At Home with Nature

Fallingwater, 1936-38 by Frank Lloyd Wright, Bear Run, PA. Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

Considered Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater is found deep in the PA woods and was built as a retreat for the Kaufman family of Pittsburgh.

Arts & Crafts

Covered Box by Lucia K. Mathews.

The Arts & Crafts movement began in England in the late 19th century and became popular in the United States a few years later. The followers of the movement sought-out the hand-made production methods of the past, as a reaction to the industrial age. California had their own take on the Arts & Crafts philosophy which manifested itself in the architecture of Greene & Greene and the work of many small artisans like Mathews.

Floral Shapes

Tiffany Flower Form Vases.

This type of opalescent glass is known as Favrile.

Many Talents

Writing Cabinet, 1898-99 by C.R. Ashbee

Charles Robert Ashbee was a talented cabinet maker as well as an architect and jewelry maker. He was a follower of the Arts & Crafts movement and even tried to establish a handicraft colony, but it unfortunately failed.

Sugar Bowl C.R. Ashbee

Screen within a Screen

Winter Party, Edo Period (18th - 19th Century) by Utagawa Toyoharu.

The folding screens of Japanese art served as architectural features as well as decorative.

Utopia Too

Much like Byrdcliffe, Roycroft was started as a self-contained Utopian community where its founder Elbert Hubbard envisioned a society of artists and crafts people living and working in harmony. It is a lovely place to visit and the Roycroft Inn is an Arts and Crafts lover’s paradise.

Roycroft Logo

Ideals

Dragonfly Wallpaper, c.1905 by Zulma Steele, Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony, Woodstock NY, Private Collection.

Byrdcliffe was a Arts and Crafts Colony started by Jane and Ralph Whitehead as a Utopian community based on the ideals and writings of John Ruskin and William Morris, where like-minded artists, craftspeople, writers and architects could gather, share and practice their crafts.

Flying Fish

Peacock tiles by William De Morgan and Co., c. 1888-97, The Fitzwilliam Museum,  University of Cambridge, UK.

William De Morgan was closely associated with William Morris the British Arts and Crafts movement, like Morris, De Morgan believed that looking to the skilled crafts of the past would greater enrich the lives of the people of Victorian Britain, as the hand-made work was both fulfilling and beautiful. His work was influenced by the ornate and colorful ceramics of the Middle East.

Influence from Afar

Chinese Wallpaper design, 18th century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Chinese produced wallpapers that were made for export, primarily to Europe in the 18th century as part of the movement known as Chinoiserie, in which Chinese porcelains, and in this case wallpaper, were collected and displayed. They were beautiful objects in themselves, but also prized because they were expensive and difficult to obtain.