Stickley furniture is the oak furniture made by members of the American Stickley family, above all Gustav Stickley, the leading figure of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Inspired by English reformers such as William Morris and John Ruskin, Gustav Stickley produced plain, sturdy furniture in what became known as the Craftsman or Mission style, promoting it through his magazine The Craftsman.
Gustav Stickley's workshops near Syracuse, New York, made chairs, settles, tables, bookcases and sideboards from quarter-sawn white oak, typically fumed to a warm brown and finished with simple exposed joinery such as through-tenons and keyed joints, with hand-hammered copper or iron hardware. His pieces often carry a branded or decal mark showing a joiner's compass with the motto Als ik kan. His brothers Leopold and John George ran a separate company, L. & J.G. Stickley, producing similar furniture. Original early twentieth-century pieces are keenly collected in the United States, where value depends heavily on retaining the original finish, marks and hardware. The style's honest construction and solid proportions sit comfortably in Arts and Crafts houses and in uncluttered modern interiors alike.
