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Early L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture
From Onondaga Shops to Handcraft
By L. Stickley, J. G. Stickley, Donald A. Davidoff, Robert L. Zarrow Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1992 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-15858-7
INTRODUCTION
A CRITICAL REEXAMINATION OF THE WORK OF L. & J. G. STICKLEY
THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE FIRM OF L. & J. G. STICKLEY to the evolution and popularization of the design aesthetic of the American Arts and Crafts movement has long been underestimated. The oldest and best-known of the Stickley brothers, Gustav, was primarily responsible for the dissemination of the philosophy of John Ruskin and William Morris to a wide-ranging national audience (Fig. 1). Gustav left an enormous legacy, both in the actual furniture he produced and in his prodigious publications. Nonetheless, it remained for the superior business practices of his younger brothers Leopold (Fig. 2) and John George to place physical expressions of that philosophy in middle-class American homes and to revitalize the entire "mission aesthetic" for the second decade of the twentieth century. A critical reevaluation of their work has long been overdue.
Gustav Stickley played a seminal role in shaping the taste of a changing America. Furniture produced by his workshops not only represents classic American design, but in some circles is considered to be the first original expression of American thought in furniture. Examination of Gustav's production over the sixteen years that his company existed independently reveals both his debt to the English cottage revival style and the subsequent stylistic modifications he made over that span of years. David Cathers, in his introduction to a Dover reprint of two catalogues and his pioneering full-length study of the furniture of the American Arts and Crafts movement, has provided a cogent sequential analysis of the design changes dividing Gustav's production into four distinct periods. A similar approach can be utilized to examine the work of Leopold and J. George.
Such an analysis of the furniture of L. & J. G. Stickley has only recently been attempted. With few exceptions, its work has in recent years been maligned, regarded as derivative and not worthy of serious consideration. These misconceptions have derived from two sources. The first is the relative paucity of documentation of the firm's work. The second is the offhand dismissal in the ground-breaking Princeton catalogue of 1972. In that influential catalogue of the show that sparked the current flame of interest in the Arts and Crafts movement, descriptions of some of L. & J. G. Stickley's furniture alluded to the use of inferior wood, the overuse of veneers and especially the derivative designs themselves. Thus, work by this company has been given relatively short shrift by the experts during the current revival. However, despite the critical writings that tended to disparage the furniture of L. & J. G. Stickley, the popular marketplace has always responded very favorably. The best of their settles, tall-case clocks and mantle clocks have consistently brought higher prices in recent years than similar examples from Gustav's workshops, underscoring the popular appeal of their work.
Gustav Stickley took great pleasure in delineating the changes in his furniture. He issued voluminous catalogues detailing both his design adaptations and the philosophical bases for those changes. His monthly magazine, The Craftsman, provided him with another outlet to further chronicle his views while simultaneously featuring his designs. In contrast, his brothers seemed less interested in selling a life-style and more focused on selling their furniture. Consequently they issued far fewer catalogues, none of which included anything like Gustav's essays on the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Most of their catalogues were undated, with slip-in price lists so that each catalogue could be used for several years. Our knowledge of L. & J. G. Stickley's design philosophy derives only from hints provided by the brief introductions to the catalogues. Additionally, while many of Gustav's business records have been preserved, few of his brothers' records from the years 1900–1920 have been found. Thus, there has been much confusion over the work of L. & J. G. Stickley.
The present volume contains reprints of two catalogues from L. & J. G. Stickley's early transitional period that have recently come to light. This material not only fills a gap in the published information about that company's designs, but provides an essential underpinning to a more thorough understanding of its furniture in its relationship to the Arts and Crafts movement.
The importance of Leopold and J. George in the promotion of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic, especially in the second decade of the twentieth century, can be best understood once the history of the company has been briefly reviewed.
Though all the Stickley brothers worked together in various combinations during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the relevant history for this reexamination begins with the founding of the United Crafts Workshops by Gustave (he later dropped the "e") Stickley in 1898. Leopold-familiarly known as Lee, just as Gustav was called Gus-was employed as shop foreman and principal representative of the company to the public.
George Clingman of Chicago's Tobey Furniture Company appreciated Gustav's production as it was unveiled at the Grand Rapids Furniture Show in July 1900. He quickly negotiated an exclusive arrangement whereby his firm would market Gustav's so-called New Furniture under the Tobey name.
It is likely that Gustav opted for anonymity in this venture because financial concerns were paramount for him at the moment. But with the favorable reviews his furniture had garnered in the trade journals, Gustav ended his arrangement with Tobey within six months. While the reason for this parting of the ways remains obscure, Gustav's later actions suggest that his independent nature made it difficult for him to tolerate the anonymous relationship with Tobey.
At this point, Leopold saw an opportunity and stepped into the vacuum left by Gustav's precipitous exit. He left United Crafts Workshops and purchased the former Collin, Sisson, and Pratt Factory in Fayetteville, New York, to start his own company. His first contract was to finish out the remainder of Gustav's contract with Tobey.
