Arroyo Craftsman, Volume 1, Number 1
Los Angeles: Arroyo Guild Press, 1909.
First and only issue published. pp. 67, XV, [i] (ads) + illustrations. Two tiny tears to wrappers; still a fine copy.
The Arroyo Craftsman was intended as to serve as the mouthpiece of the Arroyo Guild, a loose association of Los Angeles-area artisans founded by James and artist William Lees Judson. As James explains here, members of the Guild "will plan your home whether it be a palace or a bungalow; they will design its every detail; the stained glass, the wall and ceiling decorations, the carpets, the furniture...and all will be done with that rational, systematic harmony which comes of experience and expert knowledge. All these things are made by the craftsmen of the Guild with their own hands, in their own workshops, or under the personal direction of their own designers." The Guild also included landscape architects, printers and book binders, and makers of ceramic tiles, baskets, pottery, jewelry, etc. Although Arroyo Craftsman folded after just one issue (probably because the "Guild" lacked any real organization), as historian Kevin Starr explains, it remains important for "its expression of the Arroyan ideal: the spiritualization of daily life through an aestheticism tied to crafts and local materials....Southern California, James asserted, was destined to become the great center of aesthetic expression in America. In that rise to aesthetic prominence, no art would be more important than the art of domestic living" (Inventing the Dream, pp. 111-112).
Item #19861
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