• the appeal of the wooden library card catalog

    My parents met while students at UC Berkeley and I was born while they were in graduate school; my father stayed on at the university, eventually becoming a faculty member and administrator there. It's no surprise, then, that I spent a lot of time roaming libraries and their stacks.

    One of my fondest memories of that time is of the wooden card catalogs that used to document the holdings of the graduate and undergraduate libraries – vast, long room-fulls of tiny little drawers, all in cases polished smooth by generations of student fingers and hands.

    Since then, I've always loved these things; it might be that they offer an ideal of secure compartmentalization of everything, with each item having its own correct place, certainly an ideal for a perfectionist like me. Or it could be the inflexible grid that they are designed along, which appeals to my technician side. The grain of the wood, the warmth of it, always seemed to match that beautiful Craftsman finish, the fumed oak look that has become the hallmark of the Arts and Crafts movement.

    Whatever the reason, these things are beautiful, and you don't find them in good shape all that often. Certainly, you get them more often than a decade ago, with so many libraries going all-digital, but they're still hard to find.

    Here are a few that are up for sale right now:

    • a 60-drawer catalog in Palm Beach Gardens, FL ($300)
    • a gorgeous set of 3 60-drawer catalogs in Minneapolis, MN ($150 ea)
    • an interesting and well-kept card catalog / file cabinet with inconsistently-sized drawers in Minneapolis, MN ($800)
    • a small tabletop 15-drawer unit with pretty brass hardware in Detroit, MI ($299)
    • a "library bureau card catalog" that is actually a refinished/restored printer's cabinet – drawers for type and cuts and sorts (although not full-size type drawers); inclined top for composing – absolutely beautiful! – in Long Island, NY ($900, and a good deal at that price)
    • an "immaculate" all-cherry 70-drawer cabinet with pull-out shelves in Cleveland, OH ($975)
    • an interesting 60-drawer unit, looks like 1930s or '40s design, in San Antonio, TX ($1500)
    • a table-top 15-drawer cabinet with attractive stainless steel or nickel hardware in Milwaukee, MN ($250)
    • A good looking, circa 1930 20-drawer unit on top of a pretty, decorative stand/table in Annapolis, MD ($800)
    • a small unit with large drawers, this 4-drawer piece is rather original, in Sarasota, FL ($145)

  • more library card catalogs & other storage – craigslist

    Filecabinets

    I know people love these things. I do too … I just don’t have anywhere to fit more furniture in my house, especially not with the step tansu that I’d like to wedge into the living room somehow. Here are several I’ve found this week on Craigslists around the country:

    west coast

    midwest

    east coast

    • petite tabletop 6-drawer card file in Ithaca NY: $50enormous, ex-built-in 19th-century dark wood
    • 72-drawer library card file near Boston MA: $1200
    • 14-drawer library card file (5×8 cards) with two missing drawers in Browns Mills NJ: $45

    south & southwest

    • tabletop 2-drawer Remington Rand oak card file in Crawfordville FL: $80
    • wood and plastic 60-drawer & 3-shelf library card file in Jacksonville FL: $650
    • two large four-drawer wooden file cabinets from Library Bureau SoleMalers, early 20th century, near Orlando FL: $335 each
    • 15-drawer, 2-shelf tabletop library card file, includes table, near San Antonio TX: $200

  • Stickley on Craigslist: December 11, 2007

    This is so much easier now that I can collect these listings automatically! As usual, I make no guarantees as to the authenticity of any of these items – be careful (and note that some items described as "Stickley era" or "Stickley style" do get through the filter – I try to remove them by hand but once in awhile leave the item in if I think it’s nice enough or interesting):

  • real estate listings: MLS to RSS

    Rssfeedgraphicbig
    So, obviously I’ve become a bit addicted to Yahoo Pipes. This free tool lets you aggregate, organize, and filter data from an unlimited number of RSS feeds and databases and present it in almost any kind of electronic form you can imagine.

