Cabinet
Item
Title
Cabinet
Creator
United Crafts
Date
1902
Dimensions
71 1/2 x 72 x 15 1/4 inches
Medium
Elm, glass, copper
Object No.
L2017.12.1
Credit line
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Cyril Farny, in memory of his wife, Phyllis Holt Farny, 1976
Description
Created en suite with the Library Table or Partners' Desk and the settle originally in the living room, the cabinet that Stickley built for his editorial office in Syracuse and brought with him to the log house in Morris Plains is a modified version of the book cabinet “in green oak” published in The Craftsman in November 1902. Unlike the published design, which features large through tenons and an upper gallery that are typical of Stickley’s earliest designs at United Crafts, the custom piece is less imposing and mannered. While the proportion of the doors in both pieces are identical, even down to the six-pane configuration, and both share similar hammered copper hardware, Stickley’s cabinet features a simpler cornice and an additional supporting foot in the center of the cabinet.
This cabinet is amongst a small group of furniture made of elm and stained green manufactured by Stickley's United Crafts in about 1902-03. Until recently, when wood analysis was conducted on a cabinet-on-chest in the Museum's collection, the pieces in his editorial office were the only known examples of elm furniture.
This cabinet is amongst a small group of furniture made of elm and stained green manufactured by Stickley's United Crafts in about 1902-03. Until recently, when wood analysis was conducted on a cabinet-on-chest in the Museum's collection, the pieces in his editorial office were the only known examples of elm furniture.
Associated names
Gustav Stickley
Provenance
The Craftsman Building Syracuse (by 1903), at Craftsman Farms (by 1911), sold with the contents of Craftsman Farms to George and Sylvia Farny (1917), by descent to Cyril Farny, by donation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1976).