The Byrdcliffe Arts & Crafts Colony

the carved polychrome panel designed by Zulma Steele

Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead and Ralph Radcliffe-Whitehead
thence by descent

Arcady to Byrdcliffe: The Whiteheads' Circle of Artists, James R. Bakker Gallery, Boston, MA, November 19-December 10, 1999

Robert Edwards et al., Life By Design: The Byrdcliffe Arts & Crafts Colony, Wilmington, DE, 1984, p. 9 (for a period photograph showing a ''lily'' chair from this set in a showroom at the Byrdcliffe Colony, ca. 1904)
Robert Edwards, ''The Utopias of Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead,'' The Magazine Antiques, January 1985, p. 271
Nancy E. Green, ed., Byrdcliffe: An American Arts and Crafts Colony, Cornell, 2004, p. 169, cat. no. 24 (for the ''lily'' chair in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

Byrdcliffe ''lily'' chairs are stylistically distinctive.  Oak chairs more obviously related to the American Arts & Crafts or ''Mission'' style can be seen under construction in period photographs of the Byrdcliffe woodworking shop, and the overall design of the ''lily'' chairs is simple and straightforward like any of the Stickleys' mass-produced designs.  Unlike the Stickleys, however, Byrdcliffe craftsmen did not attempt to use their medium to convey the message of the Movement—the type of wood (cherry) is unimportant and the joinery is concealed.  The designs of Byrdcliffe furniture derive from British and European sources, but the style of its carved, polychrome decorations is original.  The harmonious combination results in a unique interpretation of Arts & Crafts style.

Zulma Steele used design skills learned while studying with Arthur Wesley Dow at the Pratt Institute to conventionalize an orange Asian lily for use as decoration on Byrdcliffe furniture.  She adapted her basic design to fit on several forms including this chair, blanket chests, a cricket, dining tables, lampstands, a hanging cabinet and a sideboard.  This chair may have come from a suite made for Bolton Brown’s Byrdcliffe house, ''Carniola.''

Robert Edwards