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We opened our first gallery in 1975. We were then among the few who encouraged appreciation of the products of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. During those years it was still possible to enjoy the pursuit and discovery of objects that provided new bits of information about the Movement. Those were the days before Barbra and $500,000 sideboards. Once the game became a matter of dollars instead of sense, we began to look into other areas where our peculiar aesthetic could play.
We no longer maintain a bricks and mortar gallery because this virtual gallery allows us to do so much more for our clients.
The list below represents a selection of the projects we have done and the objects we have placed in museums across the country. Exhibits noted occurred before the object was sold. Many have been featured in subsequent exhibitions.
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We have managed the Whitehead estate, which included the contents of their Byrdcliffe home White Pines since 1978.
Linen Press, panels designed by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984 and “The Art That Is Life,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1987. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.
Desk, panels designed by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
Hanging Cabinet, panel designed by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by Nelson Atkins Museum, 1991.
Chiffonier, panel designed by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the Milwaukee Art Museum, 1993.
Chair, panel designed by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the Milwaukee Art Museum, 1993.
White Pines Pottery Vase, made by Ralph and Jane Whitehead, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1915. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.
White Pines Pottery Vase, Greenware Vase, and Plaster Mold, made by Ralph and Jane Whitehead, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1915. Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the Milwaukee Museum of Art, 1993.
Chair, lily panel designed by Zulma Steele,Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904, Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the Milwaukee Museum of Art, 1993.
Chair, lily panel designed by Zulma Steele,Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904, Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1996
Hanging cabinet, poppy panels designed by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904, Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984. Purchased by the the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1996
Linen press, tulip poplar panels designed by Edna Walker, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904, Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984, Purchased by the Huntington Arts Collections, 2004
Chiffonier, Painted panels by Hermenn Dudley Murphy, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904, Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984, purchased by the Two Red Roses Foundation, 2006
Mahogany cabinet, wild carrot designs painted by Zulma Steele, Woodstock, NY, ca. 1904, Exhibited in “Life by Design,” Delaware Art Museum, 1984, purchased by the Two Red Roses Foundation, 2006
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JOHN SCOTT BRADSTREET (See TILLER, Vol. I, no. 4)
Cabinet from Bradstreet’s home, made at The Minneapolis Craftshouse, ca. 1904. Purchased by the Minnesota Historical Society, 1987.
Settee, made at the Minneapolis Craftshouse, ca. 1905. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996.
Lotus Table, made at the Minneapolis Craftshouse, ca. 1905. Purchased by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1996.
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The Crozier Library Table, designed by Will Price, made at the Rose Valley Shops, Moylan, PA, ca. 1902. Exhibited in “The Art That Is Life,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1987. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.
Chair, designed by Will Price, made at the Rose Valley Shops, Moylan, PA, ca. 1902. Purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995.
Ceramic Vase, made by William Jervis at the Rose Valley Shops, Moylan, PA, ca. 1904. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.
Pedestal attributed to the shop of Daniel Pabst, Philadelphia, PA, ca, 1876. Purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988.
Exhibition Cabinet, attributed to the shop of Daniel Pabst, Philadelphia, PA, ca. 1876. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.
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ROYCROFT
Bookcase, made at the Roycroft shops in East Aurora, NY, ca. 1910. Purchased by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1982.
Copper Table Lamp, made at the Roycroft Shops in East Aurora, NY, ca. 1910. Purchased by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1979.
Lighting Fixtures from the Roycroft Inn, designed by Dard Hunter, made in East Aurora, NY, ca. 1906. Purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1980.
GEORGE WASHINGTON MAHER
Rocking Chair, designed for the E.L. King summer house, “Rockledge,” Homer, MN, ca. 1912 (see TILLER, Vol. I, no. 6). Purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1986.
Chest of Drawers, designed for the E.L. King summer house, “Rockledge,” Homer, MN, ca. 1912. Purchased for the Milwaukee Art Museum, 1993.
Shelf Clock, designed for the E.L. King summer house, “Rockledge,” Homer, MN, ca. 1912. Purchased for the Milwaukee Art Museum, 1993.
WHARTON ESHERICK
Fireplace Surround, made for the dining room at the Curtis Bok house, Gulph Mills, PA, ca. 1935. Purchased by Mitchell Wolfson for The Wolfsonian, 1986. Also agent for the Bok house staircase, music room, and library, which the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Wolfson colluded to buy without my agency.
The Gretchen Smith Vanity Table, made at Paoli, PA, in 1953. Purchased for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1987.
Archway, made for the Curtis Bok house, Gulph Mills, PA, ca. 1935. Purchased by Jack Lenor Larsen for the LongHouse Foundation, 1998.
OTHER
Stained Glass Window, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Company for “Vinland,” Newport, RI, ca. 1883. Purchased by the Delaware Art Museum, 1984.
Cabinet, decorations designed by Bruce Talbert for Messers. Gillow, England, ca. 1875. Purchased by the Delaware Art Museum, 1978.
China Plate, decorated by Marie B. Bohmann, a member of the Ceramic Art Association, Chicago, 1908. Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.
Armchair designed by Francis Bacon for the A. H. Davenport Company, Boston and New York, ca. 1900, Purchased by the Chicago Arts Institute, 1992.
Brass and iron “Apollo” weather vane by William Hunt Diederich, ca. 1925, purchased by the Huntington Arts Collections, 2005.
The first Sabatos rug made at Hewn Oaks, Center Lovell, Maine, ca. 1902, Purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.
