Retail Plates (W. B. Moses)

1902

The United Crafts

The set of Retail Plates from W. B. Moses and Sons, a Washington, D.C. furniture store, remain an enigma. Four plates survive, suggesting a set–presumably they are ordered sequentially–of at least 302 plates, a tremendous and unprecedented number that dwarfs any of the catalogs Stickley's firms ever issued. As the extant plates contain either two or three items, a total somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 to 900 pieces (if they all feature room settings) may have been illustrated.

To put this in perspective, by the end of 1900, Stickley's factory inventory documented 200 models in production–substantially more than the 71 models in the New Furniture catalog-but far short of even a conservative estimate about the scope of this set. While the forms in the extant plates were all produced in 1902, there is no reason to presume that these plates necessarily share that date, since it is clear that Stickley's models were produced for longer than has been previously asserted. Since many of the forms introduced in 1900 were being produced through 1904, the date given for these plates has been adjusted to reflect the idea that these may represent a later (and more comprehensive) set of plates made for an important retailer.

Thankfully, the company's history is less obscure than their marketing materials. Begun in 1861 as W. B. Moses, the firm had expanded and changed its name to W. B. Moses and Sons in 1890. Known as a high-end retailer (and manufacturer) of furniture, the firm also had its own production facilities for upholstery. It continued to thrive throughout the 1910s into the 1930s when the death of Senior Party Willie Moses and the financial strains brought about by the Great Depression . By the end of 1937, the brand W. B. Moses was no longer in use, though the firm persisted as the rebranded "Colony House," and sold–unsurprisingly–Colonial Revival furniture.