This is the famous “Chautauqua” desk first offered by Larkin in the 1901 catalog for six certificates or as a premium for buying a $10 Combination Case of Larkin Soap products. Variations of this desk were offered into the early 1920s.

The term “Larkin Desk” is a familiar one to most collectors and buyers of older and antique furniture, especially to those who favor furniture from the “Golden Oak” era around the turn of the 20th century. In fact, the phrase has become so familiar that the original meaning and source may be a little obscure.

In Buffalo, NY, a young John Larkin went to work in 1861, at age 16, for Justus Weller, who then moved to Chicago in 1870 to establish a new soap manufacturing concern. Larkin became a partner in the business at age 26, not long after the move to Chicago, but sold his interest back to Weller in 1875 to return home to Buffalo, having recently married Hannah Frances Hubbard, a native of his home town. His new small business in Buffalo was the manufacture of a laundry product called Sweet Home Soap, his one and only product. John Larkin may have had the know-how to make soap, but it was his new brother-in-law, Elbert Hubbard, knew how to sell it—in vast quantities. His marketing efforts were so successful that within two years Larkin had to acquire a larger manufacturing facility and soon made Hubbard his partner in the business.

Elbert Hubbard was a true pioneer in the mass marketing field. His ability with words and his creativity were responsible for the phenomenal growth experienced by J. D. Larkin and Company. His new techniques included the use of premiums enclosed with the product; at first just a small card with a homey scene on it. Housewives traded among themselves to accumulate the entire set. Sound familiar? Another technique was to sell a box of 100 pieces of soap to an individual and encourage them to resell the pieces to neighbors, while purchasing the $10 original box on the installment plan. The reseller not only made a profit, she got redeemable premium points good toward purchases from the Larkin catalog. The Larkin Company, in turn, made a profit and accumulated a huge mailing list of people who bought a disposable product, soap, and would need to buy it again. Hubbard really had an impact on his time and he would do it a second time. In 1893 he left Larkin for a trip to Europe. There he met and was impressed by William Morris (of Morris chair fame) and his artistic ideas. He returned to New York and in 1895 established the American branch of the nascent Arts and Crafts movement in Aurora, N.Y. with the founding of a colony called “The Roycrofters,” a group of artisans dedicated to simpler times and ways.

This Larkin Buffet No. 220, first offered in 1909 for 20 certificates, was one of the first curved glass pieces made by Larkin in the Buffalo factory.

Meanwhile, John Larkin’s soap and premium goliath marched on. He awarded such vast quantities of household goods as premiums that he had to start manufacturing them himself. One of the more popular premiums was assorted crockery, which he had heretofore purchased from outside vendors, primarily in New Jersey. In 1901 Larkin chartered his own factory, named Buffalo Pottery, to supply him with premium crockery. Its first kiln was fired in 1903.

But perhaps the most lasting legacy of Mr. Larkin’s industriousness and Mr. Hubbard’s cleverness is in the area of home furnishings. The 1890′s were the roaring years of the emerging catalog sales industry and Larkin was right out there in front with his company motto of “Factory to Family.” And he meant it. All of this happily coincided with the long awaited adaptation of mass production techniques to furniture, generally begun after the Civil War but really coming into its own in the 1880′s.

And mass produce they did. While Sears dominated the market, there was plenty of room for Aaron Montgomery Ward and John Larkin in the furniture industry.

Through Larkin’s effort, Buffalo became one of the major mass-production locations of American furniture. And the preferred wood was oak, preferably quarter sawn and solid—no veneers allowed. The style of the great mass of production furniture was definitely questionable, but all-in-all, it had a kind of “Art Nouveau” flair to it, with swirls, flowing lines and applied decorative motifs.

This scan of page 15 from the Larkin Oak catalog of 1908 shows some of the other desks offered by Larkin, including the Chautauqua, three other drop fronts, two roll tops and a side-by-side. The current catalog is published by Walter Ayars of Echo Publishing in Summerdale, PA.

One of the most popular items in Larkin’s inventory was the drop front combination bookcase/desk. Variations included a glass front case with a drop front desk attached to the side, two glass front cases with a desk in the middle or simply a drop front desk with a small open bookcase below the drop and candle stands above it, with a mirror in the high splashboard.

These desks were all solid oak plank, assembled with nail and glue construction; no fancy joinery here. In fact, in some cases the desks were so easy to assemble that they were shipped flat and assembled on site at the buyer’s house. Molding and trim was applied ash or maple and the back panels were commonly three-layer plywood. Escutcheons were stamped brass and the better desks had brass hinges on the drop. Cheaper ones had iron butt hinges.

