Door and Surround

When Phillip Lloyd Powell was invited to participate in the Craftsmen 67 exhibition at the Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center, this elaborately carved polychrome door work was selected for inclusion in the show. He subsequently installed it in his New Hope, Pennsylvania, residence on Route 202.

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1919, Powell began crafting furniture during his teen years. He moved to New Hope in 1947. Inspired by George Nakashima, Powell began developing his own designs in the early fifties. By 1953 he moved his showroom to Mechanic Street, where he would create a line of lamps as well as slate-topped tables and chairs. When designer-craftsman Paul Evans moved to New Hope in 1955, Powell and Evans opened a joint studio and showroom, which they shared for a decade.

Shortly after Powell and Evans ended their collaboration in New Hope in 1966, Powell began to travel extensively to Spain, Portugal, England, Sicily, and Morocco, where he was inspired by the carvings and decorative elements found in furnishings and architectural elements of these cultures. The horseshoe-arch shapes and multilayered bands of geometric carvings found on his 1967 polychrome door suggest features of architectural elements he would have seen while traveling in Spain during the 1960s.