Duck Box
Bobby Reed Falwell is a Kentucky-based woodworker who showed at the Somerset Mall through the mid-1970s. A Detroit Free Press article of 1976 records an exhibition at the mall where Falwell sold “ingratiatingly fluid” furniture including chairs, tables, lamps, stools, and mirror-frames. Prices for boxes began at $35.
It is likely that Falwell met the Smiths through the Somerset art shows, as Myhaven's guestbook records a visit from Bobby and his wife Carol in May of 1979. A short mention in the ‘Home’ pages of the Detroit Free Press mentions one of Falwell’s boxes (SM 2017.80) as a “zebrawood sculpture,” noting that “the understated form blends interestingly and naturally into its setting, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home of Mr. and Mrs. Melvyn Maxwell Smith, in West Bloomfield Hills.”
Nina Blomfield
2021-2023 Decorative Arts Trust Marie Zimmermann Collections Fellow
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
June 2022
Width: 17 1/2 in (44.5 cm)
Depth: 6 1/2 in (16.5 cm)
ProvenanceMelvyn Maxwell and Sara Stein Smith (circa 1970–1984)
Sara Stein Smith (1984–1990)
Robert N. and Anne F. Smith (1990–1997)
Melvyn Maxwell and Sara Smith Foundation (1997–2007)
The Towbes Foundation (2007–2017)
Cranbrook Educational Community (2017–present)
Credit LineCranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Cultural Properties Collection, Smith House
Gift of The Towbes Foundation
Medium / MaterialsCarved wood
SignedCarved on front: Falwell
GenreObject TypeBoxes (containers)
Select Exhibition HistorySmith House circa 1970 – present
Select Bibliography and Archival Citation(s)Melvyn Maxwell and Sara Evelyn Smith Papers (2017-10), Box 23, Guestbook 1968-1979: 5/6/1979 Bobby & Carol Falwell Rt 7 Box 696, Murray Kentucky. “Thank you for your sincere warmth”
