Q. I stopped at an estate sale one Saturday morning and to my great surprise, found this rocker before anyone else did. I now own my first piece of Stickley furniture. The leather is in wonderful condition, but the wood is very dry. Should I apply a coat or two of linseed oil? Is the leather okay to sit on, if we don’t use it too often?
Daphne DeLand
San Francisco, Calif.
Nice find—it’s rare that a piece of Stickley shows up at an estate sale in California. This nursing rocker was manufactured by the L.&J.G. Stickley Co. in Fayetteville, N.Y., from quarter-sawn American white oak. This piece has been known as a nursing rocker, sewing rocker or slipper rocker (the low seat-to-floor height made it easier to fasten the buttons or ties on ladies’ shoes).
From the photos you sent, the piece seems in very good condition, and still retains its original decal shop mark introduced in 1912. I’m also impressed with the condition of the spring seat. The leather appears original. On finds with original leather, I usually advise that a second seat be made and the original safely stored. A word of warning; the leather may look great now, but it is quite fragile and with use will break down. Because it is a small rocker, I would assume it will not get heavy use, so you could choose to leave the original seat in place and sit with care. Original upholstery does enhance the value of antique furniture, but if the condition detracts from the piece or renders it unusable, storing the original and replacing with new is appropriate.
As for wood care, I would stay away from oil products, as they can lift the original finish. If you would like to add some richness and depth to the color, try a good quality paste wax. The point of paste wax is to add a protective coating and preserve the delicate original finish. This allows the paste wax to take the wear, not the finish. Add more wax when needed. The new application will remove the old wax coating, leaving a new layer of protective wax.
Congratulations on your great find.
Q. I acquired a pair of Stickley tables shortly after I moved into my Los Angeles airplane bungalow in 1988. Although they are clearly marked Stickley, they don’t appear very Arts and Crafts. But the Stickley logo is stamped on the underside of the shelf. Are these really Stickley? Are they considered Arts and Crafts? Any idea when they were made? What kind of wood is it?
Mark DeMan
Los Angeles, Calif.
Over the years I have been involved with Art and Crafts, I have observed many emotions experienced by collectors who find the name “Stickley” on a piece of furniture, including excitement, confusion and disappointment. The answer to your question is somewhat complicated. To clarify, I turned to my good friend Mike Danial, historian at Stickley, Audi and Company:
“This end table, made of mahogany solids and veneer with leather tooled tops, was made in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the factory of Albert Stickley. However, this is not a Stickley table.
Your table was made between 1940–1966, many years after the heyday of the Arts and Crafts Movement brought Stickley mission oak furniture to prominence. Albert had died in 1928; his Grand Rapids factory was purchased in the late 1940s by the Western Table Company of Selma, Ala., the company who designed and built your tables.
Western Table Company was prohibited from using the name Stickley, as they’d purchased the factory, not the name. However, many pieces had already been sold and continued to be branded with the Stickley name, as yours was, even as late as the 1960s.
As you might imagine, there really is no active collector interest in this particular line of furniture because Albert Stickley did not design these tables nor are they considered to be Stickley in the collector’s view.
-Mike Danial
Q. I purchased this Stickley rocking chair with a rope foundation and would like to determine the age. I cannot find a time line on the older works he did, but I believe due to the rope foundation it is pre-1910. I could not find a shop mark on it anywhere. If this truly is Stickley, I want to reupholster the cushion correctly and need to know correct colors and dimensions. Would replacing the rope affect the value?
Walt Parke
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
You are correct in assuming rope or cord was used as a foundation in Gustav Stickley’s earlier pieces. You could probably narrow it down a bit further and say 1900 to 1905, however there are always exceptions.
It’s easier to determine approximate age through the shop mark (on this chair, I would typically look under the arm first), but just because there is no shop mark doesn’t mean it’s not authentic. There are many good Stickley pieces out there without shop marks. On this particular chair, the shop mark would have been a decal, which could easily have come off sometime over the years, perhaps during refinishing. But we know this is Stickley because it matches the catalog image in design and dimension. This was a model that was introduced in the “Chips” catalog in 1901and offered for quite a few years. It started as either a rope or cane foundation and was changed to a spring seat probably somewhere between 1905 and 1910.
Replacing the rope appears to be necessary, but will not affect the value. I found two Stickley catalog images to give you an idea of how this chair was upholstered. The first example (top of page, rocker on left) was leather with lacing, heavy in texture, possibly bison; the second (above) would have been a softer sewn cow hide. Colors were usually in the medium-to-dark, warm brown range, but I have seen a deep green used as well. Nice find—have fun with the restoration.
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