Circa 1917: Rediscovering Craftsman Farms

Library Table (no. 410-L)

United Crafts or Craftsman Workshops

1903-04 (ca.)

30 x 48 inches (hexagonal)

Oak, leather, iron tacks

2014.14

Gift of Soledad and Robert Hurst

On underside of table top: shop mark (decal); “54 x 48 x 1(0?) / # 410” in pencil. Inscribed on the leather top: “D. L. C.” in ink(?), evidence of sufficient pressure to indent the leather.; [illeg. signature no. one, no date]; [illeg. signature no. two] / July 4, 1913 (?) (in script)

Often called a hex table by collectors, this Library Table (no. 410-L) is an exceptional example of Stickley's early Arts and Crafts furniture that features hand-wrought iron nails to secure the leather rather than the brass tacks typically bordering the top. Only a handful of forms featuring these nails are known to exist, suggesting that this was a short-lived idea probably conceived around the commencement of the metal shop in mid-1903, and–for reasons that remain unknown–quickly abandoned.

Stickley first announced his intention to build a metal shop in late October of 1902, when he leased a building behind the Craftsman Building in Syracuse, but departed for Europe shortly thereafter. As none of the metalwork featured in Arts and Crafts exhibition he held the following spring in Syracuse and then Rochester was executed by his firm, it is doubtful that the shop was fully up and running until the middle of 1903 at the earliest.