Revivals! Diverse Traditions features the many contributions of five strongly individual aesthetics - African American, Appalachian, Colonial Revival, Hispanic, and Native American - to crafts in the United States between 1920 and 1945. Although Colonial Revival was by far the most popular of traditions - especially with its focus on preserving an Anglo-Saxon past - these other cultures have provided us with a broad tapestry of American craft activity.
Showcased here are African-American quilts and basketry; Hispanic shrines, painted pine chests, and lacework; Appalachian love seats with woven corn-shuck seats, pewter bowls, and earthenware jugs; Native American jewelry and beaded clothing, woven rugs, and clay and leather goods; Colonial Revival furniture, including a mahogany Queen Anne daybed and a bombe secretary, silver, and wrought iron objects.
The enormous range of crafts - African-American strip quilts and Sea Island baskets, Pueblo blackware pots and Navajo rugs, Colonial Revival maple chairs and samplers - includes some of the most valued American collectibles today. Noted experts in the field provide thorough descriptions of these objects and their makers and explore their broader significance to the history of American craft.
An extensive reference section, complete with biographies of major artisans and lists of craft exhibitions, publications, schools, and more makes this book extremely useful for collectors of the period, and a welcome addition to any home library.
Revivals! Diverse Traditions is the second volume in the series The History of Twentieth-Century American Craft. The first volume, The Ideal Home: 1900-1920, was published in 1993.