Oak Saw Horses, Gustav Stickley, The Craftsman Workshop, c. 1910

During the six years they lived at Craftsman Farms, the Stickley family hosted weddings, dances, parties and other occasions with many guests; the girls’ threw lively dances often inviting friends from out of town, Stickley’s daughters had their weddings on the property, among other events and gatherings.  Now, we have a new clue as to how these soirées took place.

In 1971, Arts and Crafts scholar, Robert Judson Clark interviewed Barbara Wiles, Gustav Stickley’s daughter.  Barbara told him her father had the factory make a collapsible table to be used during social events or any time a large number of people were dining in the log house.  The tabletops were likely oak planks, butted together like a typical Craftsman tabletop, but they were supported on elegant Craftsman saw horses.  During a visit to Craftsman Farms at around the same time, Clark found a pair of those saw horses still present, and acquired them from the Farnys, who owned the Farms at the time.  They supported his desk for the next twenty years before he sold them to distinguished Stickley scholar, David Cathers, who for the past twenty-one years used them to support his desk.  Now, wanting to share these unique pieces with others, Cathers had new supports made for his desk and he and his wife Susan kindly donated the pair to the Farms.

The saw horses represent a form traditionally reserved for the carpenter’s workshop; a straight long bar supported by four canted legs joined by an “H” stretcher.  Here, Stickley has cleverly adapted this common form into beautiful and unique pieces of furniture for his home.  The tenons on each saw horse come through the legs at an unusual angle to compensate for the slant of the A-frame and the keys are elongated and visible, emphasizing its structural qualities.  They are held together at the top with metal fasteners, presumably so they could be readily disassembled and put away until they were needed next, and are finished in a mellow medium brown.  They are unique examples of Craftsman furniture made specifically for Craftsman Farms, and according to experts, are the only known Craftsman saw horses in existence.

Now, once again residing where they did 100 years ago, these saw horses offer some additional insight into the Stickley family’s social life at Craftsman Farms, how they lived and entertained,  and the many parties, dinners, dances, and weddings that the family hosted while they lived here.

The saw horses will be on view at The Stickley Museum in the future.  Please watch for the announcement.

A Glimpse of Social Life at Craftsman Farms is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

An object on loan to us may spend months or even years on view.  But eventually all good things must come to an end.  These objects in time may leave the museum and return to their owners where they will be cherished and enjoyed in a different setting.  Such is the case with the hexagonal library table, a Stickley piece – similar in design to the table originally in the home – that has been on view in the living room of the Log House for the past few years.

We were fortunate to have the table for as long as we did, but soon enough it will be on its way back to Bill and Patsy Porter.  But not to worry.  Thanks to the generosity of Stephen Gray, a “new” hex table has already taken its place.

Wednesday afternoon this newly loaned hexagonal library table arrived at the Farms after a long journey.   Ensuring the safety of an object during travel is always the top priority in these circumstances.  An object in transit can face any number of unpredictable mishaps.  So, to best avoid any bumps and bruises along the way, the table had been generously cushioned with moving blankets, secured in place, and of course, handled with great care.  Upon arrival, handlers carefully unloaded the table onto the porch of the Log House where it was unpacked and examined for damage by the chair of the museum’s collections committee.  Finding none, the table was situated in the living room and interpreted to reflect the documented appearance of the space in 1911.  Fortunately, our precious cargo had been carefully transported and arrived unscathed!

With almost identical dimensions to the previous table, this is an early, rare Stickley hexagonal oak library table from 1901, withthe original leather top.  It was featured in the noted Wadsworth Athenium exhibition, At Home With Gustav Stickley: Arts & Crafts From the Stephen Gray Collection. The exhibition ran from October 11, 2008 to January 4, 2009. The table is illustrated in the exhibition catalog on page 53 and can also be seen behind Mr. Gray in a photo on page 10.

The new hex table is now on view in the Living Room of theLog House.  The previous table has been temporarily relocated to the dining room until its departure from the Farms at the end of the month, offering visitors the rare opportunity to personally compare the construction and design of the two tables.

