The Blacker House

Charles and Henry Greene’s interest in the work of Gustav Stickley was sustained over the course of their stylistic development from 1901 to 1909.  In some of their houses, the Greenes specified Stickley furniture, including two bedrooms of the Gamble house. Many of their earliest furniture designs are clearly derived from models in Stickley’s line, and even at the pinnacle of the Greenes’ careers, Stickley’s influence was apparent in some of their furniture forms.  One example is the living-room plant stand for the Blacker house, which shares characteristics with Stickley’s “Tokio” stand. Despite its name, its design derives more from Chinese than Japanese precedent, and was one in a small line of Stickley’s Asian-themed plant stands. These had first been published in the Stickley Company’s New Furniture catalog of 1900 and were exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo of 1901, which Charles Greene attended. The Asian design elements throughout Stickley’s 1900 designs likely interested the Greenes, much the way the restrained, elegant furniture of Japan and China did.