L.A. Museums' Collections Grow Despite Poor Economy

The writer was William J. Zeile of Arlington, Va., whose great-uncle co-founded a San Francisco furniture shop with Arthur and Lucia Mathews in 1906, in response to the earthquake that devastated the city. The firm mainly produced custom furnishings for offices and residences. But for close friends and family, the Mathewses made extraordinary carved and painted pieces that merge the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement with the classicism of the American Renaissance, and that's what Kaplan coveted.