Chair (no. 2606)

United Crafts

1901-02 (ca.)

2018.19.18

Gift of Gregg and Monique Seibert

In the inaugural issue of The Craftsman, Stickley’s new aesthetic direction was made clear: “The form of any object is made to express the structural idea directly, frankly, often almost with baldness.” Gone are the pierced splats and ball and claw feet of the Chippendale style, or the folksy historicism of the many Windsor chair models he had earlier produced. Instead, the form is more direct, the lines rectilinear, and the decorative interest stems mainly from the finish of the wood, the choice of seating materials, and the proportion and placement of the various components. If the shallow scoop in the crest rail provides the only real relief from the form’s austerity, it is the thin proportions of the front and side stretchers that help to lighten the form and create visual interest by their positioning.

Gustav Stickley

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).