We’re back in the girls’ bedroom for this week’s featured piece. This inlaid chest of drawers matches the inlaid bed in the same room.
Inlaid chest of drawers
Dimensions: 36″ W x 51″ H x 18 1/2″ D
Materials: Oak with inlays of copper and tinted woods
Inlays: Made by the firm of George H. Jones, New York City
Date: Ca. 1910 – 11
Mark: “Gustav Stickley” red joiner’s compass decal
Designer: Unknown
Anonymous gift to The Craftsman Farms Foundation.
On first glance, this chest of drawers is reminiscent of the familiar nine-drawer #913 Craftsman chest of drawers designed by LaMont Warner and manufactured by Stickley from 1905 through about 1912. The overall dimensions and the drawer arrangement of the #913 are closely echoed in the chests of drawers that Stickley had made for his daughters’ bedroom at Craftsman Farms.
Yet this Craftsman Farms chest is really very different from the production model offered in Stickley’s catalogs. Forgoing the fluid curves of the #913, this chest has an almost Shaker-like austerity: viewed head-on, it seems to have a straight-lined trapezoidal shape. In fact the sides are very subtly bowed: directly beneath the 36″ wide top the case is 30 1/4″ wide; just above the bottom drawer the case expands to 31 3/4″; and at the base of its legs it narrows ever so slightly to 31 1/2.” The apron – the plank beneath the bottom drawer – is a segmental arch on the standard #913 chest, but on this cabinet it runs in a straight, horizontal line and ends in abrupt, rounded arches attached to both front legs.
The colors of this chest are also carefully worked out aspects of its design. Though made of Stickley’s usual quarter-sawn oak, the wood is neither brown nor green-brown but is instead finished with an understated gray wash matching the gray grass-cloth on the walls. The chest is further ornamented with copper and tinted wood inlays on a turquoise blue ground, enlivening the surface, setting off the plain round wooden knobs, and matching the color of the Grueby tiles in this bedroom’s tall, copper-hooded fireplace.
As in Stickley’s time, there are now two of these chests of drawers in the girls’ bedroom. One is original and the other a replica made in 2003 by Steve and Mary Ann Voorhees.
Don’t forget about all our other featured pieces!
