Gustav Stickley

Private Collection, Colorado, ca. 1902
Thence by descent
Cathers & Dembrosky, New York, 1997

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, 2007-2010

Overall in very good condition. The oak surfaces throughout appear to retain their original finish, and display extraordinary vibrancy to their original green stain. The wood surfaces with some occasional light surface scratches and abrasions consistent with age and gentle use, and with a few areas of transparent splatter marks from a liquid along the bottom front surfaces. The outer right-hand border of the fourth panel (farthest right) with two areas of small plugged holes (which appear to be from hinges or brackets formerly attached), and with what appears to be minor touch ups to the green stain in this area. There is one very small circular area to the front left border of the second panel where the stain may also have been retouched. The screen remarkably retains its original inset leather panels, which are in excellent condition, and show some light surface scratches, abrasions and a few scattered small stains consistent with age and gentle use, and with one small tear to the first panel (1 inch long, appears tight and stable). The reverse side of the screen is decorated with inset green-stained chamfered boards in the top and bottom panels, displaying exceptional color vibrancy consistent with the front of the screen. The hinges with replaced screws. An exceedingly rare monumental screen by Stickley displaying superb color to its original green stain. The screen displays beautifully in person with great scale and presence. The colors of the green stain and inset leather panels are slightly more subtle and less dense than seen in the catalogue illustration, which is slightly over saturated. Please note that this screen is signed with the Stickley firm's red decal on the reverse side. Please note the correct provenance of this lot as follows: Private Collection, Colorado, ca. 1902 Thence by descent Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL Private Collection, New York Tim Gleason Gallery, New York Michael Fitzsimmons Decorative Arts, Chicago, IL Private Collection, Chicago, IL Cathers & Dembrosky, New York
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Utility, Simplicity, Beauty:  Gustav Stickley's Green Folding Screen

The scale, condition and color of this unique screen distinguish it as among the rarest and most significant early works of Gustav Stickley's United Crafts.  This four-part screen has a rigorous geometric structure that conveys confidence and modernity, but the warmth of its inset leather panels and hominess of its green stain and gently chamfered oak boards emphasize its domestic use.  This object was singled out by David Cathers in Gustav Stickley (Phaidon 2003) for its exceptionally intact colored finish: "this ca. 1902 oak and leather room divider is a rare surviving example of the color effects Stickley achieved with his favored, but fugitive, green stains." (page 42)

Noting the influence of M.H. Baillie Scott on United Crafts designer Lamont Warner and other designers of Stickley's "tinted wood" furniture in 1901 and 1902, Cathers called attention to Stickley's "plain, soundly constructed furniture." (page 44)  "In language that was to be echoed in Craftsman publications, [Scott] enumerated his furniture's virtues: simplicity; good proportions; the unobtrusive brown or green stains that added color to the oak or ash used in its construction." (page 45)

Room dividers played a central role in Stickley's furniture throughout his production, but were especially important to his efforts to revolutionize American home interiors during 1901 and 1902.  Folding screens were featured prominently among Stickley's offerings as early as 1901 in "Chips from the Workshops of the United Crafts."  Stickley featured at least two room dividers at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo in the same year.  When Stickley set forth his artistic ideals in the form of a model dining room in early 1903, he included a similar tall folding screen.

Screens were also prominently featured in early issues of Stickley's Craftsman magazine.  The first illustration in its second issue (November 1901) showed furnishings "from the dining room of Mr. Gustave Stickley," including a smaller version of the Folding Screen offered here, similar in its simple rectilinear design and inset panels.  The opening line drawing of the December 1901 issue presented a related model, and a "four-fold screen" took center stage in the January 1902 issue, with a full-page image preceding the text for the volume.  Another screen was featured as a room divider in "The Living Room," a drawing by architect Henry Wilhelm Wilkinson in the Craftsman in February 1902.  A "Screen in fumed oak" with chamfered boards in the lower register and inset leather panels above was featured in the May 1902 issue.

Originally from an Adirondack-style great camp in Colorado, this screen epitomizes Stickley's bold effort to achieve a national design style.  As Stickley's design theorist Irene Sargent argued throughout her seminal A Revival of Old Arts and Crafts Applied to Wood and Leather (1901), "simplicity must be the guiding force in design," and in Stickley's early furniture "emphasis was given to durability, as well as the authenticity of their materials and integrity of their finish, a 'pleasing gray-brown effect, which in some lights gives out fine notes of green.'" (Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Yale University Press, September 2010, p. 53)  This folding screen is a dramatic and satisfying presentation of Stickley and Sargent's tenets of utility, simplicity and beauty.