In 1902, four years after Gustav Stickley began building furniture in his United Crafts Workshops in Eastwood, New York, his brother Leopold established his own Arts and Crafts furniture business a few miles away in Fayetteville, a suburb of Syracuse, to which he soon recruited his brother J. George. They initially used the trademark "Onondaga Shops," for the county in which it was located; by 1910 they were labeling their furniture "Handcraft."
Like their brother Gustav's designs, those of L. and J. G. Stickley include many first-rate examples of American Arts and Crafts style. This unique volume provides a comprehensive look at their early achievement, combining reprints of extremely rare copies of two sets of promotional literature from approximately 1906-09 and 1909.
The first is a handbound salesman's catalog, circa 1906-09, presenting 129 wash drawings and eight photographs of Onondaga Shops furniture. The second consists of 110 drawings of Handcraft furniture reproduced from a very rare set of loose plates, circa 1909. The designs depicted range from a leather-topped library table, an office swivel chair, and a canvas-covered Morris chair to a leather-upholstered settle, a writing desk with hand-wrought copper pulls, a mirrored sideboard, a line of spindle furniture never before reprinted, and numerous other pieces almost entirely unknown today. A preface by Robert L. Zarrow and a historical introduction by Donald A. Davidoff shed light on neglected aspects of the work of this important and still-thriving firm. Scholars, designers, and enthusiasts of home furnishings and the decorative arts will find in these pages a rare record of a memorable chapter in the history of American furniture design.
