Circa 1917: Rediscovering Craftsman Farms

Inlaid Chest of Drawers (variation of no. 913)

Craftsman Workshops (case)
George H. Jones (inlay, attr.)

1907-11 (ca.)

36 x 51 x 18 1/2 inches

Oak, oak veneer, beech, and poplar; Inlaid with copper and tinted woods.

1995.43

Anonymous Gift

Shop mark (decal) in upper drawer.

Much as he had done with the chestnut bookcases in the living room, Stickley subtly modified an existing form for the dressers in his daughters’ room. To focus on the differences from the standard model—the inlays, the subtle tapering of the legs from the base to the top, and the shape of the apron—obscures the fact that the central carcasses are identical to the standard offering. Stickley simply altered small details to harmonize the dressers with the beds and writing table, which instills a sense of unity to the room’s furnishings.

In many ways, this suite of furniture reads as one of the most personal of Stickley’s statements, one that looks simultaneously back to his earliest period and acknowledges the more standardized designs the firm was producing at the time he built the Log House.

The use of color throughout the suite of furniture reflects Stickley’s lifelong concerns with finishes. Although much faded, these pieces would have originally featured bright, robin’s egg blue circles to set off the wooden drawer pulls. This, combined with the metal and dyed woods of the inlays, must have made the dresser shimmer in the light of the fireplace. The wood was originally finished in what Stickley called "gray oak," a type of gray wash, similar to his driftwood effect from about 1902 or an adaptation of what he called the “Silver Grey Maple” used on oak here. While the finish was typically reserved for “carefully selected curly maple,” it was a matte, shellac-based coating that featured “varying tones of silver gray, like those found in a hornet’s nest.”

Gustav Stickley

Gustav Stickley (by 1911); sold to George and Sylvia Farny with the contents of the Log House (1917); by descent to Cyril Farny; Private Collection (by 1992); Anonymous gift to the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in 1995.