No matter the quality and style, or lack thereof, this type of desk became “everyman’s” desk and was a very common item in almost all homes of the period. It was THE hot decorating item for many years and Mr. Larkin’s name was commonly attached to the form, whether it came from his factory or not. Thus we have the “Larkin Desk.”

So many of these desks were manufactured that they are readily available today at relatively reasonable prices. Collectors should look for sturdy, simply built units made of well-grained oak, preferably quarter sawn. Avoid pieces with broken mirrors, missing drop fronts, replaced hardware or signs of excessive restoration such as “hot stripping.” In many cases the original plywood backs have deteriorated and been replaced. The cheapest oak plywood is red oak and a replacement back is easy to spot since the desks are invariably made of white oak. In other words, this is one of the rare, desirable items from our past where enough of them exist that you can be picky in your selection. So be picky.

———————————

Fred Taylor is a antique furniture Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Send your comments, questions and pictures to me at PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address. For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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Let’s start with one of North America’s oldest furniture styles, the so-called Pilgrim or Puritan style, beginning in the early 1600s. Most of the folks of this period were VERY recent arrivals and the furniture they crafted for themselves had a very familiar look to it. After taking into account what might be called “regional influences”—meaning the Colonies—the style itself is essentially “Jacobean,” that catch-all Latin term referring to England in the time of King James I, Charles I, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, Charles II and James II. In other words, most of the 17th century until William and Mary came along, circa. 1688. The furniture was blocky, big, solid, dark and ungainly, mostly made of oak—just like at home. The Colonists were true to their heritage.

Early in the 18th century the effects of the William and Mary reign became felt in American furniture thought. It took a few years to get here, but the Colonies always lagged behind, transportation being what it was. The Dutch craftsmen employed by William introduced a new, lighter, more comfortable form with bun—or Spanish—feet, elegant turnings and decorations and teardrop pulls, and they influenced Colonial furniture in turn. Some of America’s most prized antiques are Colonial interpretations of William and Mary.

This William & Mary highboy shows the verticality of the new form in the late 17th century.

After William’s death in 1702, Mary’s little sister Anne became Queen of England and the Colonies dutifully imported (belatedly of course) the newest style named after the new queen. The QA style was slim and elegant with graceful curves, subtle decoration, slipper or pad feet and valanced skirts, all in all a very feminine form. This English style also created some of America’s most cherished works.

Just as Thomas Chippendale borrowed the QA style in 1750, adding dog ears, pierced splats and heavy acanthus carving and calling it his own, the Colonies borrowed the new style from Thomas and used it right into the Revolution, being careful not to call it “Georgian,” as the later version of the style was known in England.

A Philadelphia chair circa 1776 shows the rococo changes Chippendale made to the basic Queen Anne chair.

At long last, the Revolution! Surely, this called for a new American styling and so it was called “Federal,” in honor of the new country based on federal, rather than royal principles. So who were the great designers and builders of America’s new furniture? Among the strong stylistic influences were George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton, respected English designers of the period. Also prominent were the Adam brothers, Robert and James, Scottish architects greatly influenced by first century Roman architecture.

The end of a D-end Federal period banquet table shows the influence of Thomas Sheraton in the tapered legs.

On this side of the Atlantic, the best known practitioner of Federal was the Scotsman residing in New York named Duncan Phyfe, whose work was influenced by the early traditional English designers, but also by the Directoire and Empire of France and the Regency of England. Phyfe’s contemporary, Charles-Honore’ Lannuier, recently arrived from France and worked in the Directoire and later Empire field as his contribution to Federal furniture.

By the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, the facade of Federal had fallen to the unabashed Europhile Empire style; Napoleon’s only lasting positive contribution to the world. He had directed his architects to develop a new style for his “Empire,” which they enthusiastically did, combining classical motifs from Egypt and Greece with animistic additions such as carved animal feet and wings. Napoleon of course didn’t make it, but his style survived in England, modified only slightly, as Regency, and in America first as Empire and then in later versions as “Late Classicism” or “Restauration” as late as mid-century.

This classic Empire chair was made by Duncan Phyfe, circa 1820. (Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences photo).

Victoria became queen of England in 1837, and that started a 60-year binge of digging up and recycling styles of the past, politely called “revivals” under the umbrella label of “Victorian,” and America joined the bandwagon. Major revivals of style included Rococo-Louis XV, the revival of a phase of European art of the 18th century featuring rocks (rocailles) and shells (coquilles), Renaissance, a revival of 15th and 16th century Italian styles, Gothic, a revival of 15th century styles which was itself a revival of the 9th century as well as other lesser known revivals.

This chair by Belter illustrates the decorative flavor of the Rococo Revival of the mid 19th century.

A Renaissance Revival bed, circa 1875, reflects the architectural element of the style.

It also included a newer form based on the architectural concepts of an Englishman named Charles Locke Eastlake, whose idea of linear simplicity was driven to absurdity by American factory designers.

A reaction to all this elaborate revival erupted in Europe in the late 19th century, led mainly by William Morris in England and produced the Arts and Crafts movement, quickly embraced in America by Elbert Hubbard who started the Roycroft colony in Aurora, New York, by the Stickley family and by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Thus, it appears that for most of America’s existence, we have mooched our styles from abroad. Then, at last, came the great American contribution to American furniture: In the latter part of the 19th century we started to reproduce our own borrowed history and in the process accidentally produced the one true American style—Colonial Revival.

This 1930s table shows the creative redesign of Colonial styles in this Colonial Revival Depression era interpretation of the Jacobean style. This was our new style.

Fred Taylor is a Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address.

For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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In order to help the less artistic of us understand when we are looking at a certain piece of furniture that it should be considered “art,” some furniture styles have the term incorporated into the name just to make sure. In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s there was that style called “Art Moderne.” That was the style that came from the 1925 Paris convention known as the International Exposition of Decorative Arts. It evolved into the “streamline” look of America in the 1930s, with waterfall bedroom sets and round nose trains. The name of the style was updated in the 1960s to “Art Deco,” still retaining the “art” part just so we remember.

Just before that was the Art Nouveau movement, the “new” art that came at the turn of the century that incorporated elongated organic forms into the structure of the furniture. It was primarily a European phase in furniture but it did have some influence in this country in other decorative arts.

But there was an “art’ movement even before that one. The 19th-century version of the “art” movement can sometimes be very confusing to the average shopper for older and antique furniture. It sort of looks like something else but not really. And sometimes the color is awful. The movement actually started around the middle of the 19th-century with some of the same people involved in the advent of the Arts and Crafts movement, Charles Eastlake among them. The new movement gained a significant foothold on the American furniture market after the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The American public was smitten with the Japanese exhibit in Philadelphia, and furniture styling immediately picked up an Oriental flavor. At the same time, people were beginning to tire of the overwhelming size, complexity and severity of Rococo and Renaissance Revival furniture. They were tired of high Victorian styling. Eastlake’s simplistic approach to furniture design suddenly was very popular even though he didn’t design much of the furniture himself.

The desk on the left illustrates the Oriental approach. It is ebonized with gold incising. The desk on the right, in a wood finish, is the Moorish approach to the style with geometric fretwork. Both desks are based on Eastlake’s design principles.

His concepts were linear and the guiding principle was that of visible craftsmanship. It didn’t take long for the basic Eastlake style to be adapted to the new movement. By adding a few Oriental touches to this simple idea, the form of “Art Furniture” was born, characterized by shallow carvings, devoid of veneer and excessive ornamentation. The entire movement, in architecture and decorative arts as well as furniture, became known as the “Aesthetic Movement,” implying that the existence of art was for art’s sake; a direct conflict with the Victorian concept that art must serve a moral purpose by reinforcing moral values. Even the name, “Aesthetic,” means artistic or beautiful.

One of the favorite finishes of Aesthetic movement craftsmen was the ebonized look. Cherry was a favorite base material because it did not telegraph the grain or nature of the wood through the solid black overcoat yet it somehow retained the warmth found in natural wood. The wood was stained, not painted, a jet black and then highly polished. The black background further enhanced the contrast with the gold incising or the lighter woods used in marquetry panels and floral inlays. But not all Aesthetic furniture is ebonized. Walnut and rosewood were popular mediums, and bird’s eye maple was a favorite accent wood. And not all decoration was Oriental. It ranged from classical molding to medieval spindles, inspired by Oriental, Moorish, Gothic and Egyptian influences. The furniture was complex and often very expensive in both material and labor to construct.

This desk is somewhat plainer than the others but it is still in the style It may have been ebonized originally and refinished somewhere along the line.

This period of American furniture is perhaps one of the less-distinctly defined periods in both style and time. Styles were often eclectic and forms ranged as far back as updated versions of the 17th-century court cupboard to interpretations of the modern, for the time, Davenport desk. The Aesthetic Movement in American furniture generally is regarded as being from the mid 1870s to just after the turn of the century. This minor aberration in furniture style served as the bridge between high Victorian morality and the radical lurch about to come in the form of Arts & Crafts, a true revolution.

So now you may have an idea about that mystery piece you have seen in a shop or at an auction. It looks sort of like late Eastlake but it is a little too fancy or elegant. It also seems to be a little foreign, Oriental or Near Eastern but it obviously is a domestic piece. It could very well be an Aesthetic Movement piece from the late 19th century. And whatever you do – don’t try to strip that awful black paint. It’s part of the “aesthetics” of the piece.

Fred Taylor is a Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3.00 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address.

For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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The Implemenatation

The transition required for any movement’s continuing relevancy, that from art to industry, would have to wait a few more years until the cabinetmaking son of a German immigrant, Gustav Stickley (1858-1942), was ready for it. Following Hubbard’s example, Stickley went to England for inspiration even though by the time he got there, William Morris was already dead.

Nevertheless, Stickley returned to America committed to producing a line of furniture based on the principles of the founder, handcrafted and grounded in honesty and simplicity. But Gustav was a realist. He knew that he had to adopt modern factory methods to his idea. He just had to keep it under control.

Gustav Stickley eventually was successful in producing a line of furniture that embodied all the tenets of the original Arts and Crafts founders except one. His furniture was not handmade by individual craftsmen. It was closely supervised and had a lot of handwork done on it, but it was essentially made in a factory using the latest technology and machinery available. After he opened his United Crafts shop in 1898 in Eastwood, N.Y., he introduced a line of “Craftsman” furniture through Tobey Furniture Co. of Chicago. The line was sold without his mark, bearing only the Tobey label and the phrase “The New Furniture.”

Stickley—This is the most famous mark of the entire Arts and Crafts period, Gustav Stickley’s cabinetmaker’s compass, motto “Als Ik Kan” and his signature. (Fred Taylor photo)

By 1902, Stickley was retailing his own self-marked line and was in direct competition with two of his furniture-making younger siblings, Leopold and John George. The brothers incorporated L&JG Stickley Co. in Fayetteville, N.Y., and produced furniture based on Gustav’s designs and those of Frank Lloyd Wright but with less attention to the original Arts and Crafts precepts and more attention to production runs and marketing. And there were other major players in the hottest new game in town besides the Stickleys and Tobey. Grand Rapids weighed in with Limbert and Lifetime and hundreds of factories across the Northeast and Midwest, including those of Larkin and Marshall. Fields turned out boxcar loads of “Mission” and “Arts and Crafts” furniture and accessories.

Early Stickley Brothers work adhered closely to the pattern set by older brother Gustav.

By 1916, Gustav had given up, driven into bankruptcy by competition from those less attuned to the quality and integrity of the product. Brothers L and JG assumed his debts, took over his shop and his designs, and continued in the Arts and Crafts furniture business for a few more years. But America was growing tired of the mental discipline required to adhere to the movement’s line, the starkness of the designs and the declining quality of the mass-produced offerings. And entry into World War I did nothing to lighten the mood.

The most popular of the famous “elastic” stacking bookcases made by Globe-Wernicke were Mission style made of oak.

As the war drew to a close in 1918, so, for all intents and purposes, did the Arts and Crafts Movement, a victim of its own straight-line severity and lack of flexibility in adapting to the new age in this country. In 1922, L&JG Stickley Co. introduced its new line of furniture, the Cherry Valley Collection, based on traditional New England designs. This final surrender of Arts and Crafts by the family largely responsible for its dominance in America signaled the total emergence of a new era that also harkened to an earlier period, America’s colonial past, embodied by the Colonial Revival.

One of the most popular forms of the period was the couch with arms that were even with the back in height. It was called a “settle.”

And yet the original reformist movement, by falling into bed with the very ideals it despised and sought to supplant—factories and mass production—actually succeeded in fulfilling one of its earliest stated goals. That being providing the working middle class with a line of well-made, reasonably priced, comfortable and sturdy furniture. Social irony at its best.

– Fred Taylor is the American Furniture Worthologist and an expert in furniture restoration. He’s published numerous articles on antiques on WorthPoint and in “Antique Trader,” “Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine,” “Northeast Magazine, “Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles,” “Professional Refinishing” and “The Antique Shoppe Newspaper.” Read more about Fred on his Worthologist profile, and check out his book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” and Fred and Gail Taylor’sDVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture” on their very informative Web site, Furniture Detective.

Other articles by Fred Taylor:

Identifying Wood Species—Part I

Identifying Wood Species—Part II

Identifying Wood Species—Part III

A Fortune from the Kitchen Table

Understanding Antique—The Arts and Crafts Movement Pt. I

Having acquired the bulk of my higher education in the politically turbulent late 1960s, I learned to observe and enjoy those occasionally eccentric political and social reforms that eventually turn inward on themselves and self-destruct while often achieving their ultimate goal in spite of themselves. That can seldom be applied in any form to anything to do with antiques furniture, but there was one instance where it was true.

Throughout most of our history, furniture styles have been dictated either by function or by the delicate sensibilities of a self-appointed few. Usually the “taste” crowd is involved in change simply for the sake of change. It’s sort of the “designer’s job-security program.” But in the middle of the 19th century, a social movement slowly worked its way to the light that resulted in a major new lifestyle, expressing itself most noticeably in furniture fashion but influencing many other areas of everyday living. It started not with the intention of merely changing styles but with the intention of actually improving the quality of life for the middle class.

As is common with movements of this sort, the idea started with other than the middle class, which probably didn’t even realize that it needed its life improved so drastically. By midcentury in England, many of those who cared about such things were increasingly uneasy about the excesses emerging as the Victorian era came into full bloom. Mass production of almost everything was the inevitable result of the Industrial Revolution.

One of the most influential of the “uneasies” was John Ruskin (1819-1900), the pampered son of a wealthy merchant who indulged his passion for art and travel and became especially vocal on the relationship between art and morality. He held forth that art had reached its moral peak in the purity of the Middle Ages and a return to such simple, honest times should be explored and encouraged. He felt that individual artists and craftsmen working on individual projects, if left to their own devices, free of capitalistic influences, would produce morally pure works.

Two of Ruskin’s contemporaries picked up on the essence, if not the totality, of his message and translated it to everyday affairs. Charles Eastlake (1836-1906) jumped on the “return to simplicity” bandwagon and published an accumulation of articles as his book, “Hints on Household Taste,” in 1868. William Morris (1834-1896), on the other hand, took a more practical approach in simplifying the English lifestyle. He formed the decorative-arts firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861, and the organization soon became recognized for its stained-glass and wallpaper designs. By the mid-1870s, the company had an office in Boston, the heart of the early American “Arts and Crafts” movement. Soon after founding the firm, Morris designed, or at least took credit for, the famous “Morris chair,” based on a traditional pattern but using his simplified approach to quality—simply designed, simply built, sturdy, comfortable and extremely serviceable.

Morris chair—The Morris chair, developed by William Morris, was the epitome of the philosophy of the soon-to-be Arts and Crafts Movement. It was simple, inexpensive and effective. This example was made by Gustav Stickley. (Treadway photo

The idea of the chair, as well as other furniture designed by the firm, was to produce a well-made, handcrafted product that would present the middle class with an honest-value alternative to Victorian fluff for its hard-earned money. Ironically, such “one off” craftsmanship was relatively no cheaper than that it is now, and most people simply could not afford Morris’ return to simplicity.

By the end of the 1870s, influenced by Morris and Eastlake and by the English movement, small colonies of Arts and Crafts artisans had established themselves in America, primarily around Boston and Cincinnati, producing small amounts of furniture and artifacts that reflected the simpler tastes and high ideals of the founders but often encountering the same resistance as had Morris—it just cost too much. The movement’s greatest influence in America in the last quarter of the century was in architecture, producing a new level of the combination of art and practicality in “modern” American homes.

The movement in America didn’t really catch on until it was espoused by Elbert Hubbard, brother-in-law of John D. Larkin, of mail-order soap-and-furniture fame. It was Hubbard who had devised the famous coupon/premium scheme for Larkin’s soap business. Hubbard visited William Morris in England in 1893/1894 and became a confirmed subscriber to the movement just as it was dying out in England. He returned to America and opened the Roycroft Press and artistic community in East Aurora, N.Y., in 1895. The “Roycrofters” were devoted to the ideas of simplicity, substance and directness in their works as advocated by Morris. Like many of the early artisan colonies, however, the Roycrofters, while producing many artifacts along the preferred philosophical lines, could not produce goods in the economic quantities required for long-term survival, no matter how unique and well made the individual pieces turned out to be.

The movement would have to wait for the next idea to carry it to the people.

– Fred Taylor is the American furniture Worthologist and an expert in furniture restoration. He’s published numerous articles on antiques on WorthPoint and in “Antique Trader,” “Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine,” “Northeast Magazine, “Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles,” “Professional Refinishing” and “The Antique Shoppe Newspaper.” Read more about Fred on his Worthologist profile, and check out his book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” and Fred and Gail Taylor’sDVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture” on their very informative Web site, Furniture Detective.

Other articles by Fred Taylor:

Identifying Wood Species—Part I

Identifying Wood Species—Part II

Identifying Wood Species—Part III

A Fortune from the Kitchen Table