Bed

Craftsman Workshops

1907-11 (ca.)

38 ⅝ x 57 ½ 78 ½ inches

Oak and oak veneer inlaid with copper and tinted woods, manufacture attributed to George H. Jones

1997.2

Anonymous Gift

Shop mark (decal) on inside of headboard rail

Gustav Stickley (by 1911); sold with the contents of Craftsman Farms in 1917 to George and Sylvia Farny; by descent to Cyril Farny; purchased by an anonymous donor on behalf of the Craftsman Farms Foundation.

United by the inlaid motifs and the distinctive shape of the headboards and footboards, a reference to his earliest work that recalls the stretchers of the “Tokio” plant stand published in 1900, this bed is part of the original suite of furniture for his daughters’ bedroom. Elegantly echoing the lower apron of the dressers, the shape of the head- and footboards softens the rectilinearity of the bedroom set and creates an aesthetic unity within the room. The relative simplicity of the form belies the amount careful execution of these beds, as each was veneered on both the inlaid side and the plain side of the footboard.

This form did not appear in any of the catalogs Stickley issued, but a glass plate negative of this model–without any inlay–is held at the Winterthur Museum Library.