Original gustav stickley furniture

Gustav Stickley, the eldest son of first generation German immigrants Barbara and Leopold Stoeckel, was born March 9, 1858 in Osceola, Wisconsin.  Originally named Gustave Stickley, he dropped the “e” from his name around 1903.  When his parents separated in 1869 his formal education ended at sixth grade and he began training as a stonemason.  By the age of 12, young Gustave was employed as a stonemason helping to support the large family.   He moved with his mother and some of his siblings to Brandt, Pennsylvania about 1875, and began working at an uncle’s chair factory, where he soon rose to manage it.

In 1883 he and his brothers Albert and Charles founded the Stickley Brothers Company in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.  That same year he married Eda Ann Simmons and a year later the brothers moved their operations to Binghamton, New York. By 1898 he had his own furniture business, The Gustave Stickley Company, in the Eastwood suburb of Syracuse, New York.

In 1895 he traveled to Europe for the first time and a transformation began. He saw the products of the English Arts and Crafts

Gustav Stickley: The Man Behind the Arts & Crafts Movement in America

Gustav Stickley (1858-1942) rose from being an ordinary carpenter to becoming the head of a major enterprise encompassing furniture, metalwork, interior design, architecture, journalism, and more. Stickley created an entire empire based on the values of simplicity, quality craftsmanship, and wholesome living. He disseminated all of this through his magazine The Craftsman. Stickley was deeply inspired by William Morris, John Ruskin, and the Arts and Crafts movement, but his own values and ideology made him much more than just their American imitator. Furniture based on his designs is still sold today.

Gustav Stickley and the Craftsman Style

The son of German immigrants, Stickley learned the trade of chair-making from maternal relatives in Pennsylvania. He started out working in the family shop, producing typical late-19th-century furnishings in historicizing styles such as Colonial Revival. However, a visit to England in 1898 changed the course of Stickley’s career. He was already familiar wi

Second-generation German immigrant Gustav Stickley is remembered today as one of America’s leading furniture designers and arbiters of taste. A key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, Stickley created an authentically American furniture designed to suit the needs of modern families. He also founded a groundbreaking magazine, <em>The Craftsman</em>, whereby he publicized his work and the philosophies that motivated it. Stickley’s furniture enjoyed widespread popularity among consumers. As importantly, however, his work influenced others in the craft and building professions, specially designers and architects who were receptive to Arts and Crafts ideals.

Introduction

The son of German-born immigrants, the American designer and publisher Gustav Stickley—best known for his Craftsman furniture, Craftsman home plans, bungalow designs, and The Craftsman magazine (published 1901-16)—was a major figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States. Through the pages of The Craftsmanas well as publications such as Craftsman Homes (1909) and Mo

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