ABOUT
MISSION ANTIQUES
Written by Alan Beutler, owner of
Old Friends
Generally speaking the terms "Arts and Crafts," "Mission,"
and "Craftsman" all describe furniture inspired by the Arts and Crafts
Movement.
The movement started in England about 150 years ago. The movement was in
part a peaceful revolution against the Victorian Era - an era of great
excesses. Concurrently, the burgeoning Industrial Revolution was
enabling factories to produce copious amounts of goods, many of which were cheap
and shoddy. "Boy, sure glad that stopped" remarks Alan with just
a hint of cynicism.
Out of these circumstances grew the philosophies and styles of the arts and
crafts movement. Many early ecological concepts flourished. For
example, "Don't fill your houses with junk, only have things that are well
made, functional, and tasteful." Relating to furniture, pieces
should be designed so that the beauty of the wood and the honesty of the
structure are emphasized, negating the Victorian need for over-ornamentation.
Then a guy named Gustav Stickley turned up. He was born in Wisconsin of
German ancestry and gifted with ambition and foresight. As a youth he
worked for an uncle making chairs but quickly moved on to various partnerships,
some involving his four brothers, all the while fine tuning the designs and
processes of manufacturing furniture.
He combined the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution with the
Craftsmanship of the Old World and made furniture which for 15-20 years was
"the rage." He was rich, charming, generous, boastful, and
in the end. . . bankrupt. The result of some bad decisions and changing
tastes.
Oh, but his furniture, the quarter sawn oak, natural colors, and exquisite
structure, still lives on! A renewal of interest in the style started
slowly in the 1970's and has grown stronger ever since. Pieces are
increasingly harder to find and more expensive. Along with Gustav Stickley some
of the more noteworthy contributors to the movement are John Riskin, William
Morris (the British grandfather of the movement), Charles Limbert of Grand
Rapids, Michigan, Elbert Hubbard of the Roycrofters, all the Stickley brothers
(Leopold, John, George, Albert, and Charles), Harvey Ellis the "gifted
designer," The Greene and Greene of Pasadena architectural fame, and of
course Frank Lloyd Wright, maybe the "coolest guy of the century!"
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