Full Description
Gustav Stickley (1858-1942) is an iconic character and one of the most influential figures of the American Arts & Crafts movement. A self-made man whose furniture company, Craftsman Workshops, and the seminal magazine he founded in 1901, The Craftsman, held wide-ranging influence over American interior design and decorative arts for decades. Though best-known as a designer of functional yet beautifully crafted wooden furniture, Stickley was also an entrepreneur and brilliant manager who assembled a talented team of collaborators to produce lamps, metalwork, textiles, plans for houses, and interiors. This is the first ever authoritative and comprehensive monograph on the life and career of Stickley, and constitutes an essential contribution to the field of American Arts & Crafts and decorative arts. It is generously illustrated with archival and specially commissioned photographs of furniture and objects, as well as people and places central to Stickley's life.David Cathers is one of the most widely consulted scholars on Stickley, and this book gathers together years of his research and expertise. Gustav Stickley includes a chronology, bibliography and detailed biographical information on all of Stickley's significant collaborators, making it an indispensable research volume, as well as a sheer pleasure into which to delve.
Contents
Stirrings of ambition, 1858-1898; arts & crafts beginnings, 1898-1901; the pursuit of harmonious design, 1902-1903; "A Man of Unusual Gifts" - Harvey Ellis, 1903-1904; the pivotal year, 1904; standard Stickley furniture, 1904-1916; metalwork and textiles, 1902-1916; Stickley in New York City, 1905-1916; craftsman farms, 1908-1917; late furniture, bankruptcy, and afterward, 1914-1942. Appendices: Stickley's creative collaborators; the Stickley fall-front desk, 1900-1905.
