The Stickley Brothers

Stickley is a name synonymous with Arts & Crafts style in America. The five Stickley brothers-Gustav, Albert, Leopold, John George, and Charles-were fully engaged in the furniture industry around the turn of the twentieth century and had a huge impact on America's statement of style. But were any one of them a style maker? Gustav Stickley claimed that he had established an American style. Albert Stickley contradicted that claim, and Leopold made his own statement during his...
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Stickley is a name synonymous with Arts & Crafts style in America. The five Stickley brothers-Gustav, Albert, Leopold, John George, and Charles-were fully engaged in the furniture industry around the turn of the twentieth century and had a huge impact on America's statement of style. But were any one of them a style maker? Gustav Stickley claimed that he had established an American style. Albert Stickley contradicted that claim, and Leopold made his own statement during his finalyears. Here, for the first time, the representative photographs and ideas of all the brothers' work appear together in one volume, to compare and contrast, so that readers might make their own evaluations. Michael and Jill Thomas-Clark examine each brother's work and its relation to the quest for an American style, placing particular emphasis on the early years and transitional moments. The authors draw a definitive conclusion, and it is an answer certainly worth reading, seeing, and thinking about.

Dr. Michael E. Clark is an associate professor at Elmira College in the Fine Arts Department, and Jill Thomas-Clark is a registrar for the Corning Museum of Glass. Their work has appeared in Style 1900: The Journal of the Arts and Crafts Movement. They live in upstate New York.