The National Arts and Crafts Conference and Shows

Asheville, North Carolina

When people stake out positions near the entry more than five hours before opening, it’s evident something significant is about to happen. And when registration begins for next year’s conference before this year’s has begun, it’s even more obvious.

The National Arts and Crafts Conference and Shows at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina—including the three-day antiques and contemporary show—is considered by many to be the premier such event in the country. The 37th annual version, February 16-18, featured about 36 antiques dealers in everything from tiles to lamps and furniture and a similar number of contemporary crafts makers who produce textiles, jewelry, pottery, and other items in the Arts and Crafts mode.

“Just like every year, the general public and conference attendees came out in droves,” Kate Nixon, conference director, said after it was all over. “Consistently, we have tracked more than 2000 members of the general public who have explored the shows.”

The conference calls the Grove Park Inn “a perfect Arts and Crafts destination” with “interiors that are a tribute to the Arts and Crafts era of design.” That’s because Edwin Wiley Grove, who bought the land and conceived the idea for a destination hotel, engaged the Roycrofters of East Aurora, New York, to design and build furnishings for the resort.

Many of the tables, chairs, and lighting fixtures, plus two giant case clocks from the utopian Roycroft community, are still in use today in the inn’s massive lobby. The Roycrofters’ work was a response to the mass-produced goods of the Industrial Age.

Robert Kaplan of New Jersey brought his esteemed collection that has been amassed since he experienced “a hammer to the head” upon seeing an acquaintance’s display of objects in the 1960s when Arts and Crafts pieces were not as popular as they are today. He first attended the Asheville event as a collector, and now it’s his only specialized show.

Robert Kaplan believes this vase with daffodils by the Grueby Faience Company of Boston is one of a kind. He said it was included in a 1901 ceramics exhibition in Manhattan and traveled elsewhere in the country. Grueby, known for its matte green glaze, spun off the faience firm to produce architectural terra cotta, glazed bricks, and other items. The company went bankrupt in 1908 but continued producing work until 1920. The price on the vase was $285,000.

One of his most noteworthy offerings was a Grueby vessel with daffodils that carried a $285,000 price tag. “It’s believed to be unique. There’s been no evidence of another,” Kaplan said.

This copper and iron fire screen by Elizabeth Eaton Burton was offered by Robert Kaplan for $165,000. Though it is unsigned, a photo from the Santa Barbara, California, studio of the artist, known for her metalwork and other media with floral motifs, shows the screen, which was never cataloged. The piece from 1903-04 is decorated with abalone shells.

Another of Kaplan’s highlight was a fire screen by Elizabeth Eaton Burton (1869-1937). The copper and iron shield, circa 1903, was adorned with abalone shells. A friend of Kaplan discovered the screen at a tiny auction in Texas. Kaplan’s price was $165,000 for the unsigned piece, which appears in an old photo from Burton’s Santa Barbara studio.

This large one-piece sideboard was offered by Tommy McPherson of Uncommon Artifacts Estate Services LLC, Mobile, Alabama, for $9500. Made of quartersawn oak, it was built by Bath Cabinet Makers Co. Ltd., Bath, England, around 1901-02. McPherson said the guild was composed of blue-collar workers who had been laid off but built furniture for international exhibitions. The doors feature enameled designs in the Liberty style. Among the pieces displayed on the sideboard are a pewter tankard for $750 and a Scottish glass dresser box by Monart for $1250; from the 1920s to ’30s, the box is the only known example of this design, McPherson said.

Tommy McPherson of Uncommon Artifacts Estate Services LLC, Mobile, Alabama, lugged to the show a one-piece cabinet made in Bath, England. With a price tag of $9500, the quartersawn oak piece from the early 1900s had enameling decoration in the Liberty style.

McPherson got into the business, leaving his previous career of museum work, after selling his extensive collection of Dungeons & Dragons cover art, he said. His inventory comes from museums deaccessioning and estate liquidations.

Dianne Ayres of the Bay Area in California deals in period textiles and brought a “quite rare” embroidered table runner made by the Gustav Stickley firm, better known for furniture than fabric.

Gustav Stickley may be best known for furniture, but Dianne Ayres of Arts & Crafts Period Textiles, Oakland, California, said he had a needlework department with dozens of embroiderers. This table runner is a blend of jute and linen with linen thread stitching, which is unusual since most needlework was done with cotton or silk thread. Ayres bought it on eBay a number of years ago, recognizing the design as typical Arts and Crafts. Dating to about 1909, the piece has some condition problems and was priced at $4000. On top of the table runner is a 1915 lamp with silver overlay and a replaced mica shade made by Heintz Art Metal Shop, Buffalo, New York. Its price tag read $650.

“Many of the pieces are in museums,” Ayres said. She priced the jute and linen runner at $4000, perhaps half of what a similar piece in better condition might fetch, she said. She’s researching the Scottish mill where Stickley’s embroiderers bought fabric. “Linen was not a major product in the U.S. because it’s so labor intensive,” she said.

Early arrivals at the conference could learn such Arts and Crafts skills as white line printmaking, hammering copper, and embroidering. All were presented in the spirit of the movement’s philosophy of “head, heart, and hand.”

Continuing the focus were seminars on American ceramic artist George Ohr, Stickley Craftsman homes and their builders, and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, best known for his series of woodblock prints “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.”

“The seminar lineup we had for the conference wowed our attendees as dedicated scholars of the movement, and new voices in decorative arts studies revealed new and exciting research,” Nixon said. “The National Arts and Crafts Conference continues to be the event for the debut of new research of the movement.” Proceeds from a silent auction of items donated by collectors help fund new research projects.

For more information, contact Kate Nixon at (828) 628-1915 or email her at [email protected], or see the website (www.arts-craftsconference.com).

Stools and chairs outside the entrance to the National Arts and Crafts Shows at the Omni Grove Park Inn were grabbed as early as five hours before the 1 p.m. opening on February 16. The eventual line to enter snaked down the corridor but moved quickly.

This clay tankard by the Ceramic Art Company, which became Lenox, features a design based on a print by Arthur Wesley Dow. It was part of an 1897 china painting exhibition, Tommy McPherson said. He wanted $4750 for it.

Inspired by illustrations of undersea life, this copper planter features enamel anemone and starfish. Designed by Ludwig Vierthaler (German, 1875-1967) of J. Winhart & Co., Munich, it dates to 1904 and came in three sizes. Bryan Mead of Hammered & Hewn, Pasadena, California, said it was found in a garage sale in Chicago and is one of only two known. It was priced at $9500.

Mark and Jean Oberkirsch of Hillsboro, Missouri, brought a number of clocks, even though Mark said, “They’re hard to sell because the younger generation just doesn’t care.” Still, in the first few hours, he sold a small Ansonia Clock Company piece with a reclining figure “watching time go by,” not shown, for $225. Among those remaining were “The Whistler,” a brass-plated timepiece, also by Ansonia, for $475; a carved walnut shelf clock by E. Ingraham Clock Co. for $150; a nickel-plated Ansonia clock with a glass pendulum and atypical base for $350; and a cast-metal clock by William L. Gilbert with a porcelain dial featuring a five-pointed star for $475.

Jack Papadinis of Jack Pap Antiques, West Simsbury, Connecticut, sold this reverse- and obverse-painted lamp by Phoenix dating to 1910 for $1250 early in the show. “You don’t see this very often,” he said, referring to the painted winter scene with snow and a river.

Roycroft produced this stick phone that was powered by Western Electric in 1911-13. Offered by Exton, Pennsylvania-based StickleyCopper.com, it was priced at $9500. Ron Ciarmello said only 40 to 60 of the phones were made. It still can receive a call, he said, but would have to be rewired to make one.

Sandie Fowler of Dunstable, Massachusetts, sells online under the name Antique Articles and is known for her extensive selection of European and American ceramic tiles. There were hundreds separated by cardboard to thumb through, but this piece and a number of others were special enough to be in a glass cabinet. Hand painted by Minton’s Art Pottery Studio in the 1880s, the English tile is one of a kind, Fowler said, and it carried a $3500 price tag. Some of the smaller, less rare tiles were priced at under $100.

JMW Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, offered this Stickley Brothers drop-front desk with strap copper hardware for $1995. Besides the cubbyholes, it has four drawers inside and two small drawers and one large drawer in the base. On top are copper Roycroft bookends for $495 and a Handel floral reverse-painted lamp for $895.