The following is from “Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847),” by Joshua Klein.
Fisher was the first settled minister of the frontier town of Blue Hill, Maine. Harvard-educated and handy with an axe, Fisher spent his adult life building furniture for his community. Fortunately for us, Fisher recorded every aspect of his life as a woodworker and minister on the frontier.
In this book, author Joshua A. Klein, the founder of Mortise & Tenon Magazine, examines what might be the most complete record of the life of an early 19th-century American craftsman. Using Fisher’s papers, his tools and the surviving furniture, Klein paints a picture of a man of remarkable mechanical genius, seemingly boundless energy and the deepest devotion. It is a portrait that is at times both familiar and completely alien to a modern reader – and one that will likely change your view of furniture making in the early days of the United States.
Chapter 7 of the book is a catalog of Fisher’s tools and furniture; these pieces are included therein.
Round-top Stand
Made by Jonathan Fisher
Dimensions: W: cross-grain 16-3/8″, with grain 16-5/8″ top 3/4″ thick; legs 1″ thick; bottom of pedestal 3″; cleat width 6″ H: 28″
Wood(s): cherry
Inscriptions/stamps: n/a
From the collection of: Jonathan Fisher Memorial
Construction: The round top is screwed to a cleat. The pedestal is tenoned into the cleat. There is a turned shelf at the top of the dovetails and there is a circular thin metal plate in place of a spider nailed to the underside with three nails. The tops of the legs are rounded rather than coming to a point as in other stands.
Tool Marks: There is minor tear-out on the top’s underside. There is traversing tear-out on the underside. The cleat demonstrates a double chip in the plane iron’s marks. There is plane chatter on the cleat. There are layout lines for the tenon on the cleat. The underside of the legs have turning saw, spokeshave, chisel and rasp marks.
Condition: There is a large gouge in two areas of the pedestal but otherwise stable.
Chest
Made by Jonathan Fisher
Dimensions: L: 41-1/8″ D: 16-3/4″ H: 22-7/8″; stock thickness: 9/16″
Wood(s): pine
Inscriptions/stamps: underside of lid: sawmill tally marks, three large chalk mark swirls; small pencil “x” on back
Accession Number: Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Museum Purchase, 1965.1465.11
Construction: The chest is rabbeted and nailed (with T-headed nails). The bottom is in dados and a groove (sides and back) and in a rabbet in front. There are three nails through each end securing the bottom and one in front but no nails through the back. The ogee-moulded lid has cleats that are tapered and fastened with nails clinched up through the top. The lid is attached with cotterpin hinges. The chest has a lock.
Tool Marks: Only the front, sides and top of the lid were smooth planed – all other surfaces have fore plane marks. The underside of the bottom is rough with lots of tear-out from a heavily cambered plane, and there is large tear-out on underside of PL cleat. There are saw marks under the profile of the feet with a considerable chamfer on the inside. The till’s layout lines are visible.
Condition: There are minor repairs to the moulding. Two clinched cleat nails have pulled through the lid. (They were clinched parallel to the grain.)
It’s a wonderful book to own, I highly recommend it. Have you considered talking about grain painting. Joshua briefly discussed it in the book and would love to know more.
Thank you for the quick review. I enjoy reading comments on the tool marks on older handmade furniture. We too often attempt as makers to achieve perfection on unseen surfaces and hidden joints. I will leave perfection to the machine operators.
It’s a wonderful book.
One of the most impactful books I’ve ever read on the subject of woodworking and woodworkers in my 60 years of making chips. I had been exploring the idea of “boarded” furniture, and this book set me free. Handtool woodworkers need to abandon the notion that their work must emulate that of the rise of machine work overtaking us for most of the last two centuries. This book is a premium piece of publishing material in every respect, and well worth every nickel of its price. It has been life-changing for me, and I wish it hadn’t taken 77 years for it to come into my hands and mind.
My mother had a small table very much like Fisher’s “Round-Top Stand”. Unfortunately it was congenitally weak in the knees, and it is very sad to say it didn’t stand a chance against the abuse and depredations of her seven sons spanning more than 20 years. May it R.I.P.
I love that the chest lid can be held open by the lid of an interior compartment. Elegant!