At long last, you can now order “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture” from the Lost Art Press store. The price is $57 and the book will ship in March.
Customers who order the book before it ships will receive a free immediate download of a pdf of the book. This offer will end on the day this book ships. As always, the $57 price includes the cost of shipping to customers in the United States and Canada. International customers will be able to order the book from our retailers. (Sorry, but the offer of a free download is not available for international customers.)
Representing a decade of work by an international team (Donald C. Williams, Michele Pietryka-Pagán & Philippe Lafargue), this book is the first English translation of the 18th-century masterpiece: “l’art du Menuisier” by André-Jacob Roubo. This, our second volume, covers Roubo’s writing on woodworking tools, the workshop, joinery and building furniture.
In addition to the translated text and images from the original, “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture” also includes five contemporary essays on Roubo’s writing by craftsmen Christopher Schwarz, Don Williams, Michael Mascelli, Philippe Lafargue and Jonathan Thornton.
You can download the complete table of contents here.
“Roubo on Furniture” is filled with insights into working wood and building furniture that are difficult or impossible to find in both old and modern woodworking books. Unlike many woodworking writers of the 18th century Roubo was a traditionally trained and practicing joiner. He interviewed fellow craftsmen from other trades to gain a deep and nuanced view of their practices. He learned to draw, so almost all of the illustrations in this book came from his hand.
The above facts are important because many early woodworking books are filled with information that is not quite right and drawings that were made by non-woodworkers. Not so with Roubo.
No matter what sort of woodworking you do or your skill level, we think “Roubo on Furniture” will expand greatly your knowledge of how fine furniture was (and still should be) built.
Like all Lost Art Press books, “Roubo on Furniture” is made entirely in the United States with quality binding and materials. All of the acid-free pages are sewn together and then bonded with a fiber tape so the book will not fall apart. The cover is a heavy and stiff board covered with cotton cloth. The book is 8.5” x 12” (the same size as “Roubo on Marquetry”) and is 472 pages.
— Christopher Schwarz
Awesome! Thank you for the comp PDF on preorders!
Ordered, and PDF downloaded. Can’t wait to start reading it!
On your book page Roubo is $27.50 when I ordered it was $57.00 with free pdf download. I belive the $57.00 is correct.
If you just want the pdf, it’s $27.50. If that’s not what you experienced, please send us a note at help@lostartpress.com
I am happy after sent and remembered how your book ordering options are I thought you must be saying what the hack is with him
Why did you ruin my weekend with this? Now I must read! Thank you? Ergh! So much to learn. Just so much to learn.
I’m not sure quite what to do. The last Roubo book, you published the deluxe version first, or at least took pre orders early on. And I made a decision to go with the more expensive book form. I really don’t want to purchase this smaller version, if you are goin got later publish it in the larger form. On the other hand, if you’re not going to publish in the larger form (and that would be a huge disappointment, given the investment I made in the other), then I would purchase this book immediately.
Can you help with any information on the larger deluxe book, that would help me with this decision?
We are going to publish a deluxe version of “Roubo on Furniture” that will be the sister to the deluxe “Roubo on Marquetry.” As it will be almost twice as big, it will be a bit more expensive. I’m guessing about $475.
We are beginning the design process for the deluxe edition – we couldn’t start until we had fully edited text. I don’t know how long it will take to produce the deluxe edition.
Now you know everything I know about it. Sorry I don’t have more information – there simply isn’t any.
It’s a personal decision but I think that I might get both copies and donate the less expensive version to the reference section of my local library. Or maybe vice versa. I can’t/won’t take the deluxe edition(s) into my workshop and I don’t have a good way to display pdf files in this resolution there either.
Gone are the days of only one page to browse in the book store. Congrats on reaching page two! (A little late, but I’m glad to continue catching up!)