Customer Reviews

Early L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture: From Onondaga Shops to Handcraft

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First of all I would like to say that this book is not intended to be a how-to manual of furniture plans, but rather a look into one company's past catalog during a great movement in American furniture.

The book is broken into three sections: 'Introduction', 'Saleman's Catalog', and 'Retail Plates'. The introduction includes some basic background on the importance of the Stickleys to the Arts and Crafts furniture movement. The salesman's catalog section contains a vintage price list as well as some rare black and white photographs and many sketch drawings of Stickley pieces (probably useful back then to the salesman trying to come up with just the right piece to satisfy a demanding customer). The retail plates are a collection of more intricate drawings of the Stickley furniture. These drawings are more detailed and often give basic dimentions of the furniture and a listing of the type of wood/materials found in the piece.

I have found the 260 illustrations of early Stickly furniture contained in this book to be an interesting history lesson as well as a useful tool for generating ideas in furniture design. If you are like me and really love the Arts and Crafts style, buy this book and learn more about the wide range of furniture offered by the premiere company to build it in the Unites States.

I was hoping this resource would help us identify a piece we own, so we could get some idea of it's worth. This book did not provide any of this information. It was relative in terms of history and interesting on some level.