Stickley #210 | Popular Woodworking

Stickley’s #210 settee embodies Arts & Crafts simplicity, honesty, and craft in one iconic design.

A hundred years ago, Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Workshops were busy producing some of the most exceptional furniture of 20th century America. This interests me because, for years I described, through measured drawings, hundreds of pieces of furniture. I illustrated several books and articles for my brother (Kerry Pierce) that were published through Popular Woodworking. Many of the later projects provided the opportunity to examine antiques in museums. Prior to those visits, I’d only drawn antique replicas and other, more modern pieces.

The first museum I visited was in the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill in Kentucky. Many of the pieces previously drawn were Shaker inspired, but I’d never seen an original. Here, I was surrounded by original antiques, housed in…