Plaque

Item

Title

Plaque

Creator

De Porceleyne Fles

Date

1901

Dimensions

12 x 11 inches

Medium

Glazed stoneware

Object No.

2022.14

Marks

Painted on back: [depiction of jar] / "JT" monogram / "Delft" in script; "651" / W [conjoined monogram for P. C. M. de Fouw] / ꟼ; impressed shop mark: "Joost Thooft & Labouchere" surrounding a depiction of a pot; impressed "7"; impressed "A"; inscribed on front: "naar H. W. Mesdag"

Description

When you stop to think about Gustav Stickley, a number of terms and ideas are likely spring forward: "The Craftsman," simplicity, honesty, Arts and Crafts, and furniture maker amongst others. But Delftware collector? Probably not. Yet, the evidence has always been there, hiding in plain sight in historic photographs of the Log House Dining Room and enumerated in the 1917 inventory taken when the property was sold to the George and Sylvia Farny. It is a reminder that while we tend to construct Stickley today as an exemplar of the Arts and Crafts movement and demand a fidelity to the style consonant with our own beliefs, his life and tastes were more complex and nuanced. By including elements of Colonial Revival to Art Nouveau to Historical Staffordshire and Victorian silver, the Log House demonstrated how successfully Stickley used the style he helped to define as a container capable of holding the varied elements of good design he appreciated.

Associated names

Mesdag, Henrik Willem (after)