Library Table #410, c. 1901
Oak, leather
Gustav Stickley
Eastwood NY
30” x 48”

Can you Spot the Differences? is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

The piano lamp is back in place, bringing a warm glow to the living room. It had been removed as part of a massive structural engineering project begun in January of 2011 but was returned to its rightful place today.

Member and friend Michael Lehr purchased it from someone who originally bought it 20-30 years ago in New Jersey. “It might be the one from The Farms, but I am not sure.”Michael says, “I knew when I purchased it, there were only two or three known examples. If I didn’t arrange for The Farms to have this one, they would probably never get one.” So he donated it to The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms nearly nine years ago.

The chandelier had been neglected over the decades and was missing its canopy and chain, and was also missing any lighting components (oil font). The patina was in poor condition with corrosion on copper as well as an overall dullness. The iron hooks and banding were rusty. The material used for the panels had been replaced with a paper material that did not allow any light through the cut-outs. There were not very many lengths of the small decorative chain hanging around the fixture. And of course, it was a bit out of shape and no longer really round. The chandelier was sent to Aurora Studios in the fall of 2002 for a complete restoration. The good news was that the patina could be restored. Often, original patinas are either long gone (sometimes polished) or irreversibly damaged. Dawn Hopkins and Michael Adams of Aurora Studios were able to remove the corrosion, enhance the original patina and restore the iron work. The main problem was the missing canopy. Because the fixture hung from around log, the curve appeared to be accommodated with what they referred to as a “can” with a more typical Gustav canopy attached to it. They visited the Farms and did some profile measurements to properly fit the canopy to the log and then fabricated a canopy with a similar “can” shape.

They had one rather fuzzy photograph of the original piano fixture for reference. Fortunately, there were other references to use to fabricate the proper chain the fixture hung from and the small decorative chain around the perimeter of the fixture. They replicated the original Gustav hardware that attaches the chain to the canopy and also made new panels of mica to finish the main body of the fixture.

There was one more delay in the Farms receiving the fixture. It languished at the studio for some time waiting for an original oil font to be found. Although there were many people looking for one, it did not materialize. The decision was made for the studio to fabricate a hammered wiring assembly that would mimic a font with the glass hurricane. At last, when the lamp was ready, Board member Dave Rudd picked it up from the studio and then drove more than four hours to personally assure its safe delivery to the Museum, where it was installed in the winter of 2009.

During the recent structural repairs on the staircase and foundation the lamp was removed and carefully stored in the collection room. After nine months it has now been reinstalled in its place of honor over the piano where it graces the living room with its cozy glow.

If you’d like to learn more about it, be sure to be here on Sunday, October 16, when Dawn Hopkins and Michael Adams will be here to answer questions and demonstrate their craft as part of Catch the Spark weekend.

Piano Lamp is Back in Place 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

This year’s Annual Spring Members’ Reception will feature a lecture by Jonathan Clancy on “Pottery of the Arts and Crafts Movement.” In his lecture, arranged especially for this event by the American Art Pottery Association, Clancy will offer an overview of the movement and discuss the distinction between Art Pottery and Arts and Crafts Pottery. He will examine the major figures of the movement and the sources they looked to for inspiration.

About Our Speaker: Clancy is on the faculty of Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York, recently curated the exhibition Beauty in Common Things: American Arts and Crafts Pottery from the Two Red Roses Foundation with Martin Eidelberg. Clancy’s lecture will feature many important examples of American Arts and Crafts pottery from the collection of the Two Red Roses Foundation, which are currently on exhibit at the museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. In addition, he will provide a summary of some of the important discoveries that were made while the exhibition and its accompanying catalog were prepared. Clancy co-authored the catalog with Eidelberg, and following the lecture, he will sign copies of the catalog in the museum shop.

Clancy received his doctorate in art history from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center in 2008 and is currently preparing a book that traces the impact of Transcendentalism on American art and culture. His article “Elbert Hubbard, Transcendentalism, and the Arts and Crafts Movement in America,” has been accepted to The Journal of Modern Craft (London) and will be published in July 2009. In addition, he has written on Rookwood Pottery, the Marblehead Potteries, and presented numerous conference papers on American Fine and Decorative Arts.

Art Pottery Lecture and Reception

Saturday, April 4 4:00 p.m.

