Mission Furniture: Furniture of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (Schiffer Book for Collectors)
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.