Gustav Stickley

I was recently on vacation in New Jersey, seeing some old friends.  I moved away from Jersey 21 years ago, about 5 years before I got into woodworking and into the history that goes along with it.  But man!  There is a lot of history in New Jersey.

One place we visited was "The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms".  (note - there is another Stickley Museum in Fayetteville, NY, but that is for the work of Gustav's brothers Leopold and John George, who had a company of their own.)  I'll intersperse some pictures between paragraphs below, but the pics have little to do with the text above or below them.

The main building of the Stickley Museum in Morris Plains, NJ
Photo: K. Lees

Gustav Stickley was born in 1858 in Wisconsin, and moved to Pennsylvania as a child, eventually working for an uncle in a chair factory.  By the age of 25, he started a business with brothers Albert and Charles and later moved the operation to Binghamton, New York.  My tour guide mentioned that all five Stickley boys were furniture makers, so I'm fairly certain this business was a furniture business.

Photo from The Stickley Museum website

In the mid-1890's Gustav traveled to England and France and was introduced to the English Arts and Crafts and the French Art Nouveau styles.  From what I gather, the Arts and Crafts movement was borne out of a desire for well-built, hand-made furniture and was sort of a backlash against the poor treatment of factory workers and the poor quality products brought on by the industrial revolution.

A monstrous 10-foot long sideboard

Inspired by the furniture he saw, Stickley got together with designers and came up with a line of furniture of his own.  He embraced the idea of simple, well-built furniture made from good materials.  His wood surfaces were not all fru-fru with carvings and other decoration.  The wood grain was the decoration and mortise and tenon joinery was on display.

A poor picture of a 5-leg table (OK, 4 legs plus center post)

Much better pic of the table's undercarriage - note the exposed through tenons
Photo: K. Lees

His furniture sold well and eventually he had over 100 distributors nation-wide.  The fist 13-14 years of the 20th century saw lots of expansion for his business.  He started "The Craftsman", magazine in 1901, which promoted the A&C philosophy and the magazine ran for about 15 years.  Among other things, the magazine published many house plans and even plans for making his furniture designs in a home shop.

A more famous 6-legged, hexagonal "Library" table.  Note the through pegged tenons.
Photo from the Stickley Museum website.

He eventually made New York City his headquarters, while his family and factory remained in Syracuse.  I can't find this on the museum website, but the tour guide mentioned that he owned a department store in NYC - perhaps that was in the same building as his headquarters.  Quite a thing - running a furniture company, being a magazine publisher, and having a department store - probably among other things I can't remember.

A bed for a daughter's bedroom

During that growth period, he purchased land in New Jersey and called it "Craftsman Farms".  This became his "country estate" and is the site of the current museum.  Sometimes it's hard to think of New Jersey as being in "the country", but it was then.  And by the way, New Jersey is still quite beautiful if you stay away from the greater NYC metro area.  Can you tell I'm not a big fan of cities?

A corner cabinet in the dining room
(there is a far better picture on this page of the museum's website)

Things changed near the start of World War I and then the war took its toll.  Stickley had over-extended himself and by 1913 the interest in A&C furniture started to decrease.  With increased competition - including from his own brothers - the company started operating in the red.  By 1915 Gustov filed for bankruptcy.  The magazine ended in 1916 and he had to sell the NJ property in 1917.  His brothers came to his aid, forming "Stickley Associated Cabinetmakers" and incorporating Gustav's old factory.  He moved back to Syracuse, where he lived until his death in 1942.

Upper, right corner of a picture frame, showing the bridle joint
with over-long shaped ends, and pegs holding the joint together

A side note on the A&C movement:

Stickley was greatly influenced by the writings of Englishmen John Ruskin and William Morris, both active in the mid to late 1800's.  Ruskin spoke out strongly against the new British factories that produced crappy furniture and robbed workers of the joy of creating well-made things with their own hands.  Morris started a company that made textiles, wallpapers and furniture, among other things.  His company put Ruskin's philosophy into practice and eventually his work contributed to the start of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Reading this stuff about Ruskin made me think of today where we can get such crap from China or places like Ikea.  I guess things haven't changed all that much over the last 150 years.  Or maybe they've just progressed in crappiness over that time.

The iconic "Eastwood" chair - similar to a Morris chair
Picture from eBay