THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512080075
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
IT WAS AS THOUGH Elbert Hubbard sold a box full of soaps, made his fortune, then turned over the box and stood on it.
``The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest'' was Hubbard's main soapbox. For his turn-of-the-century magazine, the former soap salesman crafted essays that blasted mainstream notions of organized religion, industrialization and women's role in society.
But the entire community that grew up around Hubbard and his revolutionary ideas was a kind of soapbox, too.
Roycroft, in fact, evolved into a major expression of the arts and crafts movement. Among the movement's goals: To eschew the machine in favor of simple handmade objects. And to have craftspeople labor happily within a supportive community, where a healthy mix of hand, head and heart was cultivated - an idea derived from medieval models.
The Roycroft community, set in the small town of East Aurora, N.Y., started in 1895 by publishing books and periodicals. The enterprise quickly expanded to produce arts and crafts furniture and decorative arts considered second in quality only to that of Hubbard's contemporary Gustav Stickley.
The first major traveling exhibit on the Roycroft community is on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond through Jan. 7. Called ``American Arts and Crafts: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters,'' the show looks at the social vision and marketing genius of Hubbard (1859-1915) and at his community's products.
The lavish installation features nearly 200 items made by artisans at Roycroft, which lasted more than four decades. Business slowed in the 1920s; by 1938, Roycroft closed, a victim of the Great Depression.
In its heyday, some 500 workers made useful and often beautiful items of copper, silver, wood, ceramics and leather in the Roycroft shops.
On display are hand-tooled leather books broadcasting the views of Hubbard and his second wife, Alice, who espoused equal rights for women. The work of top Roycroft book designer Dard Hunter is well represented; his style was influenced by European art nouveau and by the British arts and crafts designers.
Beginning with books, Roycroft's leather work expanded to furniture, purses, hand mirrors and other items by 1905. A 1906 arm chair with handsome nouveau designs on the tooled leather seat and back illustrates the high level of craftsmanship.
From the copper shop, there are hat pins, letter openers, candlesticks and a turn-of-the-century telephone. On view is a 1910 copper lamp with a leaded glass shade that was used in the Roycroft Inn, built to house the growing number of visitors to the community. The lamp decorated the salon where Hubbard addressed his community every Sunday night.
Among the furniture on view is a 1912 oak bride's chest, a 1906 mahogany bedstead and a circa 1900 so-called Ali Baba bench with the tree's rough bark on the seat's underside.
It wasn't until 1902 that the Roycrofters began marketing furniture, which until then was made only for use within the community. Typical to arts and crafts furniture, the chairs, tables and bookcases had little if any surface decoration, aside from the occasional carved motto or name.
A circa 1914 oak high chair bears the name of two of Hubbard's grandchildren - Nancy and Elbert III - carved into the chair back. On the seat is carved the Roycroft symbol - an ``R'' within a circle with a protruding cross.
``Nearly everything they made had the Roycroft symbol on it,'' said Fred Brandt, curator of 20th century art at the Virginia Museum.
Both the name Roycroft and the symbol are mysterious. Carving out a mythical status for himself and his community, ``he was always making people second-guess him,'' Brandt said.
Hubbard once said the symbol came from a 15th-century Viennese text. And Roycroft is believed by many to be derived from combining the words ``royal'' and ``craft,'' though Hubbard never confirmed that.
Intrigue even surrounded his death, which proved as remarkable as his life. He and Alice were aboard the Lusitania when it sank, but survivors' accounts varied as to what happened to their lifeboat.
Hubbard was wild about mottos, and wrote hundreds of them. One of his favorites seems to best sum what made Hubbard tick:
``Conformists die. Heretics live forever.''
At the turn of the century, Elbert Hubbard was internationally famous. A charismatic lecturer, he drew packed houses wherever he spoke, whether at Carnegie Hall or Richmond's Jefferson Hotel.
Such influential people as John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison and Susan B. Anthony visited Roycroft. Hubbard knew William Randolph Hearst and wrote a column for his newspapers in 1910, said Robert Rust, curator of the Foundation for the Study of the Arts and Crafts Movement at Roycroft in East Aurora.
The first biography on Hubbard was published in 1900, and there have been four more, the last one released in 1972.
His best-known story, ``A Message to Garcia,'' promoting his do-or-die work ethic, is still in print; 70 million copies have sold, Rust said. In the 1930s, a film starring Wallace Beery was made based on that tale.
``It's amazing that he was so well known in 1915,'' then became so obscure, Rust said.
On the 100th anniversary of his community's inception, there are signs of renewed interest in Hubbard and Roycroft.
The arts and crafts movement rested quietly until the early 1970s, when an exhibit at Princeton University stirred interest. As more exhibits and scholars have focused on that era, museums began creating collections.
The Virginia Museum has ``what is really considered the best decorative arts and design collection dating from 1895 to 1935 in the country,'' Brandt said. The collection embraces art nouveau and deco as well as arts and crafts.
Meanwhile, prices for the material have risen.
Small furniture items can be bought for $500 to $1,000, Rust said, though major pieces have gone for as much as $20,000. Paintings have sold for $50,000, and lighting fixtures for $60,000, he said.
Minor items, like copies of ``The Philistine,'' can still be found for less than a dollar.
Several major auctions including Roycroft items have taken place in recent weeks. A sale is scheduled for today in New York, Rust said. Those in the audience may spy one of the better-known collectors of Roycroft, which include Barbra Streisand, Brad Pitt and publishing mogul Christopher Forbes.
The entire Roycroft campus, comprising some 14 buildings, has been named a National Historic Landmark, said Rust, who works in the former copper shop. His foundation was set up in 1977 and has 500 members in America and Europe.
In February, the ninth annual arts and crafts conference will be held at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C.
Among the nation's finest resort hotels, Grove Park Inn was completely outfitted in Roycroft furniture and lamps in 1913, constituting the community's largest commission, Brandt said.
The Grove Park tall hall clock is among a few significant Roycroft pieces that the L. & J.G. Stickley company in Syracuse, N.Y., has been licensed to reproduce. The copy sells for about $17,000, and includes a two-night stay at the inn, a Stickley representative said.
In the meantime, the town of East Aurora is far from a Roycroft ghost town. There are craftspeople in town who apprenticed with original Roycroft makers. And at least one descendant of the founder stuck around.
``Elbert Hubbard III is a retired medical doctor who lives right here in East Aurora,'' Rust said. ``We call him John.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos courtesy of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
This magazine pedestal was crafted in 1902 in the Roycroft Shops.
This Ali Baba bench, circa 1900, has rough bark on the underside, in
keeping with the simplicity of the movement.
Hand-tooled leather books from the Roycrofters include a cover by
Harry Avery on ``The Ballad of Reading Gaol,'' top, and an autograph
book cover by Walter Jennings.
Craftsmanship is evident in this 1906 arm chair with tooled leather
designs on the seat and back.
Photo
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
An Egyptian flower holder was crafted of wood.
by CNB