Did you think everything gets quiet here when winter comes and we are only open on weekends?  You’d be surprised! Yes, of course we are still open for group tours and scout programs — but the Log House has been bustling with activity all week.  Volunteers are busily decorating for our annual Holiday Open House, taking place on the first two weekends in December.   During this event, the Log House will be decked out for the holidays in period style and with a focus on Stickley’s own ideas.  Utilizing holiday greens, pinecones, and the home’s forest palette, the decorations will bring nature indoors and spotlight the Arts and Crafts movement’s emphasis on finding beauty in simplicity and in simple materials.

For Stickley, a rich family life was a key part of his Arts and Crafts ideas, and this event addresses his values by providing a peek into Christmas preparations that would have been typical for a family like the Stickleys, including blending Victorian traditions — like making treat-bearing cornucopia and giving handmade gifts–with more modern trends. One vignette imagines Mrs. Stickley preparing to wrap a kimono, a fashionable gift–as was anything related to Japanese culture–for ladies at the time. The Christmas tree itself is a blend of Victorian and modern times, as it is wrapped with a short string of electric lights, which were the latest thing and quite expensive, but in a nod to custom, the tree also includes candles, which were traditional and still the most popular method for lighting a Christmas tree.

While celebrating the holidays, the Holiday Open House is also meant to provide respite during a hectic time of the year. On the porch of the Log House visitors will be invited to relax and enjoy hot cider and cookies, perhaps take a minute to work on a jigsaw puzzle or send holiday greeting to a friend.

 Join us for the Holiday Open House December 3-4 and 10-11 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Or come for a sneak peek at the holiday décor during our annual trunk show, which opens at 11 a.m. on Black Friday, November 25.

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Oil lamp as it appeared in "the Craftsman" magazine 100 years ago.

One of the rare objects on view right now is the Grueby oil lamp that we believe was original to the Log House. The oil lamp must have been a favorite of Gustav Stickley. It appears in several times in The Craftsman magazine photos of the Log House (see one photo above), and is shown in more than one location. The vase base was donated to the Stickley Museum in 2007 by Stickley great-granddaughter Barbara Fuldner, but it has not been on view until now.

It is now fully restored to its original appearance, thanks to later donations of a burner, font, brass lampshade supports, glass chimney, and a wicker lampshade. Sometimes called Japanese brown wicker and sometimes called Japanese split bamboo, lampshades such as this one were made in Japan and sold by Stickley. They are shown in Chips from the Craftsman Workshop from 1906. The shade is lined with Habutai silk, just as it was in Stickley’s day. This newer lining is stained with tea to give it the original appearance.

The brass font and Bradley & Hubbard duplex burner are real treasures. Stickley seemed to like these burners which feature two wicks. A talented craftsman made the brass shade-holder (the wire frame that sits on the burner and holds the shade in place) for us based on an original one found at Crab Tree Farm in Illinois.

Both this original oil lamp and the reproduction oil lamp are on view at this time and they make for an interesting comparison.

Oil lamp on table as it appears today

2007.02.01 Grueby Lamp Base
Grueby Faience Company oil lamp base believed to be original to Craftsman Farms.
c.1910
Gift of Barbara Fuldner

2011.17 Lampshade and Burner
Split bamboo shade, imported from Japan.
Bradley & Hubbard Duplex Burner
c. 1907
Gift of Bettina and Joe Gleason

Original Oil Lamp on View is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

Dr. Jonathan Clancy will speak at our Forging Ahead Forum on Saturday, October 15 at Mountain Lakes Community Church. His talk, entitled Forging a Useable Past: Scholars, Scholarship, and the Arts and Crafts, will consider the potential for scholarship to inform the present as it illuminates the past. His presentation will include information about the Emerging Scholars Symposium. This annual conference, launched in 2011, is devoted to the work of up-and-coming scholars and is a collaboration between Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. Clancy will discuss the objectives of the conference and its direction for 2012.

Dr. Jonathan Clancy is Director of the American Fine and Decorative Arts Program at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. His publications include The Beauty of Common Things: American Art Pottery from the Two Red Roses Foundation (2008), Warman’s Rookwood Pottery (2008), and numerous articles in journals such as Modern Craft, The Journal of Design History, and Style 1900. His recent work has spanned a variety of subjects including: John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark, Martin Johnson Heade’s early career, and Gustav Stickley’s metal wares. At present, he is directing a cataloging project for the paintings at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island.

