3 Lost Art Press Products for Christmas

We are the only publishing company I know of that doesn’t have a release schedule for our books. When they are done, they go to press. No sooner.

So it’s amusing to me that it looks like we are going to have three new products in the store in time for Christmas. This was not planned; it just happened. Here is the list.

l’art du Menuisier: The Book of Plates
For years, I resisted publishing this book. That’s because the true genius of “l’Art du Menuisier” is how André Roubo’s plates and text work together to illuminate the craft of woodworking.

What changed our minds about publishing “The Book of Plates?” The short answer is that the best way to experience “l’Art du Menuisier” is to have the plates printed in full size as you read the text.

No matter how you read Roubo’s text – in a book, on a computer screen, in French, German or English – having the full-size plates before you is immensely helpful to grasp Roubo’s intent. And so we have endeavored to make this book useful for the woodworkers and scholars of today and tomorrow.

The plates were digitized at the highest resolution available and are being printed on #100 Mohawk Superfine paper (the same paper as our deluxe Roubo editions) at a level of detail that requires great skill on a top-line printing press. The book will be 10” x 14” and the pages will be sewn and bound so the book will lie flat on your bench and last for generations of use.

All of the plates will be printed at the same size as the 18th-century originals. The only difference in their presentation is with the 45 fold-out plates. We could not find a U.S. printer to produce the fold-outs. So we are printing the fold-outs over a spread of two pages with a small and intentional gap between the two halves.

The hardest part of this project was making the 472-page over-sized book affordable. We succeeded. “The Book of Plates” will be $100. It will be available in November.

Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker! A novel with measured drawings by Roy Underhill
This book is in the final design stages and will go to press at the end of September. The book is a total hoot – I read about half of it last night. I didn’t mean to. It just happened.

This book represents a significant chunk of Roy’s life and has been revised and revised and revised about four times since I’ve known him. It will be worth the wait.

We have just commissioned an artist to create the cover illustration – a 1930s-looking piece that would look at home on the front of a pulp comic.

This book will be available in November or early December. We are still working out the details, but expect it to be less than $30. It will be hardcover, sewn signatures, U.S.-made – all the regular hallmarks of Lost Art Press books.

Lost Art Press Full-zip Hoodie Sweatshirt
After many requests, we are going to produce our first-ever sweatshirt – a black, U.S.-made hoodie with a full zipper up the front. The Lost Art Press logo will be screened on the front using a design created by an artist who specializes in hand lettering.

There won’t be any clever phrases. Just the logo and some beautiful hand-lettered text. We expect this hoodie – designed, made and silkscreened in the United States – to be about $55. Also available in November (we think).

— Christopher Schwarz