#roycroft

Cellarette Model No. 19, ca 1995-1908

Roycroft Shops, East Aurora, NY

This poem is usually credited to the poet Roy Croft. Not much is known about the writer, however the poem was included in the 1936 anthology “Best Loved Poems of American People” and also appears in “The Family Book of Best Loved Poems” (1952). German translations of the same piece of writing are attributed to Austrian poet Erich Fried, which lead to speculation that the poem is a translation of Fried’s work and Roy Croft is a pseudonym, however taking into account that the poem was already published in 1936 this is unlikely. https://www.marriedbykate.com/client-portal-readings-1/2018/9/9/i-love-you-by-roy-croft

Marbled Monday

This book is somewhat unassuming on the outside, with is brown leather and subtle gold tooling and stamping, but on the inside has the most beguiling marbled endpapers! The book is Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book: Containing the Inspired and Inspiring Selections Gathered During a Life Time of Discriminating Reading for His Own Use. We hold three copies of the book—this is copy 2 and the only copy we hold with this binding. 

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher who founded the Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community in Aurora, New York in 1895. Hubbard fashioned himself somewhat after William Morris as a socialist craftsman, although he later abandoned socialism. Hubbard and his wife Alice died in the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 when the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. 

Elbert Hubbard’s Scrap Book was published in 1923 by The Roycrofters in Aurora, New York. It is a collection of passages by notable figures that Hubbard had collected during his life. The marbled papers are in a Serpentine pattern, similar to those we shared a few weeks ago on our copy of  Romanae Historiae Compendium... . These papers feature teal, reddish brown, and cream colors swirled together in a sort of zig-zagged pattern. 

View more Marbled Monday posts.  

A beautiful pair of Roycroft andirons.  These are a wonderful example of what I mean when I say ‘art in the everyday’.  This isn’t something you can get out of a factory.  Here is a testament to what a craftsman can do to bring beauty and splendor into a home.

Even better, it’s an illustration of how small elements, each one simple in themselves, can be brought together to create something that is wonderful as a whole.  

Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed a part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States. Elbert Hubbard founded the movement in 1885 in East Aurora, New York, near Buffalo. Participants were known as Roycrofters. The work and philosophy often referred to as the Roycroft movement, had a strong influence on the development of American architecture and design in the early 20th century.

Elbert Hubbard had been influenced by the ideas of William Morris on a trip to England. His championing of the Arts and Crafts approach attracted a number of visiting craftspeople to East Aurora, and they formed a community of printers, furniture makers, metalsmiths, leathersmiths, and bookbinders. A quotation from John Ruskin formed their "creed":

A belief that working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness. (From Wikipedia.