Chair (no. 2606)

United Crafts

1901-02 (ca.)

2018.19.16

Gift of Gregg and Monique Seibert

Although the cost of Stickley’s furniture put it out of reach for virtually anyone who was not wealthy, there are indications that a broader acceptance of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic–or at least pieces that responded to the movement–was taking place. When asked in 1902 by the United States Secretary of War Elihu Root to provide a list of recommended furniture for married and single officers, Quartermaster-General M. I. Ludington included a number of forms that relate directly to the Arts and Crafts movement, including a “Morris Chair” and dining chairs in “quartered oak.” Equally telling are the prices listed for the forms in this Annual report, which better reflect the modest prices at which mass produced furniture was sold. Dining chairs ranged from $2.50 to $3.50, or less than half of the $7.75 that Stickley charged for Chair (no. 2606). The Morris Chair recommended to the Army ranged from $9.75 to $13.50, whereas Stickley’s version (no. 2340) retailed for between $18.50 and $26.00 depending on the material used for the cushions.

Sources: Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1902: Volume I (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903): 210-11.

Gustav Stickley

Purchased, en suite, by an undisclosed buyer, ca. 1901, then by descent. Dalton’s American Decorative Arts and Antiques (September 2001). Cathers and Dembrosky (by 2002). Gregg and Monique Seibert (2002).