Roycroft

About Roycroft Antiques

From the tail end of the 19th century through the first few decades of the 20th, the Roycrofters of East Aurora, New York produced beautiful examples of Mission-style furniture, handmade books, and a variety of hand-hammered copper vases, lamps, candleholders, humidors, and bowls.

Founded by writer and soap entrepreneur Elbert Hubbard in 1897, the Roycroft community was inspired by the work of English Arts and Crafts proponents William Morris and John Ruskin...

According to Roycroft metalwork collector David Kornacki, the late 1800s were a time of artistic upheaval in the United States as artists rebelled against the social and aesthetic strictures of the waning Victorian Era. Artists were even less thrilled about a future in which objects once created by craftsmen and artisans were increasingly mass-produced.

Sharing these concerns, Elbert Hubbard decided to develop the Roycroft Campus in 1897. A blacksmith shop came first in 1899, and it was here that the earliest examples of Roycroft wrought-iron fixtures, andirons, and hinges were made.

A copper shop followed in 1902, constructed of local stone with a half-timbered and stucco exterior. Artisans at the copper shop produced the hardware for the doors, furniture, and light fixtures around the growing campus.

By 1906, Roycroft offered a limited inventory of copper items (pen trays, letter openers, etc.) for sale. Production increased slowly at first, which means there are relatively few Roycroft pieces from 1906 to 1911 available on the market today.

Concurrently, the Roycroft press started printing small, handmade books, with hand-tooled, gold-inlaid leather covers designed by Dard Hunter and binding by the master of his day, Lewis Kinder. They sold beyond anyone’s expectations and, along with the copper pieces, furniture, and leather items, put Roycroft on the Arts-and-Crafts map.

Hunter left Roycroft in 1910 to pursue a career in papermaking, but not before collaborating with fellow Roycrofter Karl Kipp on a number of copper designs influenced by the early Vienna Secessionist Movement. These pieces were less organic than the typical Arts and Crafts style, with geometric patterns, intricate cutouts, and silver overlays. These so-called “silver square” pieces remain some of the most collectible Roycrofts available.

Kipp, too, would leave Roycroft to found his own business in 1912. His Tookay Shop, also in East Aurora, produced copper pieces that are almost indistinguishable from Roycrofts, save the mark on their base. That same year, another prominent Roycroft designer, Walter U. Jennings, joined Kipp at Tookay. Roycroft may have lost Kipp and Jennings in 1912, but they gained Victor Toothaker, who, it is believed, designed the famous American Beauty vase.

Both men returned to the fold in 1915 after Elbert Hubbard and his wife, Alice, were killed when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat — that act of aggression prompted the U.S. entry into World War I. The Hubbard’s son, Bert, took over management of the Roycroft copper shop, while Kipp and Jennings designed Roycroft classics like the “bullet” vase. It all paved the way for Roycroft’s most glorious decade, the 1920s.

By now, Roycroft was using Steuben glass in its lamps. The copper shop produced vases, bowls, lamps, cigar boxes, and ashtrays, to name but a few of the items in its catalog. Almost every major department store in the country, including Lord and Taylor, sold Roycroft pieces to its well-heeled customers.

The Depression put an end to most of that, but it wasn’t just the economy that killed Roycroft. Hammered metalwork was beginning to appear tired and dated compared to up-and-coming movements of Bauhaus and Art Deco. Roycroft actually tried to change with the times, but customers were not completely convinced. Neither are collectors. As Kornacki puts it, “People collecting Roycroft copper today generally want brown metalwork with hammer marks on it, they don’t want smooth surfaces with bright shiny angles.”

Roycroft closed its doors in 1938, but the Roycroft Campus is now a National Historic Landmark that’s slowly being restored. It is open to the public.

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Interviews & Articles

An Interview With Roycroft Arts and Crafts Metalwork Collector David Kornacki

I started collecting Roycroft around 1992 when I visited the Peter Roberts Gallery in New York City. That was sort … [more]

An Interview With Arts and Crafts Silver and Jewelry Collector Paul Somerson

How did I get started collecting Arts and Crafts silver? My wife and I had been collecting Arts and Crafts items as… [more]

An Interview with Arts and Crafts Jewelry Collector and Author Elyse Karlin

I started collecting jewelry when I was about 13 years old. I was very close to an interior designer who took me to… [more]

An Interview With Rookwood Art Pottery Collector Riley Humler

I don’t remember the first Rookwood piece I ever bought, that’s getting close to 40 years ago. But I must have like… [more]



Best of the Web (“Hall of Fame”)

Roycroftcopper.com

Roycroftcopper.com

David Kornacki's visually stunning guide to the copper shop products of the Roycrofters craft community in East Aur… [read review or visit site]

LACMA Arts and Crafts

LACMA Arts and Crafts

This microsite from the LA County Museum of Art provides a good overview of the Arts and Crafts movement in Europe … [read review or visit site]

1910 Metal

1910 Metal

A detailed tribute to the lesser-known artistic metalwork craftsmen of the Arts and Crafts movement. In addition t… [read review or visit site]

