Inlaid Cabinet with Grape Motif
Title
Inlaid Cabinet with Grape Motif
Date
1903-1904 (probably)
Maker
The United Crafts
The Craftsman Workshops
Dimensions
48 3/4 x 20 x 18 5/8 inches
Notes
Unlike the rest of the pieces illustrated in the article “Structure and Ornament in The Craftsman Workshops,” this inlaid cabinet featured none of the pewter or copper ornament typically associated with this line. In that regard, it resembles more closely the furniture described in the July 1903 issue of The Craftsman, which noted “an added color element, introduced by means of wood inlay, in designs of great delicacy, founded upon plant forms…” Oddly, the grape motif has not been “obscured and highly conventionalized” as the notice promised, and which are strategies seen much more readily in the inlaid pieces containing metal. It is difficult, even in hindsight to see the hand of the same designer in this motif and in the others that appear throughout the article. Curiously too, although Stickley continued to offer forms in mahogany, this is one of the few pieces that appear to have been made predominately (if not entirely) with that wood.
The production of Stickley’s inlaid furniture is not well understood at this point, and if the starting date is relatively certain, the terminal date for these earlier pieces of inlaid furniture should be treated with caution. The publication of the forms in The Craftsman and the Sales Journals from 1904 reliably indicate these forms were being produced in those years, but whether they were manufactured beyond this point remains unknown. Stickley certainly used inlay on furniture through at least 1913, as later examples of furniture including his “New Craftsman Piano,” and a sideboard in the Craftsman Restaurant attest to. Extant inventories that have not yet been transcribed or additional information may shed further light on the topic that enables us to date these earlier inlaid items with more certainty.
Measurements are taken from the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s online catalog, which provides the color image free of charge under a Creative Commons BY License. The full caption provided by the museum reads: Possibly Harvey Ellis (1852-1942). Music Cabinet, 1902-1904. Mahogany, 48 3/4 x 20 x 18 5/8 in. (123.8 x 50.8 x 47.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Edgar O. Smith, 83.227. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 83.227_IMLS_SL2.jpg)
Documented In
“Structure and Ornament in The Craftsman Workshops,” The Craftsman 5 (January 1904): 392.
Materials
Mahogany and unidentified woods.