Bench
Item
Title
Bench
Creator
Craftsman Workshops
Date
1915-17 (ca.)
Dimensions
25 x 24 x 13 inches
Medium
Painted wood, cane
Object No.
L2012.11.3
Credit line
Drs. Cynthia and Timothy McGinn
Marks
Shop mark (branded) on inner edge of seat rail
Description
As the pressures of bankruptcy weighed increasingly on him, Stickley looked not to the future for the salvation of his furniture business but to his past, retreating into the very Colonial Revival forms his magazine had railed against for the past fifteen years. Introduced to readers of The Craftsman in May 1916, his "Chromewald" line mirrored the complicated turned forms of the William and Mary period that he had produced since the 1890s.
Not content with merely slavish imitation however, Stickley made a number of formal choices that distinguish these later pieces from their predecessors. First, the turnings are not the near perfectly round globes of the earlier works, but a compressed, almost baluster-shaped forms. Second, the choice of caning on these pieces was an option not available in the previous line and connects these even more strongly to the late-seventeenth / early-eighteenth century aesthetic. Lastly, and perhaps most noticeable, is the use of color in these forms to help highlight decorative motifs. If the effect was delicate, the furniture, readers were informed, was anything but:
One’s first impression of such a wood finish is that it must be a very fragile thing like Bohemian glass or the old Cyprus glass with its magical colors—the work of time. But this is not true of the new Chromewald furniture. It is, so far as we reckon time in speaking of furniture, imperishable; it will not check, split or warp. The color will not wear off… It is truly museum furniture or heirloom furniture as one may prefer to call it.
In spite of this attempt to shift his aesthetic and bring his businesses back to profitability, Stickley was ultimately unable to regain financial viability. The Chromewald line did not entice enough new customers to succeed and likely alienated the customer base he had built up since starting The Craftsman.
Not content with merely slavish imitation however, Stickley made a number of formal choices that distinguish these later pieces from their predecessors. First, the turnings are not the near perfectly round globes of the earlier works, but a compressed, almost baluster-shaped forms. Second, the choice of caning on these pieces was an option not available in the previous line and connects these even more strongly to the late-seventeenth / early-eighteenth century aesthetic. Lastly, and perhaps most noticeable, is the use of color in these forms to help highlight decorative motifs. If the effect was delicate, the furniture, readers were informed, was anything but:
One’s first impression of such a wood finish is that it must be a very fragile thing like Bohemian glass or the old Cyprus glass with its magical colors—the work of time. But this is not true of the new Chromewald furniture. It is, so far as we reckon time in speaking of furniture, imperishable; it will not check, split or warp. The color will not wear off… It is truly museum furniture or heirloom furniture as one may prefer to call it.
In spite of this attempt to shift his aesthetic and bring his businesses back to profitability, Stickley was ultimately unable to regain financial viability. The Chromewald line did not entice enough new customers to succeed and likely alienated the customer base he had built up since starting The Craftsman.
Associated names
Gustav Stickley
Relation
Provenance
Gustav Stickley for daughter Mildred (by 1917); then by descent.
Linked resources
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