Stickley helps with an Arts & Crafts Mission

One of the things I’ve been caught up on in my time as a furniture reporter are the terms Mission and Arts & Crafts. It was my understanding that the terms meant the same thing, but I wasn’t sure of the reason.

It’s kind of like the old sofa and loveseat, pop and soda or stocking cap and toboggan conversations we’ve all been a part of at one time in our lives.

For my mission (couldn’t resist) I went directly to the source: Mike Danial, Stickley’s corporate historian.

Due to space limitations we weren’t able to put his answer to the question in the printed version of my last casual dining special report. But I thought somebody out there might be interested in it anyways.

According to Danial, there’s no difference between American Arts & Crafts styles and Mission. Mission is a consumer-driven word, Danial said.

“Never try to look for a distinction between the two except the words. You’re talking about the same thing - American Arts & Crafts,” Danial said.

Pieces of furniture were labeled as Mission in the early 1900s as a revival of interest in southern California missions was underway, Danial said. At the time, furniture manufacturers needed an easy way for sales representatives to describe American Arts & Crafts styles to store owners when they visited.

They needed something that retailers’ brains could conjure up that was instantly recognizable, Danial said.

“They’d say ‘Have you seen the new style of furniture Mr. Stickley made?’… the store owner would say ‘What is it?’ And the (rep) he’d say, ‘It’s American Arts and Crafts.’” Danial. Said.

“And the furniture store owner would say ‘What’s that?’ And the (rep) would say, ‘It kind of looks like it came out of a mission in Southern California. And it’s made out of oak.’ And they’d say, ‘Oh, Mission oak.’ And the name stuck,” Danial said.

“If you said American Arts & Crafts to most consumers in 1903, they would say: ‘What are you talking about?’