Non-members: $12.

Members: FREE

Jonathan Clancy to Speak on Pottery of the Arts and Crafts Movement is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

We’re in the living room today, looking at the inlaid piano, although there is also a Stickley piano upstairs in the girls’ bedroom.

Inlaid Piano
Dimensions: 62 1/2″ W x 57″ H x 29″ D
Materials: Oak with inlays of pewter, oak and tinted woods
Works: Serial number 37370. Works manufactured by the Everett Piano Company, Boston
Inlay panels and marquetry band: Made by the firm of George H. Jones, New York City
Date: ca. 1905 – 1906
Unmarked
Designer: Harvey Ellis
Gift by Paul Fiore to The Craftsman Farms Foundation.

Apparently the first piano built by Stickley’s firm was the one photographed for the October 1903 issue of The Craftsman. Certainly designed by Harvey Ellis, it had an elegant rectilinear case of dark fumed oak. The flat surface above the keyboard had a central music rack flanked by inlaid rectangular panels.

These decorative panels consisted of a stylized plant stem rising through an oval motif and terminating in a bright spot of color, a “blossom.” The blossom was placed within a small rectangle bisected by a line of string inlay that formed a larger rectangle; this is a visually satisfying unifying motif, with the two inlaid rectangles repeating the shape of the panels they are set into. The surface below the keyboard was a gridded panel. Its horizontal and vertical lines were echoed in the laths of the music rack as well as in the rectangular decorative channels cut into the front and sides of the case. At the top of the case, there was a shaped and beveled cornice surmounting a line of applied dentil molding.

Stickley took this first piano home to his Columbus Avenue house, and later, when the family left Syracuse to move to New Jersey, it went into the girls’ bedroom at Craftsman Farms. It was inherited by his second daughter, Mildred, and remains with her descendants. This piano has eighty-five keys and two pedals, and its work are by Carl Rhönisch, a German firm that also manufactured works for pianos designed by M. H. Baillie Scott. A replica of this piano case, made in 2003 by Mitchell Andrus is now in the girls’ bedroom.

The piano originally in the log house living room is now lost, though it was similar to other Craftsman pianos now known. They have eighty-eight keys, three pedals, and works made either by Vose & Son, Boston, or, like the present example, by the Everett Piano Company. The cases of these pianos are slightly different from the first piano. Instead of a separate music rack, for instance, they have a gridded panel above the keyboard, and their feet are made of heavier, more substantial boards. These minimum variations aside, the cases remained essentially unchanged for the remaining ten or so years that inlaid Craftsman pianos were made. Including the piano now at Craftsman Farms, there are perhaps six examples of this rare model known today.

Though The Craftsman magazine often published Craftsman interiors that included the firm’s pianos, Stickley’s catalogs rarely showed them. A drawing of a Craftsman piano appeared in the booklet “Chips from the Craftsman Workshops” (1907), and photographs were published in the catalogs “Some Chips from the Craftsman Workshops” (1909) and “Craftsman Furnishings for the Home (1912). The promotional copy in these two catalogs sheds light on the rarity of Craftsman pianos today. According to the 1909 catalog: “We have one of the pianos on exhibition in our New York showrooms and one in Boston, and will gladly furnish by mail any particulars concerning them.” This is evidence that the firm made samples for retail display and did not keep pianos in stock. The 1912 catalog offered the piano without inlay, saying, “we find that many people do not wish to buy a piano as expensive as our original design, and others would prefer the piano case simpler, without the decorative inlay in wood.” The price of the piano without inlay was $450 and the inlaid version – its price not given in either catalog – would have sold for more. $450 amounted to a considerable outlay in an era when many middle class families were living on incomes of about $1,000 to $1,500 a year. With or without inlay, the handsome Craftsman piano was evidently too high-priced for Stickley’s middle-class customers and it is likely that few were made.