    I’ve found a really good use for it, one which is – amazingly – missing from the vast majority of real estate listing sites. Redfin, Zillow, Realtor.com and all the others: you are really letting the entire industry down by not having raw MLS data available as an RSS feed! I just could not believe that in an age when so many of us get our data on mobile devices and from feed readers that these firms wouldn’t have easily-configurable custom RSS feeds of their listings, but sure enough they don’t. Ziprealty is one of the very few to have such a useful feature, and more power to them for it.

    Using Ziprealty’s listings, house-for-sale posts on Craigslists in a dozen markets and a few other small sites here and there, I’ve created a Yahoo Pipe that includes only listings self-described as "Craftsman," "Mission," "Prairie," or "bungalow." Now, if I can only figure out how to include photos of each property…

    http://pipes.yahoo.com/hewnandhammered/homesforsale

    If you are an agent, a broker or an MLS firm, please publish your data as a configurable / custom RSS feed. This way, searches that could take hours can be finished in just a minute or two, and users don’t need to revisit the sites every single day – using a service like feedburner or one of the many rss-to-email services, we can be notified only when our search criteria pop up in a market we are interested in, in our price range.

    And if you know of any listings services that do issue their data as an RSS feed, please share that info in the comments section below – I’d love to add them to the pipe. Also, let me know if you’d like me to include other cities’ Craigslist posts, I can do that pretty easily.

    If this tool is useful to you and if you think other folks might find it interesting, please digg it:


  • Stickley on Craigslist part 2 – and more

    I got over a dozen emails from those of you who found our Stickley-on-Craigslist aggregator (a page that lists all the Stickley items for sale in 15 major American cities’ Craigslists, filtered for those that include photographs), so I not only wanted to remind those of you who may be shopping for a major holiday gift for your Craftsman furniture loving spouse, but also to introduce something new…

    I’ve made variants of the same pipe for a few other search terms. Remember to bookmark this page, as these aggregators will always show the most recent entries for these terms, whether you check them today or next year:

    And remember, if you use Firefox or Safari (now available for Windows, too!) or another browser that lets you use live bookmarks, you can simply drag the rss feed right into your menu bar – or add it to your favorite newsreader or start page.

    Also, while I was playing around with Yahoo Pipes, I created a news aggregator – similar to Google News, but this one not only pulls in news stories, it also illustrates them with new and hopefully related photographs from Flickr:

  • Yahoo Pipes + Craigslist = SSS (simple Stickley searches) RSS

    Some of you may be familiar with RSS ("really simple syndication") – a way to publish "feeds" of regularly-changing information. Using Yahoo’s Pipes application, I’ve just made an RSS feed of Craigslist searches – in this case, 15 Craigslist city sites are searched for the term "Stickley," and those without images are filtered out. You may view the feed here – I hope it’s useful. In the future, I’ll build a full page of such searches, an Arts & Crafts furniture-for-sale aggregator for most American cities.

  • Sacramento CA: Mission sofa, $175

    More a sofa than a settle, the owners of this sturdy piece want only $175 for it. Personally, I’d put a slipcover on it or reupholster, but you really can’t beat $175 if it’s in as good shape as it looks. If you’re in or near Sacramento, this looks like a great deal. I’m trying vainly to pare my own cluttered house down, or else I’d take it myself!

  • September Craigslist finds, west coast-centric

    It’s interesting how some communities really embrace Craigslist and use it regularly, and some areas hardly touch it. I’ve noticed that many of the midwest and southern states use it rarely – mostly only for employment and rental advertising, while even small cities on both coasts have extremely active Craigslist communities. So, just in case you were wondering why I give short schrift to certain parts of the country in these monthly reports, that’s your answer. Meanwhile, today’s crop:

    • library desk with shelves, interesting detail, excellent condition: $950, San Ramon CA
    • sideboard with good grain and unique round mirror: $365, Hollywood CA
    • Limbert dresser, good condition & nice hardware: $900, San Jose CA
    • armchair with high spindle back & leather seat, signed Stickley: $450, Santa Ana CA
    • partner desk with shelves and "tug-of-war" drawers: $650, Santa Cruz CA
    • pedestal / plant stand, attractive grain: $275, Portland OR
    • rocker, leather seat & nice wide slat back: $250, Salinas CA
    • rocker, slat back, with velvet seat and back: $40, Tacoma WA
    • library table & side chair with some interesting details: $150 for both, Templeton CA
    • armoire with interesting detail, mirror on door: $1850, Spokane WA
    • settle & armchair, Stickley, matching upholstery: $2500, Northridge CA
    • dining table and four spindle-backed sidechairs: $500, Molalla OR
    • piano bench designed after a 1910 Stickley design, very attractive: $450, Estacada OR
    • cabinet doors or entry door sidelights with pretty stained glass: $275, Seattle WA

