Victorian Furniture

Stickley Style: Arts and Crafts Homes in the Craftsman Tradition

Beginning in the very first year of the twentieth century, Gustav Stickley made furniture that is prized almost a hundred years later for its honesty, simplicity, and usefulness. As a designer and manufacturer who emphasized careful workmanship, respect for natural materials, and simple lines, Stickley had a profound impact on the look of American homes. Today, Arts and Crafts design -- synonymous with Stickley to many people -- has become an American passion.

Elegantly designed and lushly photographed, Stickley Style is the first major publication to explore in full photographic color the central role Stickley played in the development of Arts and Crafts design. Author David Cathers invites us into the world of this influential furniture maker and provides us with an insider's tour of some of the country's most important Stickley collections and interiors. Here, imbued with pure and simple lines, are the comfortable Morris chairs, the upright settles, the solid oak chests, the hammered metalwork, and the delicate textiles that have come to epitomize Stickley's style.

But Stickley was more than a furniture maker -- he was a one-man phenomenon: book and Magazine publisher, proponent of a simple and natural lifestyle, and de facto leader of the Arts and Crafts movement in America. Show More Calling the composite of his ideas and activities "the craftsmanship of life," he used the word Craftsman to refer to his houses, his furniture, and his magazine.

Stickley Style captures the excitement and revolutionary zeal of these ideas and this era, a time when Victorian fussiness was being abandoned in the search for a modern way to live. The book opens with a vivid description of the Craftsman idea and describes Stickley's vision of ways to make a house conducive to a life of beauty and contentment. Cathers then goes on to show us the collections in a series of stunning Arts and Crafts homes, including Stickley's own family home in New Jersey. Finally, for those who want to furnish their own homes with appropriate reproductions, an extensive catalogue presents everything from Stickley tables and sideboards to tall case Clocks and metal door latches. Throughout, specially commissioned photographs by Alexander Vertikoff show the overall harmony that will make the Stickley style as much a favorite for the new century as it was for the last.

Textiles in America, 1650-1870

First published in 1984, this remains the definitive study of textiles as they were used in early American homes.The book offers an overview of textiles in America, based on years of research, that is unmatched in scope. Imported textiles played a central role in the lives of American colonists. The most-imported commodity, and a highly valued one, textiles were used for bedding, bed curtains, clothing, household linens, window curtains, upholstery, and floor covering. This book illustrates samples from collections around the world, as well as drawings and engravings of the time. Its dictionary-style entries depict the myriad household uses for textiles in the period. Drawing on original documents, prints, paintings, commercial records, merchant papers, advertisements, and pattern books, Textiles in America is a comprehensive resource, and a treasure trove of scholarship. 117 color, 255 black & white illustrations