Stickley Furniture!

Stickley furniture started from the Arts and Crafts movement that began from England in 1870s through the writings of artist William Morris and writer John Ruskin. Arts and Crafts movement was solely based on a philosophy instead of design concept. The book, Stickley’s Craftsman Homes: Plans, Drawings, Photographs, explains a lot about stickley furniture and Arts and Crafts movement.

Five Stickley brothers made furniture in the late 1800s to early 1900s. These brothers are Leopold, Albert, Charles, John George and Gustav. All these brothers specialize in making furniture while Gustav also promoted American Craftsman style through a magazine named The Craftsman. The Arts and Crafts movement philosophy behind their efforts got promoted through this magazine and the products of their furniture factory.

Stickley furniture is not any specific type of furniture actually this name is being inspired from a couple Ray Stubblebine and his wife Ula Ilnytzky. This couple is amazingly inspired by their hobby of collecting furniture and their idea of furniture is “stickley”, which means that the furniture is either original or reissued. In the 1911 Craftsman home of the couple, every piece of furniture is stickley, either original or reissued.

Twice a year, this couple punctually hooks up to travel to the Skinner Arts and Crafts Auctioneers in Boston. This is one place on earth, from where they pick up most of their furniture pieces.

The husband, Ray Stubblebine shared an amazing incident of his life with all the furniture fans in the world. Once he missed furniture bid on the auction of Skinner Arts and Crafts Auctioneers in Boston. He was disappointed but luckily the person walked over to him stating that he was a dealer and so he bargained that piece of furniture on a lesser price. In order to buy, Ray had to go to his barn to his best surprise; his barn was a complete furniture treasure as it was loaded with stickley furniture. It was one of the moments of Ray’s joys.

He saw a chair there that was a coveted Morris chair with bow arms. This chair belonged to early 1900s and was worth a lot of money. The dealer was ever ready to give away the chair for a cup of coffee. The dealer sold that chair to Ray on less than half of its original price. Ray placed the Morris chair proudly in the living room of his stickley house.

Courtesy: Furniture Exporters from Pakistan.