Arts and Crafts Period Interior Design and Home Decorating: Names to Know

William Morris (1834-1896) was a forerunner of the Arts & Crafts movement, which organically grew out of his late Victorian Art Nouveau and Gothic style designs. Morris was a prolific English textile designer, artist, writer, illustrator, medievalist and socialist.    He founded a design firm in partnership with the Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the architect Philip Webb. Along with the Kelmscott Press, which he began in 1891, Morris & Co. produced books, textiles, wallpapers, and other items.

You can buy the picture of William Morris you see here at AllPosters.com.

William Morris
and
Morris & Co.

William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home

The
Beautiful
Necessity

News from Nowhere and Other Writings
(Penguin Classics)

The
William Morris Collection

William Morris:
Romantic to Revolutionary

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a philosopher, artist and a critic of art and design, writer, lecturer, philantropist, preservationist, traveler and teacher with interests ranging from architecture and botany to geology and utopianism. Ruskin was one of the leading proponents of the Gothic Revival style, promoting a "Protestant" Gothic style that countered Pugin's Roman Catholic influenced designs. He was admired by William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites (many of whom he supported financially), and the Arts & Crafts/Craftsman movement.

Ruskin's scope was global and his prolific writings were influential around the world. His work was translated and written about by Proust, Tolstoy, and Ghandi, among many other notable literary and historic figures. In Japan, Ryuzo Mikimoto (of the Mikimoto Pearl enterprise) commissioned sculptures and other items of Ruskin and his works, incorporated his designs into his jewelry line, established the Ruskin Society of Tokyo and built a library to house his Ruskin collection. Ruskin is definitely worth reading and learning more about. In 2019 the bicentennial of his birth will be celebrated.

Photo of John Ruskin (above) is available at AllPosters.com

Gustav Stickley (1858 - 1942) was inspired by John Ruskin, William Morris and his company during a trip to Europe in 1895. He soon developed their aesthetic into a distinctly American utilitarian style that bears his name. Stickley pieces are usually made of quarter sawn oak and have strong rectilinear lines.

His Craftsman style furniture ranged from slatted "Mission" style seating and desks to simple bedframes with long tapered bedposts. Stickley furniture was often constructed using mortise-and-tenon joinery and hammered-metal hardware. Upholstered pieces were finished in natural, simple materials ranging from leather to sturdy hand-printed woven fabrics. (Continued below)

From 1901 to 1916, he also published a design magazine The Craftsman with New York's Syracuse University professor Irene Sargent as editor. The magazine's coverage included homes and home crafts, literature and music, architecture, city planning, social conditions and progressive political issues. He was a staunch conservationish and advocate for women's rights and the fair treatment of employees. Allthough not a socialist, Stickley seems to have promoted a lot of the same concepts and causes that the socialists supported.

Stickley Style:
Arts and Crafts
Homes
in the Craftsman Tradition

Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture:
27 Stickley Designs for Every Room

Stickley Craftsman Furniture Catalogs

Early L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture:
From Onondaga Shops to Handcraft

Roycroft, founded by Elbert Hubbard, was a community of a community of printers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, bookbinders, and similar artists and craftsmen. Roycraft, a part of the Arts and Crafts movement, was founded by Hubbard in 1895 in East Aurora, New York.

The name "Roycroft" was chosen by Hubbard because it meant "KIng's Craft." In the medieval European guilds, king's craftsmen were guild members who, by virtue of their excellence, were chosen to make items for the King. The Roycroft insignia was borrowed from Cassidorius, a 13th century monk who was a master bookbinder and illuminator. It adorned Roycroft products ranging from furniture to pottery and metalware.

The Roycrofters, as they were known, had a strong influence on the development of American design and architecture in the early 20th century. The community attracted over 500 members at its peak, but declined rapidly when Hubbard and his wife, the suffragette Alice Moore Hubbard, died in 1915 when the RMS Lusitania sank. Today the 14 buliding Roycroft campus is on the National Trust of Historic Places and houses a museum and research center.

The advertisement on the right (above) is for wood chairs with Spanish leather seats made by the Roycrofters. The price is listed as $20.00 each or $35.00 for the pair in oak. Mahogany cost $24.00 each and $42.00 for the pair. You can get your own copy at AllPosters.com.

Roycroft Campus, The
(NY)
(Images of America)

Roycroft Accessories in Copper and Leather:
The 1919 Catalog

Roycroft
Art
Metal

More Roycroft Art Metal:
With Price Guide
(A Schiffer Book for Collectors)

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an artist, illustrator, and designer. His work ranged from illustrations for children's books and weekly cartoons for three Socialist publications to wallpapers, textiles, and home decorating items.

Like William Morris, Crane's goal was to bring art into the daily life of all classes. He was a calligrapher, painter, engraver, and an expert craftsman in plaster relief, ceramic tiles, stained glass, and pottery,

Crane founded The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888. He illustrated posters and pamphlets for socialist causes and for the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union, a movement begun in 1890, that sought to promote loose-fitting utilitarian clothing instead of the heavy, stiff, and tight garments of the corseted Victorian era. One brochure he illustrated was entitled How to Dress Without a Corset.

Photo of Walter Crane is available at AllPosters.com

The Art & Illustration
of Walter Crane

Walter Crane: The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics

The claims
of decorative art

Line
& form

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was a Scottish architect, artist, and designer. Japanese design and Art Nouveau were two of his major influences. Although today he is considered part of the Arts & Crafts movement, his work was not that popular during his lifetime and many of his designs were never brought to fruition. In the decades since his death, Mackintosh designs have grown in popularity,

Photo is "A Rare and Important High-Back Oak Chair circa 1898-1899" by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. You can find this picture in a variety of sizes and formats at AllPosters.com

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1949) is often identified with the Arts and Crafts movement. He was a leader of the Prairie School of architecture and design, which was a mid-western strongly related to Craftsman style. The two "schools" shared an interest in hand crafting and skills in reaction to the mass production of the industrial age. They also shared the view that buildings should look like they grew naturally from the site they were built on. The Prairie School was the result of a conscious attempt to develop an indigenous American style of architecture that did not borrow heavily from earlier European classical architecture. Wright felt that strong horizontal lines were distinctly American because the U.S. had an abundance of open, undeveloped land as opposed to more urbanized European nations.

Photo is from Frank Lloyd Wright: Essential Texts. The book is available at Amazon.

50 Favorite Rooms By Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright:
Complete Works, Vol. 1, 1885-1916

Fallingwater

Frank Lloyd Wright:
A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Frank Lloyd Wright's Glass Designs
(Wright at a Glance)

We are honored to have earned our wings in March, 2011 and hope you'll take a look at "Wing-ing it on Squidoo" to see some of the best lenses we've found in our neighborhoods and as a visitor to other areas on Squidoo.

Special thanks to Steve for the Squid Art
used in this module.

Ceiling fans, lighting, and fireplaces. Find your statement. Love your home.