Magazine Stand (no. 514)
Item
Title
Magazine Stand (no. 514)
Creator
United Crafts
Date
1901-02 (ca.)
Medium
Ash, leather
Object No.
2018.19.8
Credit line
Gift of Gregg and Monique Seibert
Description
In 1901 and 1902, Stickley made two versions of this magazine stand, the one pictured above and a smaller version with four shelves that was thirty-six inches high. Catering to a class of customers that was literate and affluent enough to afford furniture to display their reading materials, even the firm’s more affordable forms tended to contain markers of class and reinforce the higher status of the clientele.
Executed in Ash, and originally a brighter green, the pronounced grain and boldness of the color must have presented a far different aesthetic than the rather sedate, muted tones that we typically associate with Stickley’s furniture. Although simple in form, the magazine stand has all of the hallmarks of sturdiness and design associated with Stickley’s early Arts and Crafts furniture. The shallow inverted “v” at the top of the cabinet relieves the hardness of a strictly rectilinear form, an effort aided by the round headed tacks that affix a thin strip of leather across the shelf fronts. The decoration of Stickley’s early works is restrained and often takes the guise of construction, rather than applied ornament. For instance, although technically the paneled sides here are structural, the use of them here adds only to the aesthetic qualities of the form and provides no necessary benefits to the magazine stand’s overall integrity.
Executed in Ash, and originally a brighter green, the pronounced grain and boldness of the color must have presented a far different aesthetic than the rather sedate, muted tones that we typically associate with Stickley’s furniture. Although simple in form, the magazine stand has all of the hallmarks of sturdiness and design associated with Stickley’s early Arts and Crafts furniture. The shallow inverted “v” at the top of the cabinet relieves the hardness of a strictly rectilinear form, an effort aided by the round headed tacks that affix a thin strip of leather across the shelf fronts. The decoration of Stickley’s early works is restrained and often takes the guise of construction, rather than applied ornament. For instance, although technically the paneled sides here are structural, the use of them here adds only to the aesthetic qualities of the form and provides no necessary benefits to the magazine stand’s overall integrity.
Provenance
Purchased, en suite, by an undisclosed buyer, ca. 1901, then by descent; Dalton’s American Decorative Arts and Antiques (September 2001); Cathers and Dembrosky (by 2002); Gregg and Monique Seibert (2002).