Furniture
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Repousse, or repoussage, is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is shaped by hammering the reverse side of a sheet a metal. On the other side, a low relief design is revealed.
This Howard Miller Presidential Collection Grandfather Clock is a free standing wooden floor clock. The clock has Windsor Cherry finish with crotch mahogany on the pediment and multi tier base. The white dial is accented with a polished brass bezel and Roman numerals. The case of the clock exhibits sculpted side columns with carved column caps, curved glass on the locking front door, and beveled glass on sides and front. The clock features an ornate golden pendulum bob and chimes. The right of the clock face contains the following text: WHITE ST. MICH WESTM. SILENT.
The marble chair was dedicated to James M. Greenwood (1836-1914) by his wife. The original Kansas City Public Library building was constructed under Greenwood's direction and he was committed to making its services available to the public for the rest of his life. He served on the Kansas City Public School board as a superintendent for nearly four decades. Through his progressive programs and vision, Greenwood became highly regarded in educational spheres. Engraved in the back of the chair are the words: "A memorial to James M.
This elegant grandfather clock contains a large round clock face and oval body atop a base with scroll and leaf ornament and bun feet. The clock has a beautiful Windsor cherry wood finish with hues of antique gold throughout the carved details. The clock face features dual-tone, metallic and gold hands with Arabic numerals beneath a convex glass crystal. A leaf-tip pattern surrounds the clock face as well as the lower glass door, framing the hanging composition of weights and large, round pendulum.
This lectum was designed to empower the speaker before the audience. Rectangular in shape, the top of the piece provides ample space for the speaker to rest their hands on either side of the angled book platform. The platform is upholstered in a red velvet material in order to keep the speaker's materials from sliding downward. The upper section of the lectum narrows downward over a series of beveled edges that create the illusion of elevating the speaker. The body of the lectum remains rectangular with two wooden columns fashioned into the base.
This unique clock is thought to have been built in the 1950s by the Power & Light Building’s engineering staff in appreciation of the iconic Kansas City landmark located at 14th and Baltimore. The building, completed in 1931, is a 36-story structure and is considered one of the greatest examples of Art Deco architecture in America. Purchased by Gailoyd Enterprises in 1964, the building was home to this clock until September of 2014 when the property was purchased by NorthPoint Development to be redeveloped into apartments.
This brown leather toddler sized writer's chair is complete with a button-tucked back and brass stud adornments around the base and backside of the chair. It sits atop four low-profile wooden feet.
This large-scale, Renaissance Revival style bookcase has five cabinet spaces with glass doors framed by ornate wood carvings. The massiveness of the bookcase is balanced by well integrated and articulate ornament. The glass cabinet doors reveal the contents thereby presenting themselves as the true power of the piece. The base protrudes past the cabinet doors of the bookcase. The bookcase is crowned by a trio of iconic figures in literature with a wooden bust of Shakespeare in the center and low reliefs of Lord Byron to the left and Washington Irving to the right.
The San Carlos Grandfather clock stands at six and a half feet tall. It is rectangular in form with little ornamentation and is made of wood with a cherry varnish. Clear glass windows provide a look inside the clock with its brushed silver metal weights and pendulum. The face is off-white with black Roman numerals and black accents. A small drawer rests in between the clock face and base.
This is a 19th century antique Chinese horseshoe-style chair made likely from elmwood. The chair was fabricated using pegs and specially carved joinery that reinforces the structure of the chair. The base has A-shaped legs on each side that are conjoined with a footrest. The seat is rectangular with a depression that suggests there was once an accompanying cushion. Two oblong dowels support the yoked armrest and the backrest consists of a single narrow panel with a circular design in relief near the top. Three Chinese characters have been stained into the back of the backrest.
This is a 19th century antique Chinese horseshoe-style chair made likely from elmwood. The chair was fabricated using pegs and specially carved joinery that reinforces the structure of the chair. The base has A-shaped legs on each side that are conjoined with a footrest. The seat is rectangular with a depression that suggests there was once an accompanying cushion. Two oblong dowels support the yoked armrest and the backrest consists of a single narrow panel with a circular design in relief near the top.
This 1930s school desk was the heart and hearth of early American childhood education. The finished wooden chair is supported by a wrought cast iron base that doubles as support for the built-in posterior desk. The desktop was designed with a space for both a writing utensil and an inkwell, with a shelf underneath for additional materials. This style of desk worked in unison with others so that, when lined up, created rows of desk and chair pairings throughout a classroom. With a hinged seat the unit could be condensed and stored when not in use.
Likely intended for secretariat or collegiate use, this writing desk joins two working spaces with organizational caddies and a built-in brass lamp in the middle. While the caddy joins the spaces, it also privatizes the work done on each side. The caddy is simple in design with rounded edges to offer minimal embellishment. The banner of the desk expands on detail with panels of floral relief on each side. The banner graduates into each leg with scrolling edges that appear to be dripping downward, suiting the rich red finish of the wood.
The Steinway & Sons Model L is among the larger sized Steinway ‘baby grands’. The Steinway Model L scale design is based very closely on its predecessor the Model O. The Model L with its square tail, was designed to replace the same-size Model O which featured a rounded tail. The cast iron plate and soundboard conform to the square tail providing additional soundboard space at the rear of the instrument when compared to its predecessor. The Steinway Model L was manufactured from 1924 until 2005.
This antique piece houses a radio-receiver in a four-legged highboy with a stretcher base. The central cabinet doors slide outward to reveal the face of the radio covered by a decorative panel with flourishing scrollwork pressed into veneer-faced plywood. The radio dial peeks through a narrowing viewfinder outfitted with a minutely ornamented brass piece and below it in gold lettering is the manufacturer name, "Stromberg-Carlson". A corresponding tuning knob with two subsequent knobs for sharpening and volume sit below the dial.
This antique Victorian style wooden bookcase was the first to be purchased for the Kansas City Public Library. It has five shelves and two lower drawers. Access to the shelving cabinet is gained through two doors comprised of glass and wood that swing outward. Each door contains four panes of glass. The base of the bookcase contains two drawers, each drawer is accessed by two wooden knobs, located to the right and left of each compartment. The bookcase has three locks, one for the shelving compartment and one for each drawer.
Tempered glass clock with artistic silk screen printing acknowledges the work of the great artistic master of antiquity, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. The major misperception of the pavement of the "Piazza del Campidoglio" is that this square is a simple geometric or ornamental motif. Michelangelo had the intention of reconnecting with his Etruscan and Roman ancestry, and therefore established in the center of Piazza Campidoglio what he named "the umbilicus" or navel of the world; and he did this by defining his challenging and intriguing oval design.
We do not know precisely when Maitland-Smith manufactured this 19c. elegant three-tiered mahogany console on brass castors. Each tier bears an umber leather inlay and an ornate gold embossed border. Elaborately turned spindles and solid wood galleries provide visual and structural support. A brass Maitland-Smith maker’s plaque is affixed to the back of the upper-tier wood gallery.
This grandfather clock stands at approximately six and a half feet high. The design is sleek with black varnish and clear glass windows that reveal brushed metal mechanical elements of the weights and pendulum. The face of the clock is white and adorned with silver Arabic numerals and black accents.
This is a custom built Renaissance Revival walnut cabinet. The front exterior is primarily encompassed by two large front doors that swing outward. In the interior there are ten narrow shelves with a drawer separating the fifth and sixth shelf. The shelves are each lined with red velvet. The drawer includes a fold-out desk with nine compartments, five of which contain smaller drawers. Two smaller doors, flanking the left and right of side of the main cabinet, open to reveal three shelves. Small drawers are positioned below both of the side doors.