A slight obsession

Over the past 8 months I have been independently researching Paul McCobb's life and designs. At first just for my own personal edification, and then, as the breadth and scope of the task revealed itself, with the intention of publishing a Catalogues Raisonnés of Paul McCobb's work.


I have had help along the way from other Paul McCobb enthusiasts, most notably from Gerard O'Brien at Reform Gallery in Los Angeles and Mark Naylon at Modern Living Supplies in New York, both of whom are avid Paul McCobb collectors, who have graciously allowed me access to their invaluable personal collections in support of my research efforts.

The task is not an inconsiderable one. Paul McCobb was active as a designer for 20 years, with much of his earlier and later work either forgotten, or, in the very least, not commonly known and poorly documented.

Besides the comparatively well known furniture collections Paul McCobb also turned his hand to designing Lamps, Textiles, Mirrors, Tiles, Ceramics, Radios, TV's, Stereo Systems, Glassware and Tableware, all of which I intend to include in the final published work.

Newspaper and magazine articles culled from research archives and libraries have been an invaluable aid in reconstructing the career of this remarkable man, as have the various Paul McCobb related furniture catalogs that I have been able to acquire in the course of my research.

Inevitably there are holes in my information, catalogs which I now know existed that I haven't been able to find copies of. Many of these missing catalogs aren't quite so important as the material is covered in other overlapping resources. Some however, would be invaluable to me and my efforts should they come to light, particularly those early pamphlets detailing the little known groups by Paul McCobb for Directional prior to 1952 or catalogs of his later period work for Mutschler, Lane, and Widdicomb. If anyone reading this should know of this material please contact me, any help is appreciated.

Along with this blog in the weeks ahead I will also be working on expanding the existing Wikipedia entry on Paul McCobb and (possibly vainly) attempting to correct common misattributions in otherwise respectable internet resources.



Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 7, 2010 at 9:24 AM

    This is a great blog. Thanks for doing so much work. I love McCobb.

    ReplyDelete

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