Finer Craftsmanship Merged With Lighting

 There was a unique time in history when the search for finer craftsmanship merged with the emerging progress of lighting.

The Arts and Crafts period came along just as the electric light came into existence.

 Eventually the electric light which could provide the glow of 60 candles would be the object of home decor crafted by such legends as William Morris, Elbert Hubbard, Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright.

 During the 1880s the basic of the Arts and Crafts Movement arrived in America from England just as the steamship Columbia was being fitted with more than 100 electric lights.

 The dedication of William Morris to the Gothic Revival style and the return of artistic expression would soon reflect on lamp design.

 Ultimately there were the lamps of Frank Lloyd Wright and the American Prairie School of Architecture richly influenced by the Spanish missions of the West and Southwest.

 “Mission style lighting fixtures were made which used square tubing and square shades in gas, combination, and electric styles,” notes Nadija Maril author of American Lighting: 1840 to 1940. “Fixtures using wood and rectangular lantern shape shades constructed of custard carmel glass and wrought iron were offered in Gustav Stickely’s furniture catalogs.”

 This simple, functional design of lamps and other objects turned out to be just what fashionable turn-of-the century Americans were looking for.

 Called Arts and Crafts, Mission, Craftsman and Quaint, or by other titles it caught on according to Victory Linoff who edited the re-publication of a leading furniture catalog of that era.

 “Many were ready and eager to abandon the overly ornate and fussy mode characteristic of the Victorian era,” Linoff pointed out. “The bungalow, a new and allied form of residential architecture, was the perfect setting for the new furnishing style, and for many the combination was irresistible.”

 Stickley’s original Craftsman furniture appeared in 1898 and by the early 1900s his catalogs were filled with lamp selections.

There were lamps with Japanese wicker shades, copper lamps with three lights and pull chains, and a fine electric lamp with glass shade upon a “stand of wood banded with copper at the top and bottom, and small panes of opalescent glass set in copper.”

 Eventually the maker would also offer electric lamps for bedroom or boudoir with Lenox Pottery bases in blue, white, mauve, gray, soft green, rose, orange or brown—all with brass trim.

 Stickley declared from his offices in Eastwood, New York in 1912, “Craftsman furniture will continue to increase from year to year, for the reason that it provides the kind of home environment most suited for the real needs of American democracy.”

 As ‘democratic’ as the furniture may have been, it was not entirely within the means of all citizens. In 1912 when the average wage was bout $10 per week table lamps frequently were priced in catalogs from $6.50 to $18.50 each.

 Under the heading for Bungalow and Mission Lighting Fixtures, the Come-Packt Furniture Company that same year offered a two-light electric portable lamp, “splendid for a large library table,” for $6.65.

On the west coast some of the finest Arts and Crafts lamps were being created by Dirk Van Erp at his 14th and Delores Street shop in San Francisco.

 One of Erp’s very first stunning hammered copper and mica-shaded lamps appeared at the annual exhibition of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910.

 “A few of Van Erp’s earliest lamps burned kerosene and were later electrified, but nearly all of his lighting devices were designed for electricity,’ according to Kenneth Trapp author of the distinguished volume Arts and Crafts Movement in California. “They ranged from floor, desk, and boudoir lamps—all with mica shades, to hanging ceiling fixtures and wall lights.”

 Possibly the most famous name to be associated with such lamps however was Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany used only the finest bronze for bases and only the highest quality mosaic shades.

 By the early 1900s Tiffany was already famous for his varieties of colored glass, especially the iridescent lamp shades. The demand for lamps in the Arts and Crafts style pushed the fame even further and as many as 200 craftsmen were at work under the Tiffany banner.

In the Roycroft shops of East Aurora, New York; Elbert Hubbard and his staff were equally busy meeting the need for similar lamps and other stylish objects.

 “We have eliminated all unnecessary elaboration, but have kept in view the principles of artistic, quality, sound mechanical construction and good workmanship,” declared Hubbard himself.

 There were, of course, many others. George Mann Niedecken was an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright before launching his own operation which included lamps, Niedecken-Walbridge Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

 Likewise, William Grueby of Boston worked closely with Tiffany, before developing his own geometric patterned glass shades and basic bronze bases.

 Other significant contributions came from Limberts Arts and crafts Furniture headed by Charles Limbert in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and George Washington Mather with workshops in Chicago.

 For all practical purposes the glory of the Arts and Crafts period had ended by the onset of World War I. Certainly it was over by the time peace was declared.

 “By the time the war had ended in 1918, so had interest in the Arts and Crafts period,” notes Bruce Johnson author of The Official Price Guide to Arts & Crafts. “Returning soldiers brought back stories of a new style in Paris, soon to be called Art Deco; the surge of nationalism brought on by the war resurrected interest in Colonial reproductions, and the two new interests left no room for the Arts and Crafts movement.”

 Indeed, the once cherished stained-glass lamps of that bright movement were finally considered only out-of-style household items during the 1920s and discarded in vast numbers. Recommended reading: Official Identification and Price Guide to Arts and Crafts by Bruce Johnson, House of Collectibles.