Samuel Yellin Grand Staircase Element

Item# UA0069-E-1 SV
$25,000
ca 1914
wrought iron
Bayberry Estate, Southamptons
American

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Samuel Yellin was a major figure in the early twentieth century Arts and Crafts movement, a master of his trade and a versatile and prolific designer of decorative ironwork. He is widely recognized as the foremost blacksmith and metal artist in this country. He was commissioned to create all the ironwork the Bayberry Land, the Southampton, NY country estate of Charles H. and Pauline Morton Sabin. The Sabins sought the greatest talents available, including architects Cross & Cross and the landscape architect Marian Cruger Coffin.

The grand staircase has four curved ‘stairway’ sections and two straight ‘landing’ sections with scrolls throughout; each scroll is centered with a different medallion featuring various flowers and animals, including a squirrel, dove, turkey, swan, rose, fruiting cornucopia, fish, songbird, hawk, heron, rabbit, deer, a bird feeding her young, birds in various stages of flight, a bird looming over a locust, and other stylized fanciful birds of prey. The railings have wooden banisters with the inner ‘stairway’ railings terminating in ornate openwork planters.

After more than 10 years of trying to keep this masterpiece staircase in its original state, we have given in to the requests of our clients to make the individual elements of the railings available. Each medallion is a brilliant piece of historical sculpture.

Literature:
In the November 1919 issue of the Architectural Review, Yellin’s work was described as "fanciful wrought iron balustrades containing bird, animal and fruit motifs wrought into the Renaissance design. Each of these balustrades curves around the newel, topped by a receptacle from which ivy falls, mingling with and seeming almost a part of the foliation of the wrought iron design."

*For more information, please call 212.371.4646 or 212.431.4646