New Perspectives on the Workshop of Gustave Stickley

Side Chair

Alecander Jackson Davis

1857 (ca.)

Alexander Jackson Davis's side chair is a version of one he designed for John J. Herrick's castle in Tarrytown, New York called Ericstan (demolished 1944). The Gothic elements of the chair back, the hoofed feet, and overall angular treatment of the form are a clear departure from the sweeping curve of Rococo revival forms that were still being manufactured. If the language of the chair is sympathetic to the reductive simplicity that reformers would develop throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the use of walnut provides a visual warmth and speaks to the wealth of Jackson's patrons. Indeed, even as reformers were calling for manufacturers to use more humble woods, there remained a class of buyers still attached to the prestige of exotic materials. Stickley himself offered many of his designs in both oak and mahogany throughout his firm's history.