Leopold adopted Gustav's original strategy of manufacturing furniture for other companies in order to place his own fledgling concern on a firm financial footing. Seemingly agreeable to relegating his name to anonymity, he contracted with many other companies. He continued to produce pieces for Tobey's next line of mission furniture ("New Furniture in Weathered Oak") that employed a broader design palette than had Gustav original designs. By the summer of 1902 Tohey had added a less expensive line of mission furniture to its inventory and labeled it "Russmore"; Leopold produced pieces for this line as well. He also contracted with George Flint and Co., John Wanamaker, Jordan Marsh and Paine Furniture, among others. Thus, while Leopold was not producing original designs, he nevertheless became a force to be reckoned with in the manufacture of mission furniture.
He soon recruited his brother J. George, who through his associations with Stickley and Brandt, the Binghamton firm that had formerly employed several of the Stickley brothers, had come to be known as "the best fancy rocker salesman in America." By 1904 they had incorporated as the L. & J. G. Stickley Co., Inc., and begun production of their own furniture under the trademark "Onondaga Shops" (named after the county where the factory was located). Their first trade ad was placed in Furniture World in February 1904 (Fig. 3), and they exhibited for the first time at the gala 1905 Grand Rapids trade show. In March 1905, they issued their first catalogue.
An examination of the production of the Onondaga Shops as shown in this volume will suggest some reasons why the work of L. & J. G. Stickley has been so underappreciated. Comparison with their brother Gustav's work shows that Leopold and J. George's work during this middle period was derivative and imitative. Often, when Leopold (from here on, "Leopold" should be understood to include J. George) did make design modifications, the results were crude or ungainly compared with Gustav's fine achievements. Occasionally, especially when the Onondaga Shops created pieces not in Gustav's repertoire, they triumphed. But regardless of design, the furniture of the Onondaga Shops is always extremely well made, utilizing the finest-grained quarter-sawn and fumed-finished white oak, and compares quite favorably in this respect with Gustav's early pieces.
In his creation of a new, original design aesthetic, Gustav shaped America's taste. He reveled in his role as the apostle of the new aesthetic. He sold not only furniture but a philosophy of living; his interpretation of the Arts and Crafts credo of surrounding oneself with "the art that is life" reverberated in everything he published and produced. Leopold eschewed the role of philosopher for that of the businessman. Perhaps for that reason, the Onondaga Shops furniture exhibits a less coherent aesthetic theme. Yet Leopold's early work cannot be dismissed simply because of its derivative nature. Whereas Gustav strictly adhered to the rule of rectilinearity, examination of the Onondaga Shops catalogue reveals less orthodoxy, as for example in chair legs that taper and others that terminate explosively in a Mackmurdo-style club foot. Oddly curved slats subdue rather than enhance the rectilinearity of some pieces. Also of interest are the crude attempts at plantlike low-relief decorative carving on some pieces, in contrast to the carefully integrated stylized inlays that Gustav utilized. This catalogue includes illustrations that suggest a line of carved furniture was planned. But almost all the hand-carved pieces rediscovered to date came from the basement of the factory itself or from the houses of the various officers of the company (Figs. 4, 5, 6), and it appears that, while Leopold occasionally made reference to carved pieces, he thought better of developing that line beyond some prototypes.
Whereas Gustav's designs, at least during his early and middle periods, were always true to his philosophy of design, ornamentation and handwork, Leopold apparently felt free to adopt or reject bits and pieces of his brother's design principles whenever he felt it economically useful to do so. Thus, when Gustav was successfully marketing the virtues of handwork, Leopold labeled his 1905 catalogue "Handmade Furniture." But his next catalogue downplayed this notion and instead simply focused on the "frank construction" of the furniture. Leopold experienced no contradiction in stating in the same paragraph that "some of this furniture has quaint cuttings in place; some has metal work to accent certain points, and some has an outline so simple and devoid of ornament as to be almost severe in its plainness." He tried to cover all bases and provide middle-class America with whatever it wanted. Unlike Gustav, he made no attempt to create a movement or mold America's aesthetic sense.
In late 1906, Leopold changed the name and shopmark of his furniture from "Onondaga Shops" to "Handcraft." After this change was announced in the Oct. 25th issue of Furniture World, no further advertisements appeared for a year. Until the catalogue and retail plates reproduced here were discovered, it was assumed that the L. & J. G. Stickley Company issued no further catalogues until 1910.
The catalogue and retail plates reproduced here graphically illustrate the varied directions Leopold had considered taking (including the aforementioned line of carved furniture) as well as the new influences that ultimately shaped his production for the second decade of the century. The linkages between the two furniture lines are seen in the photographs of the prototypes of his new Handcraft furniture (see pp. 105–12), photographs tipped in at the end of the Onondaga Shops catalogue and numbered with the Onondaga Shops production numbers. With the publication of the Handcraft retail plates, these prototypical pieces, in new drawings, were renumbered according to a new schema.
