~ The Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference ~ Asheville, North Carolina ~ February 17 - 19, 2012 ~

Historically, it was lumped together at the end of textbooks, wedged in between Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Unlike Arts & Crafts, neither of these styles caught on in America, at least not beyond a few major cities, and not as a way you would furnish your entire house.


But Arts & Crafts was different, and not just in how it looked. As a child, my best parts of Sunday School were the parables and one of my favorite was the one about the foolish man who built his house on sand. When the rains came, it was washed away, unlike that built by the wise man on a foundation of rock.


Art Nouveau and Art Deco are styles and like all things simply stylish, they can be washed away.


Arts & Crafts, however, was more than a style. It was also – and is also – a lifestyle. It has a foundation. It was not built upon the shifting sands of public taste. It was built upon a rock.


That rock was first identified by a couple of Englishmen – university professor and author John Ruskin, then by one of his students, William Morris.


Both were upper class, privileged individuals, but Morris attempted to put Ruskin’s words into practice.


Ruskin decried the Industrial Revolution and how factory owners and mine owners and mill owners enslaved the lower class and their children. Put them to work in horrible, life-threatening conditions.


Those who worked in factories were often producing fancy, elaborate but poorly made Victorian furniture – as was the style. Furniture that had no hope of surviving intact, as it relied on stamped hardware, thin veneers and applied, molded carvings.


Morris took Ruskin’s words and put them into practice, employing craftsmen and craftswomen to make beautiful, useful objects by hand. Paying them a fair wage for their labor and offering those handmade items for sale in his shop with the intent of bring art into the homes of the lower and middle classes.


The only problem:  they couldn’t afford them.


While the English floundered with various experiments with guild systems, the seed of the Arts & Crafts movement traveled to America, where it took root and flourished.


Here is was not so much a social revolution as it was a ‘residential revolution.’


The Industrial Revolution had spawned a new middle class and they were now the majority. They were ready for a new style of living, different from the excesses of the Victorian upper class.


They wanted The  Simple  Life.


They wanted simple, affordable homes that did not require servants – and so the bungalow emerged.


They wanted furniture that was simple, yet sophisticated; handcrafted and durable, made of native woods such as chestnut and oak rather than rosewood and mahogany.


They wanted pottery that was both beautiful and useful, that took its inspiration from Nature and that featured soft, textured, matte glazes rather than high gloss gilded ware.


And they applied the same principles to metalware, lighting, art, fabrics and rugs.


So, then, what emerged as the basic principles of the Arts & Crafts movement?


Hand-Craftsmanship. Honest materials. Sophisticated design unencumbered by unnecessary ornament. Themes and colors inspired by Nature.


But – it had to be affordable. Otherwise it was nothing more than another failed experiment.


And so the American entrepreneur spirit steps in.


It begins in 1895 in East Aurora, NY, where a former soap salesman and marketing whiz kid by the name of Elbert Hubbard establishes a book printing and publishing business in a barn and calls it Roycroft, meaning the “king’s craft” – paying homage to its English roots. Being the salesman and marketing genius that he is, Elbert Hubbard hires talented individuals to illustrate and bind his books, then expands his enterprise with the Roycroft Inn, the Roycroft Copper Shop and the Roycroft Furniture Shop, plus a couple of magazines.


It was a relatively new style of management, one I call a “benevolent dictator.”


This was no guild, there was no profit sharing. It was American ingenuity at its best. “Happy workers are productive workers.” Provide them with a safe, pleasing place to work; encourage them to be creative and to make suggestions for new designs; give them tools to reduce the drudgery of certain tasks; provide for them entertainment and education, through lectures, parties and outings, and pay them a fair, but not excessive, wage – and they will produce.


And Hubbard would sell.


Down the road in Syracuse, another 40-something with a string of failed partnerships by the name of Gustav Stickley discovered the Arts & Crafts style and took it to the next level. Stickley was not the first to “invent” Arts & Crafts furniture as we know it. Frank Lloyd Wright, Elbert Hubbard and Joseph McHugh could dispute that claim.


But Stickley developed it from its early, awkward forms into a powerful, sophisticated collection of furniture that he proclaimed would foster family unity and community.


And although he only went so far as eighth grade, Stickley recognized the power of the written word, so he immediately founded his own magazine, The Craftsman. While Stickley was not a writer, it was his voice. The Craftsman provided the rising middle class with advice on pertinent subjects:  how to choose and build a bungalow, landscaping, gardening, farming, and decorating. His writers reviewed new books and featured articles on new craftsmen and women – Robert Jarvie - Artis Van briggle.


