Product Description

In 1988, Barbara Streisand paid $363,000 dollars at auction for a sideboard by Gustav Stickley, establishing mission furniture as a rival of early American furniture. Since then dealers and collectors have scrambled to learn how to identify makers and evaluate prices. This extensive book presents the histories of the major mission furniture companies including Stickley, Limbert, Roycroft, Young, Harden, Leavens, and others. With more than 300 color photographs, Mission Furniture provides identification clues, glossary of terms, and values. It also documents the never-before published furniture designs of the William Leavans Company. This is an excellent reference source that is a must for dealers, collectors, interior designers, and anyone interested in the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1971603 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Library Journal
The American Arts and Crafts Movement followed the English revolt in the 1890s against plush Victorian taste and flourished until World War I changed American taste again. Aiming for a simpler lifestyle, it featured straight lines, cut-outs, mortise and tenon support, and peg joinery and made names like Gustav Stickley, Elbert Hubbard and the "Roycrofters," and the break-away Stickley Brothers all the rage. Royka, along with Skinner Galleries and many obliging collectors, has now put together this compilation of works and their values, all of which shot up after Barbra Streisand paid $363,000 for a Stickley sideboard in 1988. Not since Tod Volpe's Treasures of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, 1890-1920 (LJ 12/88) has there been such a visual appreciation of these dynamic designs. Except for a few light fixtures, the works shown here are all furniture. The cut-outs, the geometric angles, and the stunning quarter-sawn oak are well displayed in 300 color photos and in the reprints from period catalogs. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.?Joseph C. Hewgley, Nashville P.L.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Paul A. Royka is a twentieth century design expert living in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

THE BEST
This book is worht every penny! from the photographs, to the old catalogs, not to mention all the useful information. I will go back to this book over and over again. Incredible!