Hewn and Hammered

for sale: Stickley Settle, c. 1907

This beautiful L&JG Stickley settee is on Ebay right now. Asking price is a bit over $5,000.

ed & alice syszynski: ready to build

We've been big fans of Alice Suszynski's cabinetry ever since we first saw a small cabinet of hers at a bungalow show in San Francisco. Now, Alice has teamed up with her engineer husband Ed to produce a line of ready-to-build kits - small chests, cabinets and boxes intended for jewelry and other precious small items - showing off some of her signature styles. Dream Mountain Studios' ready-to-build line currently includes almost a dozen different designs, all firmly part of the Arts & Crafts tradition - Alice's prairie, bird and floral motifs are my personal favorite.

While you're at it, take a look at Alice's larger (and often custom) case goods.

Stickley Says Relax - redux

Due to popular demand (the previous run of green shirts has now sold out), here's a new version of the "Stickley Says Relax" shirt, this time printed-on-demand on a blue American Apparel short-sleeved shirt. $20, perfect for the American Craftsman aficionado(s) in your life.

the appeal of the wooden library card catalog

My parents met while students at UC Berkeley and I was born while they were in graduate school; my father stayed on at the university, eventually becoming a faculty member and administrator there. It's no surprise, then, that I spent a lot of time roaming libraries and their stacks.

One of my fondest memories of that time is of the wooden card catalogs that used to document the holdings of the graduate and undergraduate libraries - vast, long room-fulls of tiny little drawers, all in cases polished smooth by generations of student fingers and hands.

Since then, I've always loved these things; it might be that they offer an ideal of secure compartmentalization of everything, with each item having its own correct place, certainly an ideal for a perfectionist like me. Or it could be the inflexible grid that they are designed along, which appeals to my technician side. The grain of the wood, the warmth of it, always seemed to match that beautiful Craftsman finish, the fumed oak look that has become the hallmark of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Whatever the reason, these things are beautiful, and you don't find them in good shape all that often. Certainly, you get them more often than a decade ago, with so many libraries going all-digital, but they're still hard to find.

Here are a few that are up for sale right now:

• a 60-drawer catalog in Palm Beach Gardens, FL ($300)
• a gorgeous set of 3 60-drawer catalogs in Minneapolis, MN ($150 ea)
• an interesting and well-kept card catalog / file cabinet with inconsistently-sized drawers in Minneapolis, MN ($800)
• a small tabletop 15-drawer unit with pretty brass hardware in Detroit, MI ($299)
• a "library bureau card catalog" that is actually a refinished/restored printer's cabinet - drawers for type and cuts and sorts (although not full-size type drawers); inclined top for composing - absolutely beautiful! - in Long Island, NY ($900, and a good deal at that price)
• an "immaculate" all-cherry 70-drawer cabinet with pull-out shelves in Cleveland, OH ($975)
• an interesting 60-drawer unit, looks like 1930s or '40s design, in San Antonio, TX ($1500)
• a table-top 15-drawer cabinet with attractive stainless steel or nickel hardware in Milwaukee, MN ($250)
• A good looking, circa 1930 20-drawer unit on top of a pretty, decorative stand/table in Annapolis, MD ($800)
• a small unit with large drawers, this 4-drawer piece is rather original, in Sarasota, FL ($145)

Rago Arts & Auctions: Highlights

 

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Rago Arts & Auctions recently updated and enhanced their website, offering a more complete catalog of available "passed lots" - items not sold at previous auctions - as well as memorable highlights from recent auctions. Some amazing stuff, there; kind of neat to see price records for really excellent examples.

The most recent Early 20th Auction was this past Friday, October 1 2010. Some highlights are pictured above.

this weeks' Craigslist finds!

