Tradespeople have been admired, depicted in paintings, remembered in song, and hilariously lampooned in popular writing for centuries. Every village had a joiner, a carpenter, various wrights, smiths, and weavers, and English literature from the past half-millennium is rife with references to these workers and their trades - some glowing in admiration, some tellingly unflattering. In M&T Issue Five, author Megan Fitzpatrick invites us to dust off our library and explore some of the unique contributions that the woodworking trades have made to classic compositions.
The passing of hand skills from one generation to the next has been a basic part of humanity from time immemorial. Parents teaching children, masters guiding apprentices to make the necessities of life and to grow in both proficiency and the understanding of materials and forms. Children are hard-wired to create, and the task of guiding kids in their creative explorations has always fallen on us: mentors, teachers, and parents.
In Issue Five, we will be featuring a photo essay examination of an 18th-century mahogany tea table that I purchased at an auction a while back. This examination is unique from our others in that the photos depict the sliding dovetail joint disassembled during conservation treatment. This is a rare opportunity to look at the minutia of how this joint was cut and fit – there are undercut and overcuts that tell a lot about how this craftsman was working.
For the Issue Five book recommendation, we reached out to Derek Olson, hand-tool enthusiast and avid reader of woodworking literature. When we asked Derek to write a recommendation of one of the furniture books that has most inspired him, his first answer was Victor Chinnery’s Oak Furniture: The British Tradition.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the cooper in pre-industrial times. For hundreds of years, wooden barrels, hogsheads, kegs, tuns, and firkins held and transported just about every good imaginable. Even though the work of turning seasoned staves into solid, watertight containers was physically and mentally demanding, the fast and precise workflow of a skilled practitioner has been compared to a dance.
My greatest mentor died almost 200 years ago. When I began researching in 2013 what is very likely the most complete surviving record of a pre-industrial American furniture maker, I had no idea how profoundly it would affect my own life’s work.
The six-board chest is a traditional form with roots in the ancient past. However, the integrity of this style of construction seems dubious because of the contradictory grain orientation of the side boards, leading Christopher Schwarz to dub the design "the platypus of the woodworking world." In M&T Issue Five, Author Kate Fox (@woodshrew) looks to unearth the origins of the six-board chest, and to understand how the form actually works. She writes...
“This Rocker is Reley strang Neve seen iney thing like hit in my hole life hit Reley looks like my Master Piece of furniture.” – Chester Cornett
Mike and I have been looking for someone to research the work of Chester Cornett for a while now so when Brendan Gaffney and Chris Schwarz began combing through archives to study his furniture and look through his drawings, we were ecstatic. After many hours of research, Brendan has put together a wonderful technical study of Cornett’s “masterpiece” bookcase rocking chair for M&T Issue Five.
We are announcing one Issue Five article each weekday until pre-orders open on August 1st. If you don’t already have a subscription and just wanted to order a copy of Issue Five by itself, you may do so on August 1st. If you signed up for an auto-renewing yearly subscription last year, your card will be automatically charged exactly 365 days from your original purchase date. Any questions about your subscription status can be directed to info@mortiseandtenonmag.com. An Overwhelming Call: The Life & Work of Eric Sloane By Michael Updegraff "When you hold an early implement, when you close your hand over the worn wooden handle, you know exactly how it felt to the craftsman whose hand had smoothed it to...
Beginning with this post, we will announce one Issue Five article each weekday until pre-orders open on August 1st. If you don’t already have a subscription and just wanted to order a copy of Issue Five by itself, you may do so on August 1st. If you signed up for an auto-renewing yearly subscription last year, your card will be automatically charged exactly 365 days from your original purchase date. Any questions about your subscription status can be directed to info@mortiseandtenonmag.com. Spencer Nelson learned to build furniture in a space 4-1/2’ by 4-1/2’ in his New York City apartment building. Tired of the hassle of traveling to maker spaces, Spencer set up shop between his kitchen and living room to...
