GUSTAV STICKLEY | A RARE PIANO BENCH, MODEL NO. 176

From an original interior of a camp in the Finger Lakes region, Adirondacks, New York, circa 1901

Dalton’s American Decorative Arts, Syracuse, New York

Cathers & Dembrosky, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa 2002

Stephen Gray, The Early Work of Gustav Stickley, New York, 1987, p. 39 (for a drawing of the model)

David Cathers, ''Attracted to Opposites,'' American Bungalow, Summer 2007, p. 38 (for the present lot illustrated)

The rare Piano Bench and Six-Leg Settle offered in the following two lots (lots 241-242) are from an extraordinary rediscovered commission of Gustav Stickley furniture from a camp in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York. Meticulously maintained by being wrapped in William Morris fabrics for decades, the pieces are in pristine original condition. In the words of scholar David Cathers, “Though a century old at the time of its discovery, this furniture was so perfectly preserved that it seemed fresh from the factory floor: it was a Stickley ‘time capsule’.” The exceedingly rare Piano Bench retains its original green stain, and the Settle remarkably retains its original leather cushions. Nineteen additional pieces from this historic commission were generously gifted by Gregg and Monique Seibert in 2018 to The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, and several were included in the seminal exhibition on Gustav Stickley at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2011. There is currently a plan by the curatorial department of the Stickley Museum for these gifted items to go on display in an upcoming major exhibition.