Lost Art Press

Turning up Traditional Techniques

Posted on by Lost Art Press

While I’m enjoying the food and culture of London and Paris this week with my wife and girls, I have squeezed in some serious work for Lost Art Press. In London, Maddy and I turned up two antique English woodworking books (one from 1875) that I have never seen in the United States.

One is quite promising and features plans for a treadle table saw and an absolutely ingenious freestanding leg vise. The writing is also delightful — the author mentions that he has used the leg vise for chaining up a monkey and a trained squirrel. No lie.

I also spent an afternoon in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which I have been writing about all week and inspired several forthcoming entries about the English Arts & Crafts movement.

In Paris, Lucy and I spent today soaking in some impressionist paintings (for her) and stunning Art Deco and Art Nouveau furniture and housewares at the Musée d’Orsay. Sadly, I couldn’t take photos at the M.O., as the locals call it, because American woodworkers need an education in Deco and Nouveau.

But the highlight of the trip was a brief visit to the Librarie du Camée at 70 rue Saint-André-des-Arts. This bookstore is surrounded by art galleries and other bookstores and feels so much more like the Paris of your imagination than the Paris surrounding the monuments (I wanted to put a gun in my mouth at Versailles).

The store is about the size of a half-decent American closet, but is absolutely crammed with books dealing with traditional crafts, including housewares, tools, horology, textiles and even making perfume. And, of course, there is a large section devoted to woodworking.

I spent about an hour going over all the shelves. I could have dropped about 1,000 Euros without regret, but I restrained myself (for now). Instead I picked up some more modern books so I can get my rusty French skills back on track.

Two volumes were a reprint of “Menuisier En Baitiments,” an 1882 book describing the craft in great detail, including many plates I’ve never seen. I also bought a new book, “Les Rabots: Histoire, Technique, Typologie, Collection” by Pierre Bouillot and Xavier Chatellard, which is an enormous and comprehensive book on Continental handplanes of all types. And I bought a third book — not a reprint — describing machine and hand woodworking operations circa 1965.

Also hanging out in the closet was a husband and wife team from Washington, D.C., who tipped me off to a tool museum and library that I’ll have to visit during my next visit to Europe in September.

Then it was off to get some iced coffee and start devouring the books. Right now, it’s a bit like reading “Riddley Walker,” but I’ll get my French back up to speed.

— Christopher Schwarz

14 thoughts on “Turning up Traditional Techniques”

  2. Hey Chris,
    Welcome to Europe,I hope my continental neighbours are treating you well!
    Treadle table saw eh?
    Wouldn’t mind seeing a few scanned pics of those plans in a future post,I’m sure I’m not alone there too.
    Bienvenu mon ami!
    Black

  3. Sounds awesome, can’t wait to see what the new books uncover. Say, I’m thinking about a trip back to Europe, where is this tool museum and library? I think it should be a stop.

    Thanks,

  4. Keep the Paris information coming, Chris! I’ll be there is five weeks. I already located the bookstore on my map.

  6. I took pictures in the Musee D’Orsay when I was there in the mid-90s. Interesting that is no longer allowed. Of course, I was photographing the works of Jean Baptiste Carpeaux and Rodin, not furniture. Now that my interests have moved from sculpture to woodworking, all I can say is "D’oh!"

  7. What a fine adventure!

    I’m looking forward to seeing more about that stand alone leg vise. I watched a master remi maker in Venice use such a vise in combination with a tree like stand to hold the gondola oars (remi) he was carving. Would love to have onel just haven’t figured out yet how to make it.

    Keep havin’ fun and bring back pictures.

  9. So you’re in Paris ?

    Quelle surprise. Too bad you did not say it before.
    I live here, and could have given you some addresses.
    Whatever, it so funny that I put so much efforts to buy and read american books, and that you come here to buy french ones 🙂

    You should have made a trip to "faubourg saint antoine" which is (in fact was is more the right word) the historical block of woodworking in Paris. Some interesting shops around there.

    Well next time let us know, I and probably some other people will send you tips and address 🙂

    Bonne visite !

  10. Graween,

    I found faubourg saint antoine on my map but minimal information otherwise. Are there still working shops there?

  11. Your kids sound more indulgent than mine. I couldn’t get to the Musee d’Orsay when we were in Paris last month. We did, however, spend time in a truly pathetic aquarium. On the bright side, there was a big TV showing the England v. Germany World Cup game. I watched while the kids looked at fish.

  12. Chris,

    I just ordered the Wearing book and am looking forward to reading it. In an earlier post you mentioned that you were working to acquire the rights to John Brown’s Anarchist Woodworker. Is that something that we can look forward to in the future?

    Thanks,

    Randy

  13. Salut

    Bonne chance avec la lecture en français. Les livre que vous avez trouvez semble très intéressant.

    De Montréal Qc

    Alexandre

  14. Hi Chris!
    It is pleasant to see someone very concentrated on what I wrote! If you need a help to get the rust off your French concerning planes, I would trade it for comentaries for the revised edition…
    Greetings from Old Europe,
    Pierre Bouillot

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