Posted 11 years ago
prattmision
(5 items)
Lawson clock - "Zephyr" model no. 304-P40 is one of the most iconic clock designs of the 1930's in USA.
Long attributed to KEM Weber was actually designed by less known Paul Ferher and George Adomatis. Source: Lawson catalogue - Creations for 1938.
Attribution to K.E.M. Weber is false.
There are other clocks in this catalog that were attributed to KEM Weber, the Arlington, the New Yorker, practically every cyclometer in this catalog. All designed by Paul Ferher .
This is really interesting. One of my main resources for design from this era has always been "Design 1935 - 1965: What Modern Was," published by Abrams in 1991. On pages 77-78, there's a section about this clock and how Kem Weber designed it. I'd love to know the source for the Ferher attribution. Thanks!
The designer's name was actually Paul "Feher" - misprinted in the catalog - who was a fairly well known Deco era metalsmith and industrial/architectural designer. There's a lot more of this story here:
http://www.decopix.com/Lawson_Clocks_Part_I/
The 1938 Lawson Time catalog is the only source that attributes the design of the Zephyr and other Lawson models to "Ferher" and Adomatis. No patents, design drawings, etc, have ever been discovered for any of the known Lawson clock models. Kem Weber may have had a hand in creating some of Lawson's clocks, but there have never been any documents found among his files to indicate that he was involved in the Zephyr's design.
Ah, so the source is the catalog, and they got his name wrong. Sorry, I misunderstood (I see now that the source was cited in was in the original post, but I read it too quickly...).
We just published an article on another designer who never got proper credit here:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/irving-harper-paper-wizard/
Tx!
-Ben
The original name for the "Zephyr" was "Mayfair", recently an ad from 1937 surfaced with what we know as the "Zephyr" as the "Mayfair". Check out my "Zephyr" on my page to see the advertisement.
What you say about attribution may still be correct, but the catalog picture and the clocks shown above it above are NOT the same clocks. They are very similar, but not the same. Check out: typography of the numbers and also the radius of the decoration to the left of the numbers. THANKS for the intrigue!