‘The Art of Joinery, Revised Edition’ Now in Store

“The Art of Joinery, Revised Edition” is now at the printer, so we are offering a pre-publication offer: free domestic shipping if you order before Nov. 4, 2013.

The book is $21 shipped anywhere in the United States if you order before the deadline. After that date, shipping will be $7.

“The Art of Joinery” was the first book Lost Art Press published in 2008, and it has been out of print and unavailable for several years now. During the last 12 months, we have worked diligently on the revised edition. Here is what it contains:

1. The lightly edited text of Joseph Moxon’s landmark work on joinery – the first English-language text on the topic. We took Moxon’s 17th-century verbiage and removed the long “s” characters, broke up his run-on sentences and added a few words here and there (in brackets) to help the modern reader digest the text more easily.

2. I have added modern commentary on every one of Moxon’s sections on tools and techniques. I amplified the text with photos that demonstrate many of the processes that Moxon discusses, such as processing stock by hand and cutting mortise-and-tenon joints. And I have explained the historical context behind many of Moxon’s explanations, sometimes supporting his conclusions; sometimes taking issue with them. In this revised edition, I have expanded some of my commentary and revised some assessments based on new information.

3. Each section is published with the relevant illustrations embedded in the text. In the 17th-century edition, the plates were separate from the text. We have put them together to make it easier for you to read.

4. We have also published the original plates in their entirety so you can see how the tools were arranged on the page.

5. We have included the complete and unedited original text from the 17th century. This text includes all the antiquated characters, inconsistent spellings, free-form italics and capital letters and run-on sentences. We have painstakingly reset the entire text in a 17th-century-style typeface called “Fell.”

6. And we have added an appendix of select plates from André Félibien’s “Des principes de l’architecture, de la sculpture, de la peinture…“ (1676), which pre-dated Moxon’s work and is probably the source of many of Moxon’s drawings.

“The Art of Joinery, Revised Edition” is 168 pages and – like all Lost Art Press publications – printed and bound in the United States. The book is hardbound and covered with a dark-blue cloth. The interior of the book is notched and casebound for durability. The book will have natural-colored endsheets and the book’s pages will feature a rough exterior edge, like early books.

The book is available for ordering in our store here.

We will offer an electronic version of this book, but we will not offer a leather-bound edition. The book will be available through many (if not all) of our retailers around the world.

Thank you for your patience during this long gestation period.

— Christopher Schwarz