Oak fireplace surround attributed to Karl von Rydingsvärd, ca. 1905, purchased by the Wolfsonian-FIU, 2012.
Cincinnati art carved parlor easel, attributed to Claudine Hirst, ca. 1876, purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2013.
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1978: Participated in the first Fall Antiques Show where many objects still considered to be icons of the American Arts and Crafts Movement were offered for sale. This installation included the Roycroft/Dard Hunter light fixtures now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the large Gustav Stickley settle once located in his Syracuse home (we have offered both of the settles documented to have been in his Columbus Avenue house).
1980: Designed and installed Art and Crafts style room for the Vassar Show House.
1983: Designed and installed room setting for exhibition, “A Poor Sort of Heaven, A Good Sort of Earth: The Rose Valley Arts and Crafts Experiment,” Brandywine River Museum, William Ayres, editor and guest curator.
1984: Guest curator and catalogue author with Jane P. Claney for “Life by Design: The Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony,” The Delaware Art Museum. Designed and Iinstalled exhibition.
1983-1986: Consulted on interiors for The Phillips Collection and the Jennifer and Laughlin Phillips residence in Washington, DC.
1987: Largest lender to “The Art That Is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. We lent catalog numbers 35, 51, 71, 95, 104, 106, 142, 166, 169, 203, 217, 218, and 219.
1987: Designed catalog for “19th & 20th Century Decorative Arts From the Collection of Robert Edwards” and “The Jeffrey S. Kryvicky Collection of American Arts and Crafts Furnishings.” This auction established many records, among them the record for a Gustav Stickley settle, a piece of Wharton Esherick, a piece of John Scott Bradstreet, a piece from the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony, and a piece of Max Kuehne decorated furniture.
1996: Originated concept for exhibit and designed, wrote, and produced catalog for “Wharton Esherick, 1887-1970, American Woodworker.”
1999: Designer, curator and producer for “Arcady to Byrdcliffe: The Whiteheads’ Circle of Artists,” Bakker Gallery, Boston.
1999: Designed and produced restoration of stair hall at the Hall House, the 1880s building that functions as the guest house for the governor of Delaware.
2004: Power Point presentation for the opening of “Byrdcliffe: An American Arts & Crafts Colony,” Milwaukee Museum of Art.
2006: Designed and produced a history of Rose Valley for the Rose Valley Museum and Historical Society. Redesigned Rose Valley Historical Society web site.
Designed and produced the first annual gift card “the House of the Democrat” for the Rose Valley Museum and Historical Society.
2012: “William Lightfoot Price: His Furniture and Its Context,” American Furniture, Chipstone, 2012
2012: “Evergreen: Gustav Stickley at Treadway/Toomey,” Maine Antique Digest, September 4, 2012
2011: “Hidden Treasure: Art at Risk on American Campuses,” Maine Antique Digest, November 17, 2011
2011: “Stained and Leaded Windows in William Lightfoot Price Houses,” Antiques and Fine Arts, Volume XI, issue 3
2004: “Byrdcliffe Furniture: Imagination Versus Reality,” Byrdcliffe: An American Arts and Crafts Colony, Hebert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
2003: “Furniture Designed at the Byrdcliffe Arts & Crafts Colony,” The Magazine Antiques, Vol. CLXIII, no. 5
2000: Chapter about Will Price-designed furniture for William L. Price: From Arts and Crafts to Modern Architecture, Princeton University Press.
1999: Text for “Arcady to Byrdcliffe: The Whiteheads’ Circle of Artists,” Bakker Gallery, Boston (catalogues available from Robert Edwards.)
1996: Text for “Wharton Esherick, 1887-1970: American Woodworker,” Moderne Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (catalogues available from Robert Edwards).
1995: Essay about furniture finishes for “Kindred Styles: The Arts and Crafts Furniture of Charles P. Limbert,” Gallery 532 Soho, New York, NY.
1985: “The Utopias of Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead,” The Magazine Antiques, Vol. CXXVII, no. 1. New York, NY.
1985: “The Art of Work,” an essay for The Art That Is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America 1875-1920, 1987, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
1984: Introduction to Bibliographic Sources on the Arts and Crafts Movement in America, with Cheryl Robertson and Thomas Beckman, Winterthur Museum, DE.
1984: “Life by Design,” an essay for Life by Design: The Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE (catalogues available from Robert Edwards).
1983: “Progressive Design in Grand Rapids,” with Jane P. Claney, TILLER, Vol. II, no. 1, Artsman, Bryn Mawr, PA.
1983: “Rose Valley Arts and Crafts Interiors” and “The Rose Valley Pottery of William Percival Jervis,” for A Poor Sort of Heaven, A Good Sort of Earth: The Rose Valley Arts and Crafts Experiment, Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA.
1982: Co-editor, author of new text, and artist for cover illustration, Collected Works of Gustav Stickley, Turn of the Century Editions, New York, NY.
1982-1985: Editor, designer, and publisher of TILLER; A bimonthly devoted to the Arts and Crafts movement.
1982: “The Roycrofters,” for Art and Antiques, reprinted in Nineteenth Century Furniture: Innovation, Revival, and Reform, Billboard Publications, New York, NY.
1982: “Arts and Crafts at Skinners” and “Leopold Stickley Estate Sold in Fayetteville, New York,” auction reviews for Maine Antique Digest.
1982: Author of introduction for reprint of Limbert Arts and Crafts Furniture catalogue, American Life Foundation, Watkins Glen, NY.
1982: Book review of four publications about the Arts and Crafts Movement for Historic Preservation. Maine Antique Digest.
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