Gustav Stickley: arts & crafts furniture

Writing desk by Harvey Ellis and Gustav Stickley, 1903
Sheffield

Gustav Stickley (1858-1942) was the eldest son of German immigrants Barbara and Leopold Stoeckel in Wisconsin. When his parents separ­at­ed in 1869, his formal education ended and Gustave was employed as a stonemason. They moved to Penn. in c1875 and the teen began working at an unc­le’s chair factory.

With brothers Albert & Charles Stickley, Gustav founded the Stickley Bros in Susquehanna Penn in 1883. That same year he married Eda Simmons and they all moved to Binghamton NY.

In 1895 he travelled to Europe and saw the products of the English Arts & Crafts Move­ment and the French Art Nouveau. Twice! Arts & Crafts in Europe was prom­ot­ing well built, purely hand crafted and honest work, and in opposition to the poor treatment of workers in urban factories. Gustav warmly embraced many of the ideas of this new Movement, including for his own furniture business.

Stickley magazine stand, 1900

At home Stickley int­roduced new oak furniture: simple, funct­ional, sturdy and unVictorian. Working with architect-designer Hen­­ry Wilk­inson and de­signer LaMont Warner, he created his first Arts & Crafts products, exhib­iting them in the 1900 Grand Rapids Trade Show

The designs reflected the Arts & Crafts ideals of simplicity, hon­es­ty in construction and truth to materials. Unadorned, plain surf­ac­es were enlivened by carefully applied colours so as to reveal the wood grain. Expos­ed joinery emphasised the struc­tural qualities & hammered met­al hardware emphasised the furniture’s hand­made qualit­ies. Both handmade AND machinery-made.

Stickley rented Crouse stables in Syracuse, renaming the showrooms as Craftsman Building. There he of­f­ered middle­­ class consumers prog­ressive furniture designs in quarter-sawn white oak. Perhaps because his firm did not receive the recog­nit­i­on he craved, Gustav changed the name of his firm to United Cr­afts. That year (1900) he launch­ed The Crafts­man Magaz­ine, focusing on the early British work of William Morris and John Ruskin. 

The Craftsman Magazine, 1910

He soon covered homes and crafts, literat­ure, music, ar­ch­itecture and city plan­ning. His equalitarian commitments led to exp­ressions of democratic values: social condit­ions, prog­ress­ive pol­it­ics, con­servation, Women’s movement and fair treatment of employees.

Stickley began pub­lishing house designs by different architects in 1902 and answering reader questions on Arts & Crafts style homes. His architectural ideas were delineated by his talented employees including Wilkinson, Warner and architect Harvey Ellis. Ellis had an immediate and profound effect upon the design of The Crafts­man magazine and the furnishings Gustav produc­ed, rein­forcing the conn­ections between Stickley’s work and that of En­g­lish and European de­signers. In 1903 Gus­tav’s furniture ev­olved from so­lid, monumental forms to some lighter shapes, softened by arches, tapering legs and decorative inlay. That year he marketed his product to 100+ retailers across the U.S.

Stickley moved his headquarters from Syracuse to NY, buying 650 ac­r­es along Morris Plains NJ to est­ab­l­ish a farm school. The focus was a large house made of round, hewn chest­nut logs that were cut from local woods and stone.        

Crafts­man Farms 

Houses had to be constructed in harmony with its landscape, using natural mat­er­ials and simp­lif­ied designs. Soft earth-toned colours predominated and inter­iors included simplified mouldings, stained wood, built-in cabinets and fireplaces with ingle­nooks. Although these homes weren’t always innov­ative, note his current approaches to open floor plans, economy of func­tion and use of novel materials for walls, roofs and surface treatments.

Stickley announced the Home Builders Club 1903 where each magazine subscriber was eligible to receive a free set of house plans, based on those designed and publish­ed in the magazine. By the time Crafts­man ended pub­lication in WW1, there were 222+ different home plans for the subscribers.

In 1905 brothers Leopold and John George began the firm of L & J.G. Stick­l­ey in Fayetteville NY, and had become quite successful, mak­ing quality products that rivalled Gustav’s. Albert had estab­lished St­ickley Brothers Co in Grand Rapids Mich and they too off­er­ed Arts & Crafts furniture. Lastly brother Char­les also sold furn­iture from his Bing­ham­ton factory.

As a believer of the Arts & Crafts as a way of life, Gus­tav leas­ed a VERY expensive 12-storey Craft­sman Building Man­hattan from 1913. But then 3 difficult events occurred. 1] competition was increasing, 2] Gustav’s company began to lose money, and 3] interest in the Arts & Crafts movement was waning in WW1. Gus­t­av only lived at Crafts­man Farms until 1915, forced to file for bankruptcy. He stop­ped publish­ing his mag­az­ine in 1915 and he gave his workshops to two younger broth­ers, who cont­in­ued as L & JG Stickley in order to prod­uce Gust­av’s designs. Whereas 15 years earlier, people had embraced Crafts­man furn­it­ure’s clean strong lines, by WW1 tastes had changed again, this time towards the revival of early American style.

Gustav moved back to Syracuse, where his wife died in 1919, and stayed in Syracuse until his own death in 1942.

After Stickley left Craftsman Farms NJ, the Farny family maintained the farm as it was. When the property was threatened with develop­ment, Parsippany-Troy Hills township obtained the property and form­ed a partnership with the Stickley Museum at Craft­sman Farms for pr­eserv­ation and interp­ret­ation. It was honoured as a National Hist­oric Land­mark, as the photos show.

Stickley Museum at Craft­sman Farms, living room 

with copper hooded fireplace; Grueby lamp, hexagonal leather top table, Morris chair.

Summary
The country estate Craftsman Farms was a major display of Arts & Crafts decorative arts, home building and furn­ishing styles. Stick­ley combined the roles of designer and manuf­ac­turer, architect, pub­lish­er, philosopher and social critic. He was best known for his st­raightforward furniture aka mission or Craftsman furniture, made of sawn white oak in subtle, plain designs.

In the late C20th there was a resurgence of interest in Stickley’s ouevre. Some of his furniture catalogues were reprinted, and ill­us­trated books of his works and monographs were published.