And he used this powerful voice to sell furniture.


Furniture made in a factory outside Syracuse, using power tools and some assembly line methods, and like Elbert Hubbard, Gustav Stickley took care of his workers. Although his attempt at a profit-sharing plan was soon discarded, his employees enjoyed working for him. He provided them with safe, pleasant working conditions, power machinery and the opportunity to take part in the design and construction process.


He influenced each of his brothers to also begin producing Arts & Crafts furniture.


Leopold (his former foreman) and John formed the “L. & JG Stickley Company” in Fayetteville, NY.


Charles went into partnership with their uncle under the name of “Stickley & Brandt.”


Albert moved to Grand Rapids, taking with him their original name “The Stickley Brothers Company.”


Their stories are expertly documented in Michael Clark and Jill Thomas-Clark’s book, The Stickley Brothers.


Grand Rapids had already been established as the center for furniture production in the United States, so it soon followed that well-known furniture manufacturers also began producing their versions of Arts & Crafts furniture. Some, such as Charles Limbert, developed original, high-quality Arts & Crafts furniture. Others attempted to copy the designs of Gustav Stickley and some simply produced cheap, knock-offs, ignoring the philosophical foundation of handcraftsmanship, quality materials and sophisticated design.


The proliferation of inexpensive knock-offs and novelty items marketed and sold as Arts & Crafts cannot be dismissed as one of the factors that lead to the decline in popularity of the Arts & Crafts style after 1920.


Those who have studied the POTTERY field know that art pottery did not spring out of the Arts & Crafts movement. More than one seminar presentation has been titled, “Is it Art Pottery or Arts & Crafts Pottery?”


Prior to the Arts & Crafts movement, there was utilitarian pottery – urns, crocks and storage vessels – that had been produced for centuries. There was also art pottery – vases and bowls that while they might be pressed into service, had as their primary function to look pretty.


During the Victorian era artistic pottery stumbled down the same path taken by furniture:  over-the-top, unnecessary decoration, which rendered it impractical and often very expensive. Beauty remains in the eye of the beholder.


Out of this mess first emerged the Rookwood Pottery, whose roots were firmly imbedded in the Victorian era, but whose designers soon grasped the principles of the Arts & Crafts movement. Of all the potteries of this era, Rookwood is the most complex to comprehend the subtle differences in design, decoration and glazes. It is a field unto itself, but fortunately for us, many books and articles have been written to guide us through it. I will leave it up to them to educate you.


Among the first potters to apply the principles of hand-craftsmanship, honest materials and homage to Nature was William Grueby. Trained to produce terra cotta ornamental designs for buildings, Grueby began to experiment with glaze formulas in his search for a true matte finish. Each bowl, vase or lamp base was hand thrown on the potter’s wheel, allowed to barely dry, then decorated with a simple form - most often leaves or a simple flower – that was pressed or carved onto the damp form. The piece would then be fired in the kiln, a glaze applied, then a second firing. Grueby developed several colors of glazes, but his most famous now bears his name – Grueby green.


Just as Stickley had to deal with imitators, so did William Grueby. By 1911 he had stopped producing art pottery to concentrate on ceramic tiles.


The social reform movement that accompanied the Arts & Crafts movement in England also had its counterparts in America. The making and decorating of art pottery was seen by several individuals as a means of providing young men and women with an income-earning skill. Others saw it as a therapeutic treatment for individuals faced with a long-term recuperation from physical, emotional or mental illness.


Among the most famous potteries formed for this purpose was Marblehead Pottery, managed by a 19-year-old name Arthur Baggs. Under Baggs’ supervision, the patients at Dr. Herbert Hall’s sanitarium created simple, graceful forms with stylized decoration and matte glazes. Frustrated at times by losing talented decorators once they recuperated, Baggs began hiring full-time decorators and potters and eventually distanced the pottery from the sanitarium.


It was at Marblehead that we often first encounter the term “stylized decoration.” Rather than attempt to depict a flower or an insect realistically, an artist or decorator would reduce it to a flat, somewhat abstract pattern with a heavy reliance on geometric motifs.


