Gustav Stickley and his wife Eda Ann. Photo courtesy of First Run Features.
“Gustav Stickley,” a reverential documentary by Herb Stratford, tracks the life and influence of an American master.
Stickley, born in 1858, worked in his uncle’s furniture factory to help support his widowed mother. Learning the rudiments of his trade, he was profoundly influenced by William Morris, the English founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. Morris believed that the furnishings of one’s home were the underpinning of a lifestyle. Stickley strove to embody that principle in what would be his own furniture designs executed in his own workshops and factory. He very much believed that coordinated architectural details created a lifestyle.