Sideboard Designer: Gustav Stickley (American, 1858–1942)
Manufacturer: Craftsman Workshops (1904–1918)
Maker: Eagle Lock Co.

1909–12

American Decorative Arts

On view, 3rd floor, Modern and Contemporary Art and Design

The Arts and Crafts movement drew much of its inspiration from vernacular sources. Gustav Stickley made sturdy, affordable furniture that looked simple and well-crafted. Most of this sideboard was fabricated using machine-powered tools; the look of honest hand-craftsmanship—seen in, for example, its hammered copper pulls—was for superficial, decorative effect. This sideboard thus embodies the contradictions of this style.

Medium

White oak; cupboard doors, quarter-sewn white oak veneer; case bottom, chestnut; drawer runners, birch; drawer bottoms, oak plywood

Dimensions

47 11/16 × 56 1/8 × 21 1/4 in. (121.2 × 142.5 × 54 cm)
other (Case): 49 3/4 × 20 5/8 in. (126.4 × 52.4 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Newman

Accession Number

1979.27

Geography

Made in Eastwood, New York

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Furniture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Purchased at the New Haven Antiques Show, Spring 1979 from Handlebar Antiques, Los Angeles, Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Newman, to 1979; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Elise K. Kenney, ed., Handbook of the Collections: Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 97, ill
  • Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988), 9, 413, 436–38, no. 225, ill
  • "Acquisitions 1979," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 38, no. 1 (Fall 1980), 65
  • Patricia E. Kane, "American Furniture in the Yale University Art Gallery," Antiques 117, no. 5 (June 1980), 1326, fig. 14
  • Kevin Stayton, A Century of Tradition and Innovation in American Decorative Arts, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1979–80),
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

sideboards (furniture)

Marks

A red Stickley decal, of the type illustrated in Cathers, page 63, is applied to the inside of the bottom of the middle of the small drawer. A paper label, now obscured by later varnish, is pasted to the outside of the back of the case. It is the type of label illustrated in Cathers, page 66, and is marked in ink with the catalogue number "814 1/2". The lock on the top small drawer is stamped in the inside "EAGLE LOCK CO / TERRYVILLE, CONN, USA" and "4K17".

Inscriptions

Written in black on the outside of the back is "5-48X30 1/4"; "19 3/4 scant" is written in pencil on the underside of the dustboard below the middle small drawer. A notation, largely illegible but containing words and numbers, is written in pencil on the underside of the bottom of the lowest small drawer.

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