Willow armchair

The woven willow strands of this chair are rubbed with pigment to provide a color intended to enliven interior decorating schemes. While considered rustic due to the raw material, Stickley advocated the use of light willow furniture not only for porches but for nearly every room of the home, as a companion to his heavier oak furnishings. While the influence of German and Austrian progressive design upon Stickley’s oak furniture was generally subtle, most of his modern willow furniture designs, including this chair, readily point to these sources. Stickley’s firm began producing willow furniture in 1904, but this uncataloged example was not published until 1913 when it was described as recent work “intended for some cozy fireside.”

**Excerpt from**

Kevin Tucker, Label text (2008.51), North Gallery, 2011.