For you "metalheads" out there we have just published an article about Samuel Yellin originally found in American Homes and Gardens 1914.

The writer was completely enchanted with his work.

"At the recent exhibition of the Architectural League in New York, there was no contribution that attracted more attention from artist and layman alike, than that of Samuel Yellin, of Philadelphia, craft-worker in metal. Like the iron workers of old, he draws and shapes his metal by hand flattening and curving it under powerful heat, splitting it and reuniting it in fluorescent scrolls or beating the unyielding material, until he produces an article that bears all the artistic beauty peculiar to those of the early masters."

Samuel Yellin

Lauren,

Thank you for this period information. It is always interesting to hear what his contemporaries thought of his work.

We've been buying a variety of period books and magazines and I found this article accidentally. We contacted Clare Yellin at the family business and she confirmed that the images in the article were indeed Yellin's and mentioned that she believed she was the only remaining family-owned business of its type still in existence.

We have a page on the site on Bungalow Articles that lists many articles on A&C bungalows for example and we've managed to snag quite a few of them. We're working at transcribing the original source and finding images to enhance them.

If you check out the Christmas gift article, you'll see a suggestion to pick up candlesticks and bay candles at the Jarvie shop among many others that might be familiar(Dec. 1904). It's a cool old article that puts the Movement in context in 1904. I'll be posting the original advertisements for Jarvie's shop and some of the others in the next day or two.

Rikki

Something tells me if you named your store "The Swastica Shop" today, you wouldn't be carrying Arts & Crafts furnishings! It's weird to look back at how that symbol used to be "good luck." The downtown San Diego YMCA pool used to have little swastica tile...that's a little surprise for the swimmers. I recall seeing an A & C chandelier in an antique shop with globes emblazoned with swasticas...that one hung unsold for a very long time( it may still be there!).

Rikki, Many thanks for posting those old articles. The early House Beautiful magazines were chocked full with articles about decorating with A&C pieces and wrote many wonderful stories about the craftsmen/women and their shops. They are a prime source for our knowledge today.

Swasticas were a common form of decoration prior to the WWII and it is a shame that it has taken on such a terrible blemish and I would fully understand why it is not terribly popular as a decortive motif.