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History of Arts & Crafts Furniture
by Janey Lewis
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Overview
The Arts and Crafts style of decor is a simple and purposeful type of furniture, decor and architecture. In the United States, it is also called Mission Style. A reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it attempted to bring beauty and craftsmanship into the homes of ordinary middle-class people. Using simple shapes and strong lines, this style boasted hand-made pieces of native materials. The Arts and Crafts style is still popular in the United States today.
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Beginnings
The Arts and Crafts style of furniture and decoration began in Great Britain in the late 1800s. It was a direct contradiction to the ornate and expensive Victorian style that was so popular at the time. The working class, in an effort to copy the Victorian style, began making and purchasing items that were mass-produced in factories and were of poor quality. Innovative designers believed that everyone could have beautiful items in their home and worked to bring back individual craftsmanship
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William Morris
William Morris was a British writer and artist known as the father of the Arts and Crafts style. Deeply interested in social reform in England, he turned his back on the lavishness of Victorian style and appealed for a return to traditional craftsmanship. He was not an architect, but he designed tapestries, stained glass, carpeting and wall coverings. He is probably best known for his exhortation to people to only have beautiful and useful things in their homes.
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In the United States
American designers followed the Arts and Crafts trend, but realized that most of the middle class could not afford handcrafted items. Gustav Stickley, a furniture manufacturer, decided to use the factory to make the basic parts of furniture pieces, but had a craftsman do the finishing touches. This compromise worked. It produced simple but attractive pieces, and the Arts and Crafts style became a winning style at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an extraordinary American architect in the early 20th century who found the Arts and Crafts movement to be exciting and original. He believed Americans should use ideas from all cultures to design homes and buildings, rather than just imitating European looks. His "Prairie" style fit well into the Arts and Crafts movement. Prairie-style homes had open interiors and simple shapes. One of his designs, the American Foursquare with its simple box-like shape, is still popular throughout the country. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects called Wright the greatest American architect in history.
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Furniture
Arts and Crafts furniture, or Mission furniture, accentuates simplicity and proportion. There is no heavy ornamentation as in Victorian furniture. The furniture was almost always made from American hardwoods, with a finish that emphasized the beautiful grain of the wood. Upholstery was almost always leather instead of fabric, and it was attached with hand-hammered nail heads. Pulls and hinges were usually handmade of copper or pewter.
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Architecture
The California bungalow typified the Arts and Crafts movement in architecture. Many of these bungalows were sold as kit homes. A person could actually order a home by mail. From the early part of the 20th century until shortly before World War II, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold as many as 75,000 homes by mail through their Modern Homes catalog. There were close to 500 different styles. The homes were delivered in sections by truck or railroad. Most people furnished their kit homes with simple Arts and Crafts furniture.
