Ragsdale Home Furnishings is an old-style wood shop located in Lower Michigan. Phillip Daniel Myer, principal artisan, specializes in the original design creation and reproduction of high quality mission lighting and tables. Phil Myer has designed lamps for Williams Sonoma, Rejuvenation Lighting, Warner Brothers, and has his work can be found in The Museum of Art in Los Angeles, The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Offices in The Sears Tower, The Hancock Building Chicago, The Curator's residence for the Florida State Senate Building, The Common Man Inn N.H., Gustav Stickley Home-Queens NY, Frank Lloyd Wright Apartment building in Oak Park Illinois, The Roycroft Copper Shop, and the Gamble House of Southern California University.
At Highland Junior High, Battle Creek Michigan, in 1973 my shop teacher Mr. Russell helped me build my first lamp. It was made of pine, and leather and it sat in my bedroom on top of a old Stickley Brothers school desk. I became very interested in electro mechanical assemblies in High School, and by the time I was 17 I had a degree in electronics. At 18 years old I was working for Zenith Radio, in Oak Park Illinois about 4 miles from Frank Lloyd Wright's studio. While working for Scientific Atlantic (now Cisco Systems) the height of the tech boom in 1999, I left my career in electronics to pursue my dream of working as a Craftsman. As a Lighting Designer of many years now, I have to tell you folks that these lamps are a pleasure to make, and took a long time to perfect. If you purchase one of Ragsdale's items you will find that it is one of the most beautiful pieces done in quarter sawn oak on the market. Everything is hand signed and dated.
While many of my mission oak lamp designs are original, and not reproductions of any specific manufacturer, they are meant to capture the essence of old-time lamp makers. The lamps go well in authentic old homes (Bungalows, Log Cabins, and Tudors) their rustic old time charm is personified in the glow of authentic mica and stained glass.
In 2001 I began reproducing tables by the Limbert Company. Limbert furniture was relatively unheard of at the time, and I became interested because their factory stood abandoned about 30 miles from where my woodshop was located. I did a lot of homework on them, and found they made a popular line of furniture that went together with many of the Kit-Home Bungalows that were popular from 1900-1920. We produced a new Charles Limbert Company Trademark in 2004.
Ragsdale uses environmentally friendly materials and processes. Our wood is drawn from private sustainable managed forests here and throughout the Midwest. We use genuine Mica which was originally mined near Asheville NC, and is a naturally occurring mineral. Our art glass is all manufactured in the US, and our electrical parts are all purchased from US companies.
Ragsdale produced fewer than 200 handmade lamps per year from 2001 to 2011, and since 2012 our lamps can be found at Rejuvenation Lighting, as well as the Roycroft Copper Shop in NY, Sugarhouse Furniture in Salt Lake City, The Kings Chosen Furniture in Ann Arbor MI, and Strictly Mission in Santa Cruz Ca. Our clients can be found in many great homes, business and restaurants throughout the USA, Great Brittan, Canada, South America, and Australia.
Special thanks to the following organizations for helping us wherever possible; The Brook Lodge, and Michigan State University, for providing the backgrounds in many of our photographs. W.K. Kellogg Manor, for displaying all the great period furniture, and the Michigan State University Biological Station at Kellogg Forest for being such a wonderful place to learn the art and science of Forestry. Thanks to Arts and Crafts Homes Magazine & American Bungalow Magazine for picturing our works in the November 2007 issue.