Plenty of gorgeous bits & pieces of furniture on sale around the country this week; here's a rundown of some Stickley pieces that stood out:

• relatively new settle, sideboard, and other pieces in Phoenix AZ, all for $5600
• signed drop-front desk in Burlingame CA for $850
• model 370 Gustav Stickley ladder-back side chairs in Manhattan, $1250 for three
• signed Gustav Stickley Morris chair in Lodi CA for $2100
• signed L&JG Stickley rocker with what looks like the original leather seat in Rochester NY, $750

for sale: Coxhead home in Pacific Heights, $3.4m

 

from the listing and article:

Built in 1894, this home was designed by renowned Arts and Crafts-style architect Ernest Coxhead. The property has been remodeled but still maintains many of its original details, starting with an entrance that features a carved front gate. The foyer opens up to a bright living area. It has a fireplace, as does the formal dining area. One more fireplace can be found in the home, which also has dark hardwood flooring. All four bedrooms are on the second level, including the master bedroom with two dormer windows that look out through the front of the home. A third-floor play room could function as an office. The property is two blocks from Alta Plaza park.

As our friend The Jaundiced Eye notes, "Doubtlessly, the place has been "modernized" and every square inch of original woodwork has been painted. From the photos posted, this house is a beautiful arts and crafts shell waiting for a new owner to further destroy Coxheads original vision."

Yeah, you know something is wrong when the big selling points for an historic home by a famous architect are "the kitchen ... features a Sub-Zero refrigerator (and) a Thermador range."

And from the few photographs that SFGate includes, you can see that yes indeedy much of the original woodwork is gone, replaced by high-gloss paint (and probably not even enamel, which would at least be slightly easier to remove). Such a shame - hopefully the realtors understand that this greatly diminishes the value of the home. Well, at least it's pretty on the outside.

photos by Samantha Lawson

Louis Sullivan print from the Chicago Stock Exchage

 

Check out this absolutely gorgeous print taken from a Louis Sullivan-designed stenciled ceiling canvas in the trading room of the 1893 Chicago Stock Exchange building. Available in a quarter-sawn frame from Dard Hunter Studios, it's available from Fair Oak Workshops in River Forest, Illinois. Thanks to our friend Russ Billington for the heads-up!

Alice Roth Suszynski's boxes & chests

 

We last ran a piece on Alice Suszynski's work a few years ago - at the time, she had recently produced an absolutely stunning wooden Arts & Crafts chandelier. Her newest venture is on a slightly smaller scale, although the work is no less intricate and attractive. Recently Alice has been busy making jewelry boxes that are quite a bit different from any you've seen before; some are inlaid, others etched or decorated with interesting dark wood accents; all are hand-made from top-quality woods with beautiful grain, and many include nods to Asian, Prairie and Arts & Crafts forms, although several are firmly modern and would be an excellent gift for an aficionado of almost any style.

Her Rye Grass flatware storage box is also particularly attractive. Alice is open to commissions for a wide range of woodwork projects.

Greentea Design Winter Sale

 

Just got an email today from one of my favorite retailers, Greentea Design: they're having a big winter sale, with some furniture items as much as 30% off! While much of what they sell is a mixture of traditional and contemporary Asian-inflected wooden furniture, the vast majority of it is a perfect fit for traditional Craftsman homes - remember, there's a long tradition, going back to Greene & Greene, of mixing Japanese and Chinese themes with the Craftsman look.

One of my favorite product lines at Greentea is their Maru collection, which consists of various tables (and other items) made from wood reclaimed from floors in old Korean homes and other buildings. Beautiful, classic, and green, too! The sale even includes 20% off on Greentea's stock kitchens, all of which are gorgeous and many of which are a perfect modernizing feature which won't overwhelm the look & feel of an older home.

I'm writing to let you know that Greentea Design's Winter Sale starts on January 6th. This is one of our biggest sales of the year. We're offering up to 30% off throughout the entire website. I had hoped to send this off earlier, but the sale start date got bumped up suddenly.
 
The Winter Sale discounts are offered based on the collection the furniture is in. The Kuryo Collection gets the biggest discount at 30% off. The popular Maru Table Collection, made directly from reclaimed Korean floors has a discount of 10%.  The Sakura lighting collection and Antiques Section are both 10% off as well.  The rest of Greentea Design's line is 20% off. The sale only applies to stock pieces; custom orders are excluded from any discounts.