Whenever woodworkers come to my house, two things happen. We drink beer and we gaze longingly at my 18th-century copies of A.-J. Roubo’s ‘l’Art du Menuisier.”
I assure you that we keep the beer far away from the books.
I’ve owned many copies of Roubo, from the trade paperbacks all the way up to this beautiful first edition. And it is the detail and size of these original plates that grab your eye and cause you to press your face to the page.
“Why did he draw that tool in that way?” is a common question.
With many old woodworking books, the answer is, “He didn’t draw it that way. Some illustrator did.” But in this case, Roubo himself drew most all of the plates. Nothing is unintentional – I can say this because I know many of these plates by heart and have been editing our upcoming translation, which will be published next year.
With “The Book of Plates,” we wanted to capture that same experience of examining the 18th-century original by giving you the plates at the same size they were drawn in the 1700s. We wanted to offer the extreme detail from the original. Oh, and the paper is the nicest stuff available.
To give you a feel for that experience, I made this short video tour of two plates in the book – one on trying planes and one on measuring tools. The book shown in the video is my first edition – “The Book of Plates” is still on press. I apologize in advance for how many times I say “cool.” I recommend you turn that quirk of mine into a drinking game.
We are now accepting pre-publication orders for “The Book of Plates.” Order soon to ensure delivery by Christmas. The book ships starting Nov. 20, 2014.
— Christopher Schwarz
Cool.
DRINK!
I never get tired of looking at these! It seems each plate is a short story of its own. I’m excited to have access to them all.
What a treat to see a video of your first edition!!! Was that the copy that was the source of the images in “The Book of Plates”?
What I’d really like to see if that level of detailed video – of a copy of “The Book of Plates”. What we’ll be buying is the quality of the imagery. The quality of YOUR first edition appears to be wonderful, but what will we get in “The Book of Plates”?
Jim,
That is the copy we digitized for all of our Roubo editions. Including Book of Plates. As I mentioned in the blog entry, the Book of Plates is still on press so there is no way for me to show it.
That drinking game idea is…
Cool.
Very cool! Those winding sticks appear to be specialized so that the user can test across two edge rabbets, and not worry about the junk in the middle of the board. Are there any hints in the text about the common usage of this? I can imagine leaving the interior face of a carcass rough to avoid unneeded work. Or possibly this would be the first step, followed by “connecting the lines” on each edge?
Hey Aaron,
The text goes into detail about the winding sticks on that plate. They aren’t just for rabbets. They are more complex than sticks we use today, but they have the advantage of being able to hop over humps without giving a false reading.
Don Williams has a complete essay on them in the forthcoming “Roubo on Furniture.”
Thanks Chris. They look pretty sophisticated, compared to the beat up sticks I use. I’ll look forward to Don’s insights!
Reblogged this on Sawdust & Woodchips and commented:
Can’t wait to have a beer while perusing my copy!