The development of these prototypical pieces marked a new maturity for the work of L. & J. G. Stickley and a pivotal turn in the commercial Arts and Crafts aesthetic. The new designs exemplified a fresh approach whose roots could be stylistically traced to three sources-the Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright, the European Reform Movement espoused by the Viennese architect-designers and the English Arts and Crafts masters such as Voysey, Mackmurdo and Gimson. The synthesis of these disparate influences revitalized the simple mission style and pushed the firm of L. & J. G. Stickley into a new prominence in the marketplace. Though the full realization of this new aesthetic would only reach fruition over the next several years, the work reproduced in the Handcraft retail plates does illustrate the roots of these designs.
Furthermore, quality workmanship was reemphasized. Quarter-sawn white oak was the rule, and older factory workers have handed down stories that Leopold would personally inspect each shipment of lumber when it arrived and reject those boards which did not meet his standards. The factory also developed a laminating technique to enhance the remarkable tiger-striped grain pattern of the quarters-awn oak on all four sides of furniture legs, rather than on just two sides as with nonlaminated legs. All pieces were fumed to further highlight the grain pattern, and even those critical of L. & J. G. Stickley's designs have always acknowledged the superb quality of the finish.
It is probable that much of the innovation seen in the Handcraft designs can be traced to Leopold's engaging of the 29-year-old Peter Heinrich Hansen as chief designer in 1909 (Fig. 7). Hansen was a German-born cabinetmaker who emigrated to the United States at the turn of the century and went to work for Gustav Stickley around 1904. There he met and married his fellow worker Ruth Ann Williams, a Chicago-trained draftsperson originally from upstate New York. Following a monetary dispute with Gustav, the couple moved to Fayetteville, where Peter was hired by Leopold to be both shop foreman and chief designer. Leopold's second wife, Louise, confirmed that Peter was instrumental in designing L. & J. G. Stickley's furniture. And work definitively attributed to Peter Hansen (e.g., a mantle clock and three entire houses) tangibly demonstrates that he was conversant with all of the major thematic influences evidenced in L. & J. G. Stickley's mature work.
The photographs and Handcraft catalogue drawings reproduced in this volume help provide the historical bridge from the derivative middle period of the Onondaga Shops to the sophisticated Handcraft designs of the mature period. Among the more important pieces produced during these transitional years are the first of a line that reflects the Prairie-style aesthetic of Frank Lloyd Wright. The early examples of this line, which would culminate in the quintessential paneled and spindled Prairie settles of 1912–13, include the spindled Morris chair (no. 473), settles (nos. 284, 285) and tall-back chairs (nos. 304, 312, 320, 382, 384) reproduced here.
Curiously, a connection between Frank Lloyd Wright and Leopold Stickley had long been a subject of speculation. It was formerly rumored that Leopold's company, in its earliest years, produced the furniture for Wright's Bradley and Hickox houses. David Hanks ultimately put that rumor to rest by establishing that the firm of John Ayres had actually made the furniture. Some of the confusion probably originated from the fact that Wright allowed his clients to put Leopold's furniture in secondary rooms of some of his commissioned houses. There was certainly a similarity between Wright's ideals of geometric simplicity and the proper role of the machine in the production of high-quality furniture and Leopold's own philosophy as expressed in his 1914 catalogue. The compatibility of some of L. & J. G. Stickley's furniture with the Prairie style was noted by other architects of the Prairie School; both Purcell and Elmslie and Walter Burley Griffin followed Wright's example in allowing Leopold's furniture a place in houses they designed (Fig. 8).
Examination of the L. & J. G. Stickley Prairie-style pieces reveals that some are direct adaptations of Wright designs, such as the Prairie settle and chair inspired by the settle in the 1909 Robie House (Figs. 9, 10). Other pieces are less derivative and instead merely reflective of the principles underlying Prairie School design. The work illustrated here represents the transition to those design principles. While none so focus on "carefully calculated horizontality" to evoke the "long horizon line of the prairie [itself]" as would the soon-to-be-produced Prairie settle, many of the pieces illustrated here do rely on the square spindle, found so ubiquitously in the work of the Prairie School architects. As Don Kalec has pointed out, these spindles served "as a definite link between the furniture and architecture" in that they supported "a sense of visual privacy without bottling up the ever free flowing space."
The Morris chair, no. 473 (Fig. 11), exemplifies these aesthetics. It is similar to Wright's 1903 Willits House armchair (Fig. 12) in that the transparency created by the spindles blurs the vertical boundaries without impeding the eye. The L. & J. G. Stickley chair, however, adheres perhaps even more strictly to Prairie-style principles by working only in horizontals and verticals, avoiding the curves seen in Wright's piece. The transparency of the Stickley piece is further enhanced by grouping the spindles in the center and leaving open space on either side. Furthermore, this piece was designed as a Morris chair, with an adjustable back for individual comfort.
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Excerpted from Early L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture by L. Stickley, J. G. Stickley, Donald A. Davidoff, Robert L. Zarrow. Copyright © 1992 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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