Modernism

Modernism

An overview by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts of the design movements between 1880 and 1940 that comprised Moder… [read review or visit site]

Chicago Silver

Chicago Silver

Paul Somerson's incredible reference on handwrought metalwork from the American Arts and Crafts movement of the ear… [read review or visit site]

Benedict Studio

Benedict Studio

Dedicated to art metalwork produced in Syracuse, New York during the height of the Art and Crafts movement, this si… [read review or visit site]


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Other Great Reference Sites: Arts and Crafts

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Top eBay Auctions  Help | Get weekly Roycroft email

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Roycroft "american Beauty" Hammered Copper Vase$875.00 Ends Thursday 17 bids 64 watchers
19c Arts Crafts Stickley Roycroft Era Copper Oil Lamp $202.50 Ends Monday 4 bids 40 watchers
Roycroft Mission Arts Crafts Hammered Copper Bowl Dish$152.50 Ends Tuesday 5 bids 31 watchers
Hammered Copper Mission Art Lamp Stickley Roycroft Era$100.00 Ends Sunday 10 bids 18 watchers
Roycroft Arts & Crafts Copper Footed Dish$95.00 Ends in 10 hours 1 bid 24 watchers
Rare Roycroft Hammered Copper Bookends Signed$67.50 Ends in 17 hours 5 bids 31 watchers
Roycroft ~ Elbert Hubbard Signed ~ Little Journeys $29.99 Ends Tuesday 1 bid 3 watchers
Vintage Roycroft 6" Arts & Crafts Dinnerware Plate Mint$26.50 Ends Saturday 5 bids 13 watchers
Vintage Roycroft 7" Arts & Crafts Dinnerware Plate Mint$26.50 Ends Saturday 3 bids 11 watchers
Arts Crafts Hammered Copper Bowl Roycroft Stickley Era$23.50 Ends in 11 hours 4 bids 25 watchers
1914 Roycroft Dictionary, Elbert Hubbard, Ali Baba$20.76 Ends in 18 hours 2 bids 7 watchers
1901 Roycroft Press Robert Burns, Elbert Hubbard, Hc$18.76 Ends in 17 hours 2 bids 2 watchers
1899 Roycroft Leather Handmade Aucassin And Nicolete$18.00 Ends Tuesday 1 bid 5 watchers
A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens 1902 Roycroft Rare$12.72 Ends Monday 2 bids 13 watchers
Arts & Crafts Hammered Copper / Brass Vase Roycroft Era$9.99 Ends in 11 hours 1 bid 18 watchers
Little Journeys- Roycroft, 1903, Leather Bound$9.99 Ends in 11 hours 1 bid 4 watchers
1915 Yellowstone Park By Elbert Hubbard Roycrofters$7.99 Ends Monday 1 bid 6 watchers
1903 - Roycrofters Books For Sale - Catalog !!$7.50 Ends Sunday 1 bid 2 watchers
Collection Roycroft Books--6 Books In Total!!!$4.00 Ends Monday 1 bid 4 watchers
"marriage Heart Ii" Roycroft Scherenschnite $3.00 Ends Monday 1 bid 4 watchers
Roycroft Style Hand Hammered Copper Bookends C1920$1.29 Ends Sunday 2 bids 6 watchers

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Recent News: Roycroft

Source: Google News

On The Boards Theater Listings
Artvoice, March 18th

Roycroft Pavilion, Hamlin Park, off South Grove St., East Aurora (687 6727). MACBETH, tragedy by Shakespeare directed by Kelli Bocock-Natale, starring Brian...Read more

FoodBizSupply.com to Offer GreenBox Pizza Box
Associated News Today (blog), March 18th

A push by City Council members to redefine Glendale's place in the arts community as a means of economic development has promise, but officials need to...Read more

MAG book surveys craft art in WNY
The Daily News Online, March 17th

In the early 1900s western New York became a hub of the Arts and Craft movement with the founding of the Roycroft community in East Aurora,...Read more

Co-owner of The Right Angle
EastBayRI.com, March 16th

She maintained her love of the arts as a jewelry maker and, most recently, by studying pottery at the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora,...Read more

Historic Roycroft Campus Gets Lit
Buffalo Rising (blog), March 5th

The Roycroft Campus is home to the American Arts & Crafts movement made famous by Hubbard and his Artists and Craftsmen and was designated a National...Read more

Art therapy aids veterans
Buffalo News, March 4th

Roycroft Campus Corp., whose primary mission is restoring the historic East Aurora arts and crafts colony founded by Elbert Hubbard, sponsors the weekly...Read more

Spotlight on St Christopher's School
Gulf Weekly, March 2nd

John 'The Cat' Roycroft, 45, very calm and assured on the ball but very rarely kicks it straight. Year 5 teacher and head of maths: Goalkeeper and defender...Read more

Fischer on NYC Fashion Week
Daily Cardinal, February 22nd

Roycroft arts and crafts were evoked in a deluge of patterns, prints and textures in anything from a pomegranate gypsy red to vintage lace...Read more

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