A N D Keeping Furniture Styles Straight: Part I

Teco Pot, with a simple form and matte glaze

This topic is so gigantic I've broken it into three parts and here's a handy remembering device to keep these styles straight:( Please note, this is not an all encompassing article on a massive and well-known subject, it's a peek through through a keyhole for those who are not experts but would like to know more.)

A=Arts and Crafts

N=Art NOUVEAU

D=Art DECO

The Arts and Crafts Movement encompassed the years 1880-1920, and it's designs and pieces are still widely sought after. This movement was as much about changing society as it was about changing interior design and leaving the heavy over stuffed, over decorated Victorians behind.

Arts and Crafts was intended to be a criticism of industrial society and what its founders perceived as cheap, mechanized soulless pieces churned out of factories and vastly over-decorated. The Victorian public was enamored of the new access to cheap quickly fabricated goods, available to everyone which made this movement's focus on the educated and those with a large disposable income.

Arts and Crafts interior, lots and  lots of wood and clean lines

Art critic turned philosopher John Ruskin and designer and writer William Morris were the pillars of the Arts and Crafts movement. Ruskin as a philosopher believed mechanized production and the exploitation of the work force created in the industrial revolution were "servile labour".  He believed a healthy society required its workers to design the articles ey made and if they were churned out cheaply in a factory they were “dishonest”.

William Morris, who is still justly famous for his incredible wall paper designs and his strong design aesthetic, believed that material should be respected and influence the design made from it. Morris believed ornament was always secondary and should never be applied without careful thought.  These men used their influence and beliefs to spread their ‘design gospel’; and the movement spread like a breath of fresh air from Europe to America, mostly to the upper middle classes who could afford bespoke furniture.

Roycroft American Craftsman desk

Arts and Crafts furniture pieces are not always homogeneous; the focus on the individual maker and the way that person highlighted the wood and how it was used can be very different. One of the key marks is simplicity and utility combined to make simple beauty, with nothing extra applied that does not contribute to a piece. Arts and Crafts pieces were designed to fit in room and enhance the overall aesthetic of the space, not dominate it. The emphasis was on working with the material not bending it to your will.

In America, Arts and Crafts pottery was embraced and Grueby, Marblehead, Newcomb, Wheatley, Teco, Rookwood and early Van Briggle, all were in the vanguard of designing unique simple forms focusing on design and exquisite glazework. 

Newcomb Pottery

 When it arrived here it quickly became known as Arts and Crafts style. American designers worked to reinterpret this European design aesthetic for America and from this came "Craftsman"-style architecture, furniture, and decorative arts. These decorative arts included tile, glass and ceramics, and Mission Style evolved from this base also.

The best known of the American  furniture makers was Gustav Stickley, and collectors still hunt for Stickley Furniture as great collectibles and beautiful functional pieces.  Stickley edited a magazine called The Craftsman which he used it to promote both his designs and ideas.  Here's a link to the Stickley museum and home for more info and of course, dreaming.
https://www.stickleymuseum.org/programs/recent-programs/newcomb-exhibition.html

Roycroft, founded by Elbert Hubbard, was an arts and crafts community which had a printing press, furniture shops and potteries connected to it.  Hubbard wrote both The Fra, and The Philistine, spreading his philosophy of protest and socialism, both tied in to the roots of the Arts and Crafts movements. These magazines are also highly sought after and collected. Hubbard's story is a fascinating one and worth reading up on. He and his wife died when the Germans torpedoed the Lusitania in 1915. 

Rookwood, circa 1924

Craftsman, or American Craftsman is used to define the style of architecture, interior design, and decorative arts that prevailed in the USA from about 1900 to 1925. What makes this era especially remarkable was the first opportunities for women artisans and entrepreneurs. They were not allowed the same education as men and they were relegated to producing articles  related to the domestic arts, such as pottery and textiles.  Their fabulous work is still underappreciated and under recognized but they were the foremothers of today’s women artists and artisans.

This is a link to a phenomenal and in depth article on the movement. https://www.widewalls.ch/arts-and-crafts-movement-women-artists/