A Brief Timeline of Stickley’s Life
Stickley’s biography is well covered in the literature, see especially David Cathers, Gustav Stickley, (London and New York: Phaidon, 2003), which necessarily forms the basis for any scholarship on Stickley. This timeline below borrows liberally from Cathers’ pioneering work and is intended to clarify the dating and terminology surrounding the companies that manufactured these objects.
1883
Stickley and his brothers Albert and Charles for the Stickley Brothers Chair Company in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.
1888
Stickley and Elgin A. Simonds form the Stickley & Simonds Furniture Company. The company made chairs primarily in historic 18th-century revival styles, with Chippendale, Sheraton, and the various “Louis” styles dominating their advertising. In the mid-1890s they began offering Aesthetic movement chairs.
1898
On May 5th, Stickley & Simonds dissolved their partnership. Stickley wound up buying Simonds out, taking over the Syracuse factory, and retaining many of the employees. He continued producing revival chairs for at least the next five years, even as he began the transformation to a leader of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States,
1900
Stickley issued his first known catalog, “New Furniture from the Workshop of Gustave Stickley.” The catalog featured more than 70 new models and began the process of reshaping his identity.
1901
Stickley began using “United Crafts” as the company’s name by June, as indicated in a dated price list. The firm exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, which opened on May 1, 1901, and produced a pamphlet for the Exposition. It is likely that the name change occurred in March or April of 1901 as preparations for the exposition were being made. In October, the first issue of The Craftsman is published.
1902
The firm continues to operate as “The United Crafts,” releasing a set of Retail Plates (photographs of furniture for sale with model numbers and prices) but no formal catalog.
1903
The firm begins to use the names “United Crafts” and “The Craftsman Workshops” somewhat interchangeably. The July 1903 issue of The Craftsman illustrated textiles “embroidered in the Craftsman Workshops” but many retailers continued to advertise the furniture as produced by “The United Crafts.”
1904
In January 1904, The Craftsman featured an article “Structure and Ornament in the Craftsman Workshops,” essentially confirming the name change for good. Stickley issued “What is Wrought in the Craftsman Workshops,” a catalog that was being distributed as early as April of that year, even as the magazine continued to be published by The United Crafts.
1905
Stickley opened his New York offices at 29 West 34th Street.
1908-11
Stickley begins land purchases and building what will eventually become “Craftsman Farms,” a property In Morris Plains, New Jersey that he envisions as a school, craft village, and working farm at various times. By 1910 he relocated his family from Syracuse to the Farms and by the following autumn they had moved into the Log House.
1912
Stickley Consolidates all of his businesses under “Gustav Stickley, The Craftsman Incorporated,” and later in the year begins to use this as his trade name on catalogs. In hindsight, this reorganization seems an early acknowledgment of the financial difficulties that would eventually force him to declare bankruptcy and sell Craftsman Farms.
1913
Stickley opens The Craftsman Building, in the heart of Manhattan, having signed a 20 year lease valued at $1.3 million. The 12-story building with Craftsman Restaurant on the top floor was a fatal misstep at a time when subscriptions to The Craftsman were falling and general interest in the movement was waning. As a result of this obligation and the mortgages on Craftsman Farms, Stickley’s financial position became increasingly perilous and the descent toward bankruptcy inevitable.
1916
In May, The Craftsman announced the Stickley’s new line of furniture: Chromewald. Intended to reach a broader audience, the line mirrored his historic revival furniture of the 1890s. In December, The Craftsman ceased publication and was absorbed by Art World. Stickley Associated Cabinetmakers is formed consisting of Gustav, L & JG Stickley, and Stickley Brothers of Grand Rapids, but the name is not widely used in advertising.
1917-22
Stickley sells Craftsman Farms and returns to Syracuse. Throughout this period, Stickley’s furniture is sold throughout the United States, often at steep discounts. In 1922, the remaining stock is sold to John Wannamaker, who offers it at a 50% discount from the original price.
1942
Gustav Stickley died in Syracuse on April 21. Following the decline of his empire, he never returned to a prominent position in the furniture industry, though he continued to develop finishes and is known to have been associated with the Sinclair Chair Works in Mottville, New York. There, he is believed to have designed and probably built chairs for friends and family, and may well have been responsible for some of the firm’s designs in the 1930s.