Also in Massachusetts, the Saturday Evening Girls Pottery evolved out of the desire by two social workers to get young women off the streets of Boston on Saturday nights. The girls were taught how to decorate pottery that was then sold to support the settlement were some of them lived. Before long the enterprise was open six days a week and providing employment and training to scores of young women. Also known as the Paul Revere Pottery, it proved success in its goal to train these young women, but always depended on benefactors to remain in business. Their pottery is often characterized by incised lines around a nature-inspired decoration, the lines which would then be filled with black. Like Marblehead and Grueby, they would most often utilize a matte glaze over their forms.


The popularity of art pottery and the interest in the welfare of young women was not limited to the northeast, however. In New Orleans, the president and faculty of Newcomb College hired skilled potters and decorators to produce forms that could then be decorated by young female students in need of a marketable skill. Like Marblehead, its goal of becoming self-sufficient was never reached, but the college recognized its value and continued to support the pottery.


The decorators often took Southern motifs as their themes and applied them to the clay, both as colored glazes and incised lines. As would be expected, a great deal of experimentation took place at Newcomb College Pottery, both in terms of decorations and of glazes. You are apt to find high gloss as well as matte glazes on Newcomb Pottery. Their blue and green matte glazes over a Southern bayou scene emerged as their most popular – then and now.


One of the potters who created the vases and bowls for the young women at Newcomb College Pottery to decorate was the wildly unpredictable George Ohr. He soon proved to eccentric for the college faculty and left to form his own pottery in nearby Biloxi, Mississippi. A master of self-promotion, George Ohr was also a pottery genius, relentless in his quest to push clay to its physical limits, by twisting, folding, bending and indenting it as no one had before. His glazes ranged from none to high gloss and everything in between. Evaluating Ohr’s pottery is made difficult by the fact that comparisons to other potteries are meaningless; so learn all you can about the Mad Potter of Biloxi before jumping in too deep.


Far more subdued, another tortured soul – Artis Van Briggle – also has emerged as a major potter of the Arts & Crafts era. Trained at Rookwood, young Van Briggle and his bride moved to Colorado in hopes of easing the pain in his tuberculosis-infected lungs. On those days when he could work, Van Briggle sculpted his original forms, then – in a step other potters had disdained – created duplicate forms using molds. Van Briggle was less motivated by the creation of different forms as he was by his search for the perfect matte glaze.


By 1904 Artis Van Briggle was dead, but his wife Anne carried on his work until she sold the pottery in 1913. A series of owners continued to create new forms and to utilize Artis Van Briggle’s original forms using molds and a variety of glazes. As you would expect, those pieces produced while Van Briggle was alive and in the years immediately following when Anne was supervising the pottery are the most valuable.


Another pottery that also relied on molds rose to prominence during the Arts & Crafts era. A Chicago attorney by trade, William Gates created the Terra Cotta Company – shortened to Teco, to produce terra cotta ornament for buildings. Gates embraced the use of molds without apology, citing the need to remain financially profitable. Gates designed some pieces himself, but turned to noted designers and architects – including Frank Lloyd Wright – for special designs.


Like William Grueby, William Gates created a matte green glaze that collectors seek today. Gates kept his decorations to a minimum, relying, instead, on buttress handles, incised lines and architectural-inspired forms under matte glazes.


While men such as Artis Van Briggle and William Gates recognized the mold as being to pottery what the machine was to Stickley’s furniture production, claiming that it is how the mold or the machine are used that distinguishes quality from inferiority, not everyone who followed was as concerned with quality.


The problem with a mold is that each time it is used the detailing inside the mold loses some crispness, some sharpness, some detail. Unless the mold is then discarded, the pottery that emerges will slip in quality. Obviously, not all molded pottery is inferior to hand-thrown pottery, but it has to be carefully inspected and evaluated in relationship to its price.



METALS



When compared to pottery, collecting Arts & Crafts metalware is a breeze.  Heavy is good. Hammering is good. A patina is good.


Just as furniture makers turned to oak because it was easy to machine, easy to finish and affordable, the metalsmiths turned to copper for the same reasons.


There were Arts & Crafts silversmiths, however, and some great ones:  the Kalo Shop in Chicago, Shreve & Company in San Francisco, Arthur Stone in Boston, Gorham in Rhode Island. They should not be dismissed simply because they expressed the tenets of the Arts & Crafts movement on silver rather than copper.


The Heintz Metal Arts Company also used bronze, spun into shape on a lathe, then decorated with applied sterling silver using Arts & Crafts motifs. Like copper, the bronze was also treated chemically to create the effect of an aged patina.


