 49 3.3 Eaton’s Daily Store News: “The Opening of Thrift House,” Toronto Globe, January 18, 1926: 16. Uploaded: http://catalogue.library. carleton.ca:80/record=b2030589~S9 50 3.4 Thrift House – main floor, House Furnishings Building, living room, 1926. [Source: F229-308-0-2043, T. Eaton Company fonds. Eaton’s Archives photographic and documentary art subject files, Merchandise-Ont-Toronto-House furnishings-Furniture-Model Homes, B411202 Container B-551] 55 3.5 Thrift House – main floor, College Street store, exterior, 1930. [Source: F229-308-0-2043, T. Eaton Company fonds. Eaton’s Archives photographic and documentary art subject files, Merchandise-Ont- Toronto-House furnishings-Furniture-Model Homes, B411115 Container B-399] 58 3.6 Visitors lining up to enter Aluminum House, 1949. [Source: T. Eaton Company fonds, Records of the Eaton’s Housefurnishings Merchandise Office, Furnished homes “Aluminum House,” B294475 Container 21–69] 60 4.1 Advertisement for Bonwit Teller windows, New York Herald Tribune, December 20, 1936. 64 4.2 Salvador Dalí, Window at Bonwit Teller, “She was a Surrealist Woman – She Was Like a Figure in a Dream,” 1936. [Source: City Museum of New York] 65 4.3 Violet Surrealist window at Bonwit Teller, 1936. [Source: City Museum of New York] 67 4.4 Canary Surrealist window at Bonwit Teller, 1936. [Source: City Museum of New York] 68 4.5 “Modern Art in Your Life” installation photograph, Museum of Modern Art, 1949. [Source: Museum of Modern Art] 74 5.1 “International Show” (October 1937), Pahlmann’s first suite of model rooms for Lord & Taylor, New York. [Source: William Pahlmann Papers, Hagley Museum and Library] 78 5.2 “International Show” (October 1937). [Source: William Pahlmann Papers, Hagley Museum and Library] 79 5.3 Pahlmann’s design and decoration for the 1796 salon at Pen Ryn. [Source: The William Carroll Pahlmann Archive, Texas A&M] 82 5.4 “The home of tomorrow moves in new directions,” Pahlmann’s cocktail corner shadowbox from “Excitement into Summer Décor” (Summer 1939) for Lord & Taylor, New York, Photograph by Hans Van Nes. [Source: William Pahlmann Papers, Hagley Museum and Library] 87 5.5 “Pahlmann Predicts” (September 1940) model room for Lord & Taylor, New York, Photograph by Hans Van Nes. [Source: William Pahlmann Papers, Hagley Museum and Library] 88 6.1 First floor of Coty Beauty Salon designed by Dorothy Draper & Company, New York City, 1941, with permission from Dorothy List of figures ix Draper & Company, Inc. [Source: Dorothy Draper Archives. Loose leaf. New York: Dorothy Draper & Company] 96 6.2 Custom display designed by Dorothy Draper and Ted Grundy and executed by the Cinquinni family in the Coty Beauty Salon, New York City, 1941. [Source: Reprinted with permission from Dorothy Draper & Company] 97 6.3 Custom displays painted by Alice Willits Donaldson in the Coty Beauty Salon, New York City, 1941. [Source: Reprinted with permission from Dorothy Draper & Company] 99 7.1 People looking into a Marshall Field & Co. department store window, 1910. [Source: Courtesy Chicago History Museum, DN-0008625; Chicago Daily News] 111 7.2 Hamilton Hunter, “Show Window Construction,” U.S. Patent No. 709, 985, filed November 4, 1901, issued September 30, 1902. [Source: Courtesy US Patent and Trademark Office] 115 7.3 “Norwich Nickel and Brass Works ‘Perfection Fixtures’ for All Departments,” in Frank L. Carr, The Wide-Awake Window Dresser (New York: Dry Goods Economist, 1894), 316. [Source: Courtesy Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection] 116 7.4 Handkerchief folding instructions, in A Textbook on Mercantile Decoration (Scranton, PA: International Textbook Company, 1903), Section 28, 27, figs. 48 and 49. [Source: Courtesy Hagley Museum and Library] 118 7.5 Abraham & Straus storefront, c. 1895. [Source: Early Brooklyn and Long Island Photograph Collection, ARC 201, Brooklyn Historical Society] 119 7.6 Harold G. Messmore demonstrating animated papier-mâché figures in his firm’s showroom, c. 1925. [Source: William L. Bird Holidays on Display Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution] 121 8.1 Advertisement for “The GeCoRay System of Shop Window Lighting,” 1926 (London: The General Electric Co., LTD). [Source: Accessed March 3, 2017, https://archive.org/details/TheGecoraySystemOfShop WindowLighting; licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0, full terms: https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nd/3.0/] 127 8.2 Show window design and lighting in keeping with the notion of the “stage,” as illustrated in “Show Window Lighting,” 1924 (Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh Reflector Company). [Source: Accessed March 3, 2017, https://archive.org/details/ShowWindowLighting] 130 9.1 Frederick Kiesler, Display window for Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, 1928. [Source: Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna] 142 9.2 Frederick Kiesler, Display window for Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, 1928. [Source: Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna] 143 9.3 Frederick Kiesler, Illustration of a storefront, Contemporary Art Applied to the Store and Its Display (1930). 146