The Mission Furniture of L & J.G. Stickley [SOLD]

THE MISSION FURNITURE OF L & J G STICKLEY

Edited by Stephen Gray

Published by Turn of the Century Editions, New York

Softcover, first edition, 1983, 189 pages, very good condition

This book is a complete collection of furniture manufactured by L & J G Stickley between 1902 and 1920.  L & J G Stickley produced a wide variety of “mission furniture,” much of it representing the best aspects of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States in terms of structural honesty, simplicity of design and high quality of design.

In 1902, the L & J G Stickley Furniture Company began operations in Fayetteville, a small village near Syracuse, New York.  The two owners of the new firm, Leopold (1869-1957) and John George (1871-1921) were younger brothers of Gustav Stickley who manufactured his Craftsman “mission furniture” in nearby Eastwood.

This book is a compilation of all known catalogs of the L & J G Stickley Company.

More From the Book:

The L. and J. G. Stickley Furniture Company produced a wide variety of “mission furniture,”much of it representing the best aspects of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States in terms of structural honesty, simplicity of design and high quality of design. Regrettably, little is known about the design philosophy behind the furniture produced by the company during the early years of the twentieth century because its catalogues contain only brief statements about the designs. Thus, we are left with illustrations in L. and J. G. Stickley catalogues and actual examples of their work as the only evidence of their design intentions and their important position within the Arts and Crafts Movement. 

In 1902, the L. and J. G. Stickley Furniture Company began operations in Fayetteville, a small village near Syracuse, New York. The two owners of the new firm, Leopold (1869-1957) who was always called Lee, and John George (1871-1921) were younger brothers of Gustav Stickley who manufactured his Craftsman “mission furniture” in nearby Eastwood. Lee Stickley had been trained in Gustav's factory where he served as foreman from 1899-1901. J. George had been associated with another furniture making brother, Albert Stickley of the Stickley Brothers Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thus, L. and J. G. Stickley were carrying on a family tradition (and competition) when they purchased the Collin, Sisson and Pratt Factory in Fayetteville. 

First called the Onondaga Shops after the county in which it was located, the L. and J. G. Stickley Company was incorporated in 1904. The brothers must have been fairly successful from the start however since they bought a number of adjacent pieces of property to expand their operations during the early years. In January 1905, L. and J. G. Stickley presented their “Arts and Crafts and Simple Furniture Built on Mission Lines” to the trade at the annual Grand rapids Furniture Exhibition. Three months later, in March 1905, they published their first catalogue, “Some Sketches of Furniture from the Onondaga Shops,” with many well designed pieces of furniture. 

It is not surprising that early Onondaga Shops furniture is similar, and in some cases nearly identical, to the Craftsman mission furniture manufactured by their brother. Lee Stickley, earlier Gustav's foreman, surely knew Craftsman methods of furniture construction and the design process involved in creating Craftsman pieces. More importantly, Lee had probably assimilated the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts Movement while working for his brother along with common design inspiration from England. 

Unlike Gustav Stickley who published frequent Craftsman furniture catalogues with prices, L. and J. G. Stickley seem to have waited five years before issuing their next catalogue in 1910. In the new catalogue, the Onondaga Shops label was replaced by a new identification with a handscrew shop mark and the words “L. and J. G. Stickley, Handcraft.” In keeping with Arts and Crafts precepts, their “plain yet distinctive” furniture was described in terms of “honesty and durability,” “simplicity and restfulness.” The large catalogue illustrated hundreds of pieces of mission furniture. An innovation of the 1910 furniture was the use of spring cushion seats “original with us so far as furniture is concerned.” 

“The Works of L. and J. G. Stickley,” a 1912 supplement to the 1910 catalogue announced that the handscrew shop mark and the word “Hand- craft” would no longer be used to identify their furniture. Surely “Handcraft,” so similar to “Craftsman,” and the handscrew label, so similar to Gustav Stickley's joiner`s compass label, must have caused confusion on the part of potential customers who wanted to buy Stickley furniture. To add to the confusion, there were the two additional Stickley firms, one in Grand Rapids (Albert) and the other in Binghamton, New York (Charles). Henceforth, Fayetteville Stickley furniture was to be labeled “The Work of L. and J. G. Stickley.