The most prolific metalshop was the Roycroft Copper Shop, which produced hand-hammered copper wares from 1906 until 1938. The majority was produced under the watchful eye of Karl Kipp, who from 1912-1915 left Roycroft to form his own shop, the Tookay Shop.


The Roycrofters were best known for their desk sets, bookends, candlesticks, trays, vases and bowls. They also produced some fabulous lamps with mica shades, all of which were marketed through their catalogues or in gift shops across the country, including one here in the Great Hall. The Roycroft Copper Shop was not a factory. It was a large workshop with scores of metalsmiths, each working at their own bench. Pieces were hammered into shape, not stamped or pressed. They were then treated with chemicals to produce a dark patina that ordinarily would take years, even decades to develop through the natural oxidation process.


(Patina is expensive rust.)


The greatest lampmaker of the Arts & Crafts era was Dirk Van Erp, a San Francisco metalsmith who only employed an assistant or two and who decried using anything other than hand tools. He was a gruff, serious, dedicated craftsman whose copper vases and lamps are cherished today for their shapes, their hammered texture, their mica shades and their patinas.



WHAT IS THE ART IN ARTS & CRAFTS?



Your typical middle class bungalow owner could not afford to buy original oil paintings, so the artists of the Arts & Crafts era often turned to the hand-cut, hand-pressed print in order to make their art affordable and to be able to offer it to a larger audience.


The wood block print originated in Japan, examples of which were imported and collected during the Arts & Crafts era. The technique was labor-intensive and time consuming. A drawing was traced upon a series of identical wood blocks. Each color was assigned its own block and any portion of the drawing, which was not to receive that color of ink, was hand-carved away using sharp chisels. If a print had six colors, it required six blocks.


The first color of ink would be applied to the first block, which was then hand-pressed upon a sheet of paper that was then set aside to dry. The process would be repeated until each sheet of paper had been printed with each color. If the printer slipped and the paper did not line up with the registration marks on the block, the color would overlap another color and the print would be ruined.


To make the task slightly easier, artists often carved linoleum rather than wood blocks, which is why the term “block print” is used in place of “wood block print.” But the printing process is still as labor intensive and nerve wracking.


This explains why block prints are often smaller than original oil paintings. Jasper Johns could splash on enough paint to fill a six-foot canvas while a block print artist was just carving his or her first block.


Among the names you will hear most often as block print artist are those of Arthur Wesley Dow, who is just as respected as a teacher of this art as he is as for his artwork, Eliza Gardiner, Margaret Patterson, William Rice and Frances Gearhart.


The other form of art I would like to mention is the textiles – table runners, placemats, pillows and curtains. As antiques, we seldom know who handstitched or stenciled each one for they are rarely signed. They are often too delicate to use, which is why we are fortunate to have textile artists working today, creating replicas that we can use in our daily lives. Old or new, these textiles often bear the same motifs we find on the art pottery of the era, done in the same style.



CONCLUSION



We are fortunate to have the opportunity here this weekend and beyond to fill our homes with both the antiques of the Arts & Crafts era and the new works created by craftsmen and craftswomen working in the Arts & Crafts tradition and style.


I began as an antiques collector, but my home could not be complete without the new works I have purchased to fill the gaps antiques could not fill. Anyone who insists on only buying antiques or only buying new works is depriving themselves of something.


Despite their advances in dyes and finishes, no new work can match the century-old patina, the feel, even the scent of an authentic antique.


Contemporary Craftsfirms can, however, create the coffee tables and the entertainment centers, the matching sets of lights or of curtains that never were created a hundred years ago or that we might never be able to find or afford.


No Arts & Crafts home would be complete without a careful blend of both the old and the new.


And let me send you back to the show tomorrow with a few pearls of wisdom for buying either antiques or new works in the Arts & Crafts style:


~ The rarest antiques are those with an original finish and no repairs or restoration. They will cost the most today, but will go up in value faster and further than repaired and refinished versions.


~ Antiques that have been refinished or repaired should be priced accordingly.


Do not be blinded by shopmarks. A small sewing rocker with a big, beautiful Stickley shopmark is still a small sewing rocker.


Let each piece speak for itself.


Not every piece of Stickley, Roycroft or Rookwood is a masterpiece.


It is better to have the best example of a lesser known firm that the worst example of a famous one.


You have a wonderful opportunity here this weekend. Soak it all in. Linger in every booth. There is something to learn from every booth, every exhibitor. Introduce yourself. Make friends. And come back, for At the Grove Park Inn, The Arts & Crafts Movement never ended.