  • Stickley on Craigslist, August 2007

    You know what I hate? People using terms like "Stickley-esque," "Stickley quality" or "Stickley-era" to describe furniture items on Craigslist, to try to get people searching specifically for Stickley items to see their listings. Of course, they also use "Limbert (maybe?)" and "Roycroft-ish" and other misleading terms. Why not simply call it what it is? If the piece is unsigned, just say "unsigned Arts & Crafts era antique rocker, Mission oak finish" – you still get all the search terms in there, lots of people will see it, and you’ll sell your piece just as well without lying.

    That said, after wading through two hundred misleading, incorrect or flat-out lying listings on Craigslist, here are some good deals on Stickley items, both antique and contemporary, all over the country:

    • contemporary Stickley entertainment center – $4000, Lakeport CA
    • similar item to above – $1200, Philadelphia PA
    • contemporary Stickley lamp & coffee tables – $500 / $600, Orange County CA
    • antique Stickley drop-front desk #729 – $2999, Santa Barbara CA
    • antique Stickley Bros. drop-front desk – $990, Pittsburgh PA
    • antique Stickley spindle-side/back loveseat or settle – $700, Brooklyn NY
    • two contemporary Stickley octagonal stained-glass lampshades – $125, Portland OR
    • contemporary Stickley "butterfly top" dining table – $1200, Portland OR
    • antique L & JG Stickley 4-drawer dresser – $800, Portland OR
    • contemporary Stickley bookcase etagere – $1000, Tucson AZ
    • contemporary Stickley buffet / glass-front china cabinet – $3500, Minneapolis MN
    • contemporary Stickley tile-topped endtable – $750, Minneapolis MN
    • contemporary Stickley coffee / cocktail table – $700, Minneapolis MN
    • contemporary Stickley Harvey Ellis-design rocker with inlay – $350, Asheville NC
    • antique red-label Stickley rocker – $450, Walden NY

  • Craigslist: Stickley, July 2007

    Plenty of Stickley – some contemporary, some antique, and some needing a good amount of TLC – available on Craigslist this week. As always, be careful that you are buying the real deal and aren’t being taken to the cleaner; unless you are confident in your ability to discern authenticity, stick with buying from a reputable dealer.

    • very pretty rocker with Nouveau inlay design; Rhode Island – $595
    • spindle-sided Morris chair; Palm Springs – $750
    • more spindle-sided Morris chairs, these with leather cushions; Los Angeles – $650 for two
    • Morris-style rocker; Niantic CT – $850
    • rocker & armchair, cushions need work; Palm Springs – $1500
    • #729 drop-front desk; Santa Barbara – $2999
    • slat-sided Morris-style recliner with custom southwestern upholstery; San Diego – $100
    • L & JG side chair, simple design, circa 1910. Seat needs reupholstering; Reno – $385
    • #818 server / sideboard; Portland OR – $950
    • Quaint Furniture rocker, needs refinish & arm repair; Seattle – $125
    • #89 / 91-224 spindle-sided love seat / small settle; Washington DC – $2000
    • red label (Stickley Handcraft) rocker, original  seat, needs cleaning; Hudson Valley area – $350
    • Stickley Bros. metal tagged armchair, slat back, sturdy; Richmond VA – $475
    • set of 4 ladder-back sidechairs, Fayetteville stamp; Long Island – $300
    • set of 4 wicker-seat sidechairs, need refinish, partially recaned; Brooklyn – $40 each, all for $150
    • contemporary Harvey Ellis series cherry, copper & maple dresser; Albany NY – $1500
    • red / gold Fayetteville (Stickley Bros.) label drop-front desk; Pittsburgh – $990