The Collection: Living Room is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

This week’s featured piece is the Eastwood chair. This reading chair is in the living room, with the hexagonal library table, the #2341 Morris chair and the big library table.
#347 Eastwood chair
Dimensions: 36″ W x 37″ H x 31 1/2″ D
Materials: Oak
Date: Ca 1912
Mark: Burned-in joiner’s compass
Designer: Attributed to LaMont Warner
Gift by Paul Fiore to The Craftsman Farms Foundation

In 1972, when Robert Judson Clark interviewed Stickley’s oldest daughter, Barbara Wiles, she said her father “read all the while,” favoring art books and biographies. It is tempting to think that Stickley retreated to the capacious embrace of his Eastwood chair at the north end of the log house living room to do that reading, but we can only guess whether that was true. Still, he seems to have had an Eastwood chair in his Syracuse home as well as at Craftsman Farms, enough evidence to suggest that he favored this design. The present example is not original to the house.

This forthright, out-sized armchair is an emphatically self-confident American product, but its roots lie in a diminutive British armchair that appeared in a 1901 catalog of furniture designed by the architect M. H. Baillie Scott. Yet Stickley’s designers re-imagined the scale and structure and functional qualities of that chair so thoroughly that they made it wholly a Craftsman product. The Eastwood chair was first made in late 1901, but its massiveness and rectilinearity have little in common with many Stickley pieces produced that year and instead point the way to the 1902 designs that mark the high point of Craftsman furniture production. Given Stickley’s superb eye for visually harmonious forms, it is not surprising that he placed his Eastwood chair in the log house living room next to a substantial, largely rectilinear, and evidently one-of-a-kind oak and leather-upholstered settle, a design typical of his best 1902 furniture.

Its visual refinements are few. It does have, however, inverted V-form arches that span the undersides of the arms as well as light catching “clipped corners” at the arms’ front ends.

The bowed, horizontal back slats elegantly angle into the rear stiles, but the back cushion hides this subtle detail.

The Eastwood chair has little articulated joinery. The front legs are mortised through the arms, but otherwise there are no revealed tenons. The mortise and tenon joints that fasten the legs to the stretchers are hidden, though they are locked together with visible dowels that punctuate the surface. But there are none of Stickley’s favored tenon-and-key joints and, except for those on the arms, there are no revealed tenons standing proud of any wooden surface of this chair. Yet the Eastwood chair in its entirety is an expression of pure structure: strong, over scale oak planks arranged into straight horizontal and vertical lines. It may be first and foremost a chair meant for comfort, but it is also a powerful composition of rectangles, and the size and shape and interrelationship of its rectangular solids and voids create a visually satisfying composition. Though to some eyes the Eastwood chair is too big and boxy, its design manages to be both viscerally satisfying and highly sophisticated.

Have you seen all the other featured pieces from our collection?

The Collection: Living Room is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

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!

The Collection: The Girls’ Room is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

This week’s highlighted piece is the triangular Stickley cabinet in corner of the dining room. Have you seen all our featured pieces?

Corner Cabinets

Dimensions: 50 3/4″ W x 66 1/2″ H x 26 1/2″ D
Oak with copper hardware
Date: Circa 1910 – 1911
Mark:
Designer: Unknown
Acquired by the Craftsman Farms Foundation at Christie’s, New York, November 29, 1999, lots #417 and #418.

As the manufacturer of reproduction “period” chairs through the 1880s and 1890s Stickley would have been well aware that the corner cabinet was a common vernacular furniture form in late 18th and early 19th century America. Given his professed admiration for the design skills and craftsmanship of the artisans of that pre-industrial era, it is not surprising that when his firm began producing case pieces that he would want to construct a Craftsman version of that familiar form. He first cataloged a Craftsman corner cabinet in 1902, making it of massive oak planks and giving it glazed doors with wooden mitered mullions above a pair of solid oak cupboard doors enriched with iron or copper strap hinges. About the same time his firm created a variant of that design with diamond-paned leaded glass doors instead of wooden mullions. This diamond pattern is familiar to any one who has ever visited Craftsman Farms and noted the many log house windows that use this same motif.

