The Arts and crafts movement in California: living the good life

Abstract

The Arts and Crafts Movement in is on the rich artistic and social history of the Arts and Crafts movement in California, as well as the highly collectible objects it produced. In a brief but intensely prolific period between about 1895 and 1930, California contributed significantly to the Arts and Crafts movement in America. Those contributions included the architecture, furniture and designs of Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene; the architecture of Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan; the furniture, paintings, and decorative objects of Arthur and Lucia Mathews; the art potteries of Alberhill, Arequipa, Halcyon, Redlands, Rhead, Roblin, and Valetien; and the handwrought metalwork of Dick van Erp, Harry Dixon and Clemens Friedell. In addition, the revival of interest in the Spanish missions and native American mission handicrafts as symbols of honest work and harmonious living was uniquely Californian. This book investigates every aspect of the Arts and Crafts life, placing the works of art, architecture and even garden design in the context of that idealistic, energetically optimistic era.