Trivia Quiz (After Phyfe try Stickley)

Thanks for an extremely interesting response to my Duncan Phyfe (with one f) trivia question.

Now please try this.

Why does furniture by Gustav Stickley fetch mega bucks at all the major auctions?

(Looks like British 1940s utility furniture IMO)

Have fun.

Roy asks:

No, no, no.....true Stickley (not imitation wanna be Stickley) represents a simplicity and trueness of form that is defiantly pure and beautiful compared to the overwrought schmaltzy Victorian mass produced furniture that preceeded it. I'd love to discuss Frank Lloyd Wright also (being a Wisconsin girl I have great pride and affinity for Wright) but he would technically exceed the time boundaries artificially established by this group. In any case, their styles are similar in their cleanness. See ya! LF

Who FLW?? .... no he wouldn't!!! ... well ok 'technically' by nine years, however, surely the body of his work, and his imaginative creative years falls clearly and appropriately within the imposed dateline of this ng. Just leave out discussing the Guggenheim project, well actually the building phase bit of it, I don't see why you or anybody else can't discuss FLW .... beats bloody Alfred Merkin's day out at yabe.

Because it is scarce, and he lebelled the stuff he made. that gives the collectors a limited number of pieces.

Tsu Dho Nimh

When businesses invoke the 'protection of consumers,' it's a lot like politicians invoking morality and children - grab your wallet and/or your kid and run for your life.

Maybe you should rephrase that question, Roy.

Our rural town has some of the nicest Arts and Crafts style homes in the area. The arches, door frames, fireplace surrounds, window benches, stair cases , etc are done in quarter sawn oak. It's a style favored by my husband. Nothing ornate, just very clean lines.....
http://www.dscweb.com/stickly.html

ARTS AND CRAFTS (MISSION) -Arts and Crafts movement was popular from 1890's to 1920's. -simple, often austere, linear designs. -emphasis on craftsmanship with exposed mortise and tenon joints, corbels. -reaction against cheap, mass-produced, machine made furniture. -oak most common wood used for construction; usually quarter-sawn which produces distinctive 'tiger' grain. -oak often 'fumed' with exposure to ammonia to produce a patina. -sometime hand-hammered copper hardware (usually with dark patina; not polished). -popular manufacturers included Gustav Stickley, Roycrofters, Charles Limbert.

Can't see why, Ronnie. Essengo came up with the beginnings of a good answer. Do the others really need any more encouragement to discuss the Arts & Crafts movement 1900 -1940?

The Frank Lloyd Wright theme could also be interesting. Furniture and decorative items or motifs frequently followed the contemporary architects who were popular and stylish.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lovely long, specific article absolutely on target complete with a reference. I hope everyone will read it.

There really is learning outside of yabe!

Regards,

American furniture to 1939.

American arts-and-crafts movements led at the turn of the century to the establishment of numerous ateliers and small factories, such as that of Gustav Stickley (1857-1942). Stickley devised the MISSION STYLE (q.v.) , ostensibly based on old Spanish furniture in the California missions. His furniture, made between 1900 and 1913, was straight-lined, simple, and utilitarian, carefully made of oak, with decoration limited to the handsomely crafted hardware.

American mass manufacturers took up the Mission style with a will and produced great quantities of ponderous imitation Stickley. With the exception of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who designed furniture primarily for his own use, the U.S. produced no outstanding Art Nouveau furniture.

Art Deco flourished in America, mostly in mass-produced furniture of lesser quality. A notable exception is the work of the studio of Donald Deskey (1894-1989), which created in 1932 the palatial Art Deco interiors and the furniture of Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright also designed furniture, but its idiosyncratic appearance defies categorisation, since the furniture design was entirely subordinated to the design of the building; the same motifs appear in both. He consistently favoured built-in furniture, however, because the furniture thus became part of the architecture.

Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopaedia

Architect? Frank Lloyd Wright?

An architect is someone who designs building with roofs that don't leak. FLW was an artist who used buildings as a medium, not an architect.

Snip of Roy's post:

I should think that is what makes FLW so notable, that he defies definition. Not only did his furniture flow into his architecture, but his architecture flowed into the environment which surrounded it in a way that would be considered holistic....creating (technically) a feeling of harmony that few others were ever able to achieve in their designs. FLW furniture is beautiful (in my opinion) but perhaps difficult to incorporate into an environment not designed for it....exactly because of that holistic intention. See ya,