Popularized by the Stickley magazine, The Craftsman, the Arts & Crafts movement took hold and has been an American fixture ever since. Styles come and go, but Craftsman furniture is now a mainstay, and harmonizes surprisingly well with rustic, traditional, or modern furniture. This stout chair was designed and built for the earliest Gusatv Stickley catalog in 1901 and was an immediate success. Named for a neighborhood in Syracuse, New York, the Eastwood chair is truly a massive and imposing form. The only attempt to soften the look was a V-shaped cutout from the armrest supports and curved backrest slats. Clipped corners complete the scant details on the fully 1¼" thick armrests.
The chair received renewed interest in 1989 when L&JG Stickley, Inc. was commissioned to build a custom version for the Dalai Lama. Three of these extra-wide chairs were built, one of which resides at the Stickley Museum in Manilus, New York. In 2014, Stickley re-issued a limited edition of just 100 Dalai Lama chairs, based on the original Eastwood design, were snapped up by collectors.
The Eastwood chair appears to be a stocky cube-like form on first inspection. However, it’s deceptively complex with angled joinery, through tenons, and deeply curved backrest rails. Luckily, I’ve come up with a simple jig to handle the most challenging aspect of this built—cutting tenons on the curved backrest rails. All great reasons to hone your woodworking skills—and your hand plane—to build this turn of the century classic. Perhaps The Craftsman magazine was hinting at the intricacies of chair building with the motto “The Lyf so Short, the Craft so Long to Lerne.”
1 Leg in Front of the Other
I suppose the 2¾" square legs could be cut
