Good Morning Friends,
Happy New Year to one and all. On this first day of the year of 2008, I am taking a page out of history so all can read and understand just one aspect of the Arts and Crafts History.

Gustav Stickley's trip to the 1900 Paris Exhibition confirmed his bias against reproductions. While taking his philosophical inspiration from the Arts and Crafts European Movement, Stickley took his artistic inspiration to America. Stickley felt that art should be of and by the people, stemming from their everyday lives. We find that upholstered pieces were covered in leather. And, while Mission style furniture was usually free of ornamentation, large nail heads, simple cut out patterns or hand-hammered copper appliqués were sometimes used for decoration.

At the height of Mission furniture's popularity, from 1900 to about 1912, Stickley established the Craftsman workshop near Syracuse, New York; the Craftsman Building in New York City, which contained a home builder's exhibit, a library and a lecture hall.

Elbert Hubbard, a competitor of Stickley, established a commune in East Aurora, New York, to build Mission furniture and to build the character of young people who came there to work. The English labeled their version of the Mission style as "quaint". That term is also used in various advertisements which appeared in American news papers and magazines in early 1900s. Others called their conceptions "Gothic."

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones