CRAFTMANSHIP AND QUALITY

by Pamela E. Apkarian-Russell

Roycroft, Stickley, we all know the names of the leaders in the Arts and Crafts movement. Furniture, books, pottery, bronzes, jewelry, and bookends, conjure up images and yet one of the most important parts of the movement is forgotten and that, with the exception of the books that Elbert Hubbard did are almost unknown to most. The name Volland might invoke a memory or two because of the Johnny Gruelle Raggedy Ann & Andy books but Volland and others like them were producing postcards, tally cards, invitations with some of the most sublime and elegantly simple designs that were very desirable in their era but sadly overlooked today.

Buffalo, NY had many companies such as Sanford and Prince that concentrated on delicate and dainty artwork and meaningful sayings. Indeed, in an era when most people cringe at the insipid sayings on the cards they receive, back in the Art Deco era and Arts and Crafts era the sayings were all important.

Some of the most important poets and orators of their age were either quoted or paraphrased on cards. The Scottish Poet Robert Burns was paraphrased on a Volland card, “If a body meets a bunny, Late on Easter Eve, and a bunny seems to carry, something up his sleeve, Should a body, ask a bunny, things, or ponder on it, would it be an Easter egg, or just an Easter bonnet?” Silly? Perhaps, but certainly less insipid than, Wishing you a happy Easter, or what ever the holiday was. The minimal use of color with fade away designs and backgrounds could produce stunning graphics and for very little investment.

Christmas and greeting type cards can be quite ornate and they are so beautifully printed on lovely crinkly or art paper. How delightful to find them in their original boxes but how rare. Boxed sets of tally cards for the ever popular games of whist or kitty whist, which were very popular back then, turn up even less seldom and can even have inserted lace in them. These cards are now being looked at as small vignettes of art which are collectible because they are art, or because the publishers are of note, as in the case of Roycroft and the series of Elbert Hubbard pictures and sayings, which seem to be one of the few paper items outside of books that most people know about. It comes as quite a shock to many an antique dealer and collector that there are items out there like Buzza mottos and prints, let alone many items that were printed as artistic endeavors . Art Deco may not be the Arts and Crafts movement but often the two of them merge as an artistic endeavor. Woodblocks and engravings also, show up on cards. When the greeting postcard faded out in the late teens and ended shortly thereafter, the folded and the flat card that was inserted into envelopes became popular. Many of the envelopes had beautiful tissue inserts to match the card or compliment it. These are becoming difficult to find and collectible in their own right . With the increasing mass produced, foreign made, greetings being produced today by high profit companies, many a wise person is turning to these older cards and recycling them. Even those that are written on with a name can be reused. With them properly mounted on some other type of paper and an “I thought of you when I saw this vintage card” or “this card is even older than you, Happy Birthday!”

As a society we have become exceedingly blasé and indifferent. We have forgotten the thought is much more important than the price . Why pay ten dollars for a card someone else may send the person when for half the price you can purchase a card that will retain its value and show an incredible amount of thought and sentiment? Even through the forties and fifties people were keeping their cards because they were art or they were beautiful and definitely because they were meaningful. So you’re not a poet but that doesn’t mean you cannot take an antique card mount it with a nicely printed or computer generated script of how you really feel and frame it up. “Mom, I love you because you are like the suns rays.” Or “My life would be like a starless sky if you were not my friend” or …you are the one making this up. not me, use your imagination. Even damaged cards can be recycled this way with a pair of pinking shears. Or creative scissor craft. I’ve seen a few of these showing up for sale at craft fairs embellished with calligraphy and paint and they really seem to sell well. We have also, seen photocopies and computer generated pictures done up personalized but they just aren’t the same. One is so original and beautiful the other, misses the mark but still beats the store bought variety. It is showing you care enough to give the very best. After all the Arts and Crafts movement was not so much about style but craftsmanship. It is the difference between you and I splashing paint on a canvass or if a Dali, Picasso, or Ashile Gorky did. For some reason, the best of these redone cards I’ve seen for sale have been by men but I own many a letter, card, envelope with original and or added vintage art that customers and friends have sent to me over the years. They are definitely not thrown away as they are art.

When the late Abe Samuels collection was sold in Iowa last year the last two lots were two box lots of the original hand cut items silhouettes, and the cards he made from them. The family could have cared less about them These are incredible works done by a genuine artist. So much true art goes up to auction or out for sale but so much more is lost and forgotten. These two lots were treasures and above all the items I purchased there this was what made me shiver with excitement. There is a book to be written on these, but probably no publisher to produce it. Art is in the eye of the beholder and the artist.

We antique dealers brag at what wonderful recyclers we are. We take our bags down to the local group shops and give away those things that can be recycled to others but when it comes to paper we often lack vision and compassion for the artifacts of the past. Textiles often suffer this fate. Workmanship was all-important to the Roycrofters, whether it was the written word, art, or furniture . How often has it been said about an item “the concept is great but the execution is poor” and the items is passed up as not worthy. As fi it were a bruised or damaged piece of fruit. A hand done recycled piece will never be tossed into the shredder or forgotten five seconds after the first glance.

The simplicity of Stickley furniture and the prints and cards of the era should have an important message for us today. Quality, thought, and empathy have been incorporated into these items and we, the caretakers of the DNA of our cultural past should remember that we do not have to accept a plastic, inflexible and ugly future but can be perpetrators and contributors to what will be collected in the future.

As per usual I have regressed in this column to make a point. Whether one agrees or not it is something to think about. If it were your only doll and the only toy you had and it was crudely made of rags would you not love it? It was made with love not just another commodity amongst many.

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