Dr. Jonathan Clancy to Speak About Arts & Crafts Scholarship is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

View of North Cottage interior

In addition to enjoying the lovely brunch, you will have the opportunity to mingle with other like minded-souls who appreciate the simple beauty of the Craftsman bungalow style.  Wander through at your own pace exploring one of the first structures built at Craftsman Farms.  Enjoy the charming furnishings, including the Wiley collection.  This grouping of nine period pieces was donated by Stephen Wiley in 2009 and includes Stickley settle #208, Stickley Morris chair #369; Stickley stool #300; Stickley library table #615; Stickley bookcase #718; two Stickley 1/2 v-back arm chairs #354; an L&JG table #599; and an L&JG table #558.

View of North Cottage interior

The cottage has recently undergone an interior refurbishment as well as a complete restoration of the red slate roof, copper gutters and downspouts, rafter tails, and reinstallation of the original Ludowici roof ridge tiles.  Fundraising is now underway to restore the original windows, which are currently stored for their protection. 

Due to the need to protect the cottage from wear and tear, only a limited number of tickets are available.

Purchase tickets here:

Non-Members $35.00 Members $25.00

A Unique Opportunity: Brunch in the North Cottage! is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

L & J G Stickley's Corporate Historian Mike Danial

L. & J. G. Stickley’s corporate historian, Mike Danial, will speak at our Forging Ahead Forum on October 15.  Using turn-of-the-century marketing strategies, sales techniques and advertising campaigns as a springboard for discussion, Mike will consider Arts and Crafts as a business from the Stickley brothers to today.

Mike’s firsthand knowledge of his topic is extensive.  He began his career at the L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture Co. in 1974.  In his 37 years at Stickley, he has seen the company grow from 26 employees in 1974 to approximately 1500 employees today.  Mike’s great-uncle, Vinchenzo Mellache worked for Leopold Stickley in the 1940′s-1959.  Mike has worked in every department including Rough Mill, Fine Mill, Sanding, Cabinet Room, and Finishing Department.  He even managed the Customer Service Department. In 1988 he became the project director of the Mission Oak Collection which now accounts for approximately 70% of company sales.   

Today, Mike serves as Stickley’s corporate historian and travels throughout the country lecturing on Stickley Furniture and the American Arts and Crafts movement.  He is also the restoration specialist for the firm’s corporate museum.  When not lecturing, Mike is the author of “Ask Sadie!” the Stickley Answer Desk for the corporate level learning and information systems  He holds a degree in Business Management from New Hampshire College and a degree in Wood Technology from SUNY Morrisville.

The Forging Ahead Forum is a full-day symposium taking place as part of Catch the Spark Weekend, October 15 and 16.

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Curator Nonie Gadsden will be traveling from the Museum of Fine Arts n Boston to participate in our Forging Ahead Forum on October 15.  Her fascinating lecture, “Arts and Crafts in the Museum: Past, Present & Future,” will be grounded in the rich history of Arts and Crafts in museums (of which, the MFA played an important role), and then explore how that has evolved and may further evolve in coming years.

Gadsden is the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture Art of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  She previously served as the Charles F. Hummel Fellow at the Chipstone Foundation, a private organization dedicated to promoting scholarship in the American decorative arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Associate Curator of Decorative Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum. In Milwaukee Gadsden contributed to the reinstallation of the decorative arts galleries in partnership with the Chipstone Foundation (2001), curated several exhibitions including “Skin Deep: Three Masters of American Inlaid Furniture” (2002) and “Design Reform: Decorative Arts and the Manifesto, 1850-1920” (2003), and served as the organizing curator with major contributions to “American Fancy: Exuberance and Delight in the Arts” (2004). At the MFA, she has participated in numerous gallery reinstallations, served as the organizing curator for the traveling exhibition “A New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene and Greene” (Torf Gallery, July 14-October 18, 2009), and most recently has focused her efforts on the installation of the MFA’s new Art of the Americas Wing, which opened in November 2010.  

Gadsden has written several articles and book reviews for scholarly art journals, wrote major contributions for both A New World Imagined: Art of the Americas (2010), and MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (2006), as well as authored Art and Reform: Sara Galner, the Saturday Evening Girls and the Paul Revere Pottery (2006). An exhibition based on this publication traveled to the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2007. She has lectured to a wide variety of audiences and participated in several symposia.

She holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A. from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the University of Delaware.

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Travel Everywhere! discusses the Must-See Museums in Morris County, NJ, including the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms:

Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms is the only house Gustav Stickley, the foremost spokesman for the American Arts and Crafts Movement, designed and built for himself. Stickley, known for his Mission furniture, revolutionized American decorative arts.

The log house, built in 1911, is one of the most significant landmarks of the American Arts and Crafts movement, and the site, which consists of 30 acres of the original 650-acre tract, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The focal point of Stickley’s “Garden of Eden” was a large log house constructed of round, hewn chestnut logs that were cut from the property’s woods and local stone also found on the property.

Via 3 Marvelous, Must-See Museums in Morris County, New Jersey | Travel Everywhere!

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We wanted to share this wonderful article about Charles Rohlfs in today’s New York Times.

Charles Rohlfs’s Theatrical Furniture to Go on the Road

For a few years around 1900 journalists made pilgrimages to a barely marked furniture workshop in an attic over a bicycle factory in Buffalo. The workshop’s owner, a charismatic former actor named Charles Rohlfs (1853-1936), feigned some modesty in his dusty garret. But then he convinced the visiting reporters that his “artistic furniture” had no precedents or peers, only imitators.

The writers gushed over his square-framed oak pieces with sinuous carvings. “Never have art and utility been joined more skillfully than in these chairs and tables and desks,” wrote one in The Buffalo Daily Courier. The German magazine Dekorative Kunst described Mr. Rohlfs as “inventive and uninfluenced,” and Furniture Journal declared him a main inspiration for the far more famous and prolific designer Gustav Stickley.

“Rohlfs was a truly great self-promoter,” said Joseph Cunningham, the author of “The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs” (due in October from Yale University Press) and the lead curator of a Rohlfs retrospective that begins a three-year tour next June at the Milwaukee Art Museum (with stops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Dallas, Pittsburgh and San Marino, Calif.). Mr. Cunningham, the curator of the American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation in Manhattan, which promotes scholarly research and owns some Rohlfs objects, has spent three years analyzing Rohlfs’s biography. Despite woodworking skills and charm, he stayed in business for less than a decade, producing perhaps a few hundred pieces.

To read the rest, it’s on page E23 for those of you in the New York area, and or you can read it online at Charles Rohlfs, Furniture Artisan, to Have a Touring Retrospective – NYTimes.com

For more information about Rohlfs’ work be sure to register to hear Dr. Cunningham speak at the Amy Stahl Memorial Lecture on November 8.

American Decorative Art In Today's New York Times is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Amy Stahl Memorial Lecture Series this fall. Established in honor of Amy Stahl, longtime dedicated supporter of The Farms and wife of former Trustee Dr. Don Stahl, the annual series is devoted to lectures of scholarly significance.

Joseph Cunningham, Ph.D will be the first speaker in this series. He will speak on the topic, “Was Gustav Stickley a Modernist?: New Perspectives on Early Masterworks.” Stickley is widely heralded to be among the most important proponents of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America, but, as Dr. Cunningham will discuss in his lecture, it is now possible to take a wider perspective on his exceptional contribution to the development of Modernism. More than a mere advocate of British design reform theory or exponent of good design and honest craftsmanship, Dr. Cunningham proposes, Stickley, his Craftsman Magazine and the United Crafts’ enterprise can be considered as important modernizing forces in American design, beginning around 1900.

The Curator of the American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation, Dr. Cunningham is currently at work on the exhibition The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs, which will open at the Milwaukee Art Museum in June 2009 and travel to the Carnegie Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Huntington Art Galleries and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A book signing of Dr. Cunningham’s book The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs will follow the lecture. The American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation is collaborating with the Dallas Museum of Art on their forthcoming Gustav Stickley exhibition and book, to which Dr. Cunningham will contribute an essay on Irene Sargent and the Ideological foundations of the United Crafts and Craftsman enterprises.

Set for Saturday, November 8 at 4:00 p.m., a book signing will follow the lecture. Light refreshments will be served. Tickets are $5 Members and $10 for Non Members. Purchasing tickets in advance is strongly encouraged.

Saturday, November 8 at 4 p.m.

$5 for Members and $10 For Non Members

For tickets, call 973-540-0311.

For more upcoming events, please visit our website.

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