Stickley Mission Style Furniture
There were five brothers in the
Stickley family, Gustav Stickley, Leopold Stickley, Charles Stickley, Albert
Stickley, and John George Stickley. While Gustav Stickley was the oldest and is
credited with creating Mission Furniture as a unified style, all five brothers
were active in producing Arts & Crafts and Mission Furniture under various
trade names and in different partnerships over the years.
The five Stickley brothers were all
born in Wisconsin, but they settled in upstate New York and Grand Rapids.
Gustav Stickley formed the Gustav Stickley Company in 1898, United Crafts
in 1901, and Craftsman Workshops in 1904. His earliest Arts & Crafts
designs were somewhat experimental, with many of them having an Art Nouveau
aesthetic, but by 1900 he had simplified and bulked up his designs, and was
making furniture in what became known as the Mission style. He published The
Craftsman magazine from 1901-1916 and was the strongest spokesman for the Arts
& Crafts movement in America. World War I brought a demand for change along
with a nostalgia for Colonial designs. Gustav Stickley was unable to adjust to
the times, and went bankrupt in 1915. We have a comprehensive page showing Gustav Stickley's furniture marks.
Leopold Stickley helped his brother
Gustav as foreman in the first years, but in 1902 he formed the Onondaga
Shops in Fayetteville, NY with John George Stickley, perhaps with Gustav's
encouragement, as it appears Onondaga Shops took over Gustav's contracts to
produce furniture for Toby Furniture in Chicago, and possibly others. Onondaga
Shops name gave way to L&JG Stickley in 1907, marking furniture from
1907-1912 with a decal that read, " Handcraft L&JG Stickley". In
1912, the furniture signature changed to "The Work of L&JG
Stickley". Leopold and John George were the most successful of the
brothers at building a business that would endure: it changed as styles
changed, and it still operates in Manlius, NY and makes a reissued line of
original Stickley Mission Furniture.
Albert Stickley formed the Stickley
Brothers company in Grand Rapids in 1891 with John George Stickley (who
left the business in 1902). While it is considered by many to have produced
furniture that was derivative of Gustav Stickley's designs, Grand Rapids was
populated with many furniture designers who came from Europe, and Stickley
Brothers built some exceptional furniture along European designs, as well as
introducing a line of inlaid Arts & Crafts furniture in 1900.
Charles Stickley married into the Brandt family in 1891 and formed the Stickley-Brandt
Furniture Company. Of all the Stickley furniture companies formed, this is
the only one whose catalogs have never been reprinted, and there is not a lot
of documentation on the furniture designs made by the company. The pieces made
by Charles Stickley that are held in the highest regard comprise of two parlor
sets with massive rectangular front legs and cut outs in the slats of the couch
and chairs.
Generally speaking, furniture by
Gustav Stickley is considered the most desirable of all Stickley furniture and
is the highest valued. As you can see in the photos above, his furniture and
that of L&JG Stickley has a significantly higher apparent quality,
massiveness and elegance to it than that of Stickley Brothers or Charles
Stickley.
Here are two sample pictures
Stickley Brothers Settle
Gustav Stickley
Morris Chair
Morris Chair
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