In 1903, Stickley made a corner cabinet for the Arts and Crafts exhibition he held that year in the Craftsman Building, offering it for sale for the high price of $100. That tall, strap-hinged oak case piece is the most magnificent corner cabinet ever produced by his firm. Fortunately – for later generations – it did not sell, and Stickley took it home to his own dining room. It remains in his family today and has been shown in several recent museum exhibitions. His firm evidently manufactured other corner cabinets in later years, but after 1902 none were included in Craftsman furniture catalogs. In April 1906, however, The Craftsman magazine offered plans and building instructions for a corner cupboard in its monthly feature, “Home Training in Cabinet Work.” The short accompanying text noted that making this case piece was a complicated task for a novice: “This piece is the most difficult of any yet given in our Cabinet Work series. The fitting of the 45-degree angles must be carefully done. The glass mullions … demand careful work.”

Except for their triangular plan, the corner cabinets made for the log house dining room at Craftsman Farms are closely related to the standard china cabinets and bookcases the firm was then manufacturing. The top rails curve gently from back to front, an elongated iteration of the curve frequently seen on Craftsman case pieces made between 1901 and 1916. The glazed doors have straightforward, lap-jointed mullions and, as was true of all cataloged Craftsman china cabinets from 1907 on, the interior shelves are stationary. For his own home Stickley might have specified china cabinets with costlier, more labor-intensive mitered mullions and adjustable shelves. But instead of insisting on those subtle refinements he followed the dictates of what had become his standard factory practice. If there is a slight indulgence evident here, it is the shapely, non-standard hammered copper hardware echoing the hardware on the sideboard.

In late 1916 Stickley’s firm made perhaps its final corner cabinet. Combining vernacular, Gothic Revival, and Sheraton attributes, it was part of his ill-fated Chromewald line, and was finished with hand-rubbed blue and brown hues. Though not particularly well constructed, and a far cry from his earlier Arts and Crafts furniture, it is a delicately beautiful object and a fitting conclusion to his nearly fifteen year engagement with this three-sided cabinet form.

The Collection: The Dining Room is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

This week’s featured piece is in the living room, right beside last week’s #2341 Morris chair.
#410 L Hexagonal Library Table
Dimensions: 48″ W x 30″ H
Materials: oak, chestnut, leather, with round-headed brass tacks
Date: ca. 1905 – 1909
Mark: Red joiner’s compass with Gustav Stickley script signature, inside one leg.
Designer: Attributed to Henry Wilkinson or LaMont Warner
Long-term loan by William and Pat Porter to The Craftsman Farms Foundation.

Like the #2341 Morris chair that Stickley placed next to it, the #410 hexagonal library table is a design that evidently dates to the first half of 1901. Its six arched aprons supporting the top and the flaring stacked stretchers joining the legs do not literally match the chair’s curved corbels, but they do relate to them and are evidence that these designs are of the same vintage. Just as Stickley placed his typically 1902 settle and Eastwood chair together at the north end of the log house living room, so he put these two visually related 1901 pieces next to each other at the other end of the room.

This one of the firm’s most satisfying table designs. The hexagonal top dramatically differentiates it from the round or rectangular tops most often seen on Stickley library tables, and its leather covering – a functional, protective feature – adds varied textures and rich colors that contrast with the table’s deep-toned oak. The round-headed brass tacks spaced rhythmically along the tabletop’s outer edges have a slight, lighting-catching sheen and add yet another contract, in this instance with both oak and leather. They also cast subtle, shifting shadows as sunlight moves through the room, and this architectural play of light and shade was one of Stickley’s favorite visual effects. The success of this design is also an outgrowth of its pleasing proportions and its dramatic, revealed construction. The table’s structure is evident, for instance, in the central finial that locks the stacked stretchers together and, because of its faceted shape, it too subtly catches light. The stretchers pierce the legs and end in pronounced tenon and key joints. These joints enhance the table’s structural integrity but they are also visually thrilling, a perfect instance of Stickley’s emphasis on the decorative value of structure.

An interior drawing of his Syracuse house published in the December 1902 issue of The Craftsman shows a hexagonal library table with a leather top. That may be the table later placed in the log house living room. Whether they are the same table or two different examples of the same model, their prominent placement in both his Syracuse and Craftsman Farms living rooms suggest how much this design pleased Stickley’s eye. The hexagonal library table original to Craftsman Farms is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

If you can’t come visit us in person, you can still look at the other pieces in our virtual tour.

The Collection: Living Room is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms