Gustav Stickley Sideboard, ca. 1907
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GUEST:
This piece was… given to my great-grandfather. He was the caretaker of an estate in Hendersonville, North Carolina-- the Beaumont Estate. And the Westerweld family was filing bankruptcy and did not want some of the pieces they had in their home repossessed, so they gave this piece to my great-grandfather.
APPRAISER:
And you said this has been handed down to the eldest child in each generation?
GUEST:
In each... right, in each family. It went to my grandmother, and then to my mother, and subsequently to me.
APPRAISER:
This must be about four, five generations then?
GUEST:
I think so.
APPRAISER:
Because the piece dates to about... there's not a clear mark on it, but it dates to about 1907, 1908. It's a piece of Gustav Stickley furniture.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Who was the chief of the Stickley Furniture makers or… the Stickley Brothers, L. & J.G. Stickley, Stickley & Brandt, Charles Stickley, but Gustav was the man. It makes this piece better than most of the other pieces made during the period.
GUEST:
Oh, great!
APPRAISER:
The form itself is a sideboard, and true to Arts and Crafts form, the design is very simple, and the elements of design are the elements of construction. For example, these doors are supported by strap hinges. These actually are functioning strap hinges…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…keeping the door from sagging over the years, but they're also very decorative. Ah, if you look over here, the plate rail is held in with pins…
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
…and if we look on the bottom also, there's pins around the bottom that are holding the piece together.
GUEST:
Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Those become actually parts of the decoration. And then finally, this board across the front and all the boards, are made with quartered oak, which is an expensive piece of wood to make. It has very expressive tiger-stripe grain, and that becomes a decorative element in the piece as well. The piece is very intelligent. If you open up the front drawer, the inside of it is lined with what they called "ooze leather." This is for silverware, and… it keeps the silverware from banging around…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…against the inside of the drawer. So these are all things that go into the sensitivity and the thoughtfulness of Arts and Crafts furniture. This is part of a dining room suite. It's called the sideboard. It would have also come with a china cabinet, a dining room table, a server, and chairs. They came in a number of sizes, starting at 48 inches and cresting at around 72 inches. This I measured out as a 54-inch sideboard.
GUEST:
54-inch.
APPRAISER:
Sort of a middle-sized one.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Now, there are some things that mitigate the value of it. We're missing a bail on one of the pulls over there.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
There are some finish issues with staining to the top, although the flower stain's not so bad--
GUEST:
(giggling) Oh, good.
APPRAISER:
--flower pot stain.
GUEST:
Good.
APPRAISER:
I've sold this particular sideboard for $6,000 to $7,000. In the condition it's in, I'd say it's more like $4,500 to $5,500.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. Wow!
APPRAISER:
So, it's a very good piece of furniture.
GUEST:
Thank you.
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