When I set out to write, “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” my intent was to create a “pattern book” of vernacular furniture. The book didn’t turn out that way, which is sometimes how it goes. But during the research, Suzanne Ellison turned up a little book that fulfilled my original objective.
“A Craftsman’s Handbook: Henry Lapp” (Good Books) is a reproduction of 47 pages of a pattern book created by woodworker Henry Lapp (1862-1904). Lapp was an Amish furniture maker and hardware store owner in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
His book is filled with more than 100 designs that he made for customers on the farms and in the towns surrounding him. Each one is drawn in pencil and then painted in watercolor.
These pieces represent an excellent cross-section of the vernacular pieces common in the Americas during the 19th and early 20th century. You could spend your whole lifetime building these pieces and pretty much find contentment (both for you and your customers).
The little book is 4-3/4” x 8” is nicely printed on uncoated paper, but it is unfortunately perfect bound. Mine fell apart shortly after it arrived. Despite this flaw, it is an excellent addition to your library if you are interested in vernacular furniture. Highly recommended.
— Christopher Schwarz
p.s. There are a couple versions of this book out there. I don’t know how the others are bound.
p.p.s. You can read more about Lapp in this post from Suzanne Ellison (aka the Saucy Indexer).
A digital version of it can be found on archive.org https://archive.org/details/craftsmanshandbo01unse/mode/1up
FWIW for others looking at the book on Archive.org, skip the PDF version if you care about the plates. They compressed the heck out of the images. One of the few times the web interface on the site is nicer to use.
If you just want the plates, the scans from the Philadelphia Museum of Art are very nice and can be individually downloaded to supplement the text found in the PDF on the Internet Archive, which as others have noted, have file compression issues. https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/225095
Thanks. Just got a copy based on your recommendation. Even if it falls apart those drawings might look good framed. However what do I know, I’ve got a framed drawing of a toolchest and a poster of a hammer.
Well crud, the ebay seller just cancelled my order. Guess I’ll have to do the online version instead.
I bought my copy in Intercourse, PA in 1994 and it’s been holding up just fine. I don’t look at it often, just every few years when I get a bug that I should build a piece of vernacular furniture. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet.
just scanned through the online version. fascinating! thanks for sharing Chris and Suzanne. thanks David for the link
Thx for the heads up Chris. Maybe you’ll be publishing a reprint?
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has the original on their website with high quality downloadable versions of the individual plates: https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/225095
If it’s a treasured/ frequently used volume, sturdy rebinding is an option. Not inexpensive (I send many old volumes for rebinding), but durable.
Thanks for the book reference!
Thanks for this post, and thanks as well to the commenters with the great links. This has got to be one of the best corners of the interwebs. Good on you all.
Thanks for sharing this Chris. I’m struck by a couple of things. The author attempted to draw in crude perspective. Though not polished he produced images one could easily imagine. He also did not include any dimensions or other keys a builder might find helpful. I assume this was more to help customers imagine what a piece might look like. Actually these designs look better to my eye than many of the current offerings coming out of Amish furniture shops today.
This is what I have discovered about it on Amazon: Small, soft and portable, it fit easily into the pocket; and Henry Lapp must have carried it with him to exhibit samples of his cabinet-making enterprise to prospective purchasers. Perhaps the unpretentious shape of the store-bought notebook, its plain cover, coarse paper, and simply sewn binding did not attract much attention, for the little handbook lay unnoticed in the drawer of a small bureau which was purchased by a dealer from a descendant of Henry Lapp about 1956. When it was discovered, it was soon sold to an appreciative collector; and it came to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a gift in 1958.
Of course, as usual, there is one copy available there and some opportunist is asking $90 for it. I have not yet searched other venues.
“Opportunist”=supply vs demand.
Life is like that.
I just got one in its slipcase for much, much less. Often the high price has nothing to do with demand – follow and witness, as I do regularly as a collector, those books that stay on eBay for months or years, and also do not sell on Amazon. The seller is simply waiting for that one sucker with deep pockets or a weak mind. If you are patient, eventually some seller will offer it for a sane price and buyers do not run the price up in a bidding war. So much for demand.
For what it’s worth most commercial printers can trim the binding, and punch the pages for coil or comb binding for few dollars. While not pretty it will keep the book together & the book will open & lay flat. I’ve seen several old book books – both large & small converted this way. Cook books are commonly done… While not for the purist it does keep the book together in a purely functional manner.
Japanese Stab binding is an easy alternative solution to perfect binding and can be done at home. The book doesn’t lay flat but it never did.
It’s a really interesting little book. Well worth having.
Chris, what is perfect bound, or do you mean imperfect? you mentioned the book fell apart shortly after you received it.
“Perfect binding, often referred to as soft cover novel binding, is a method of binding in which the interior pages of a book are clamped and glued at the spine before wrapping it in a soft cover. After that, the cover and pages are cut on the sides opposite the spine to create a book with a crisp, “perfect” edge.”
But it doesn’t lay flat and if you force it flat it splits and over time even if you don’t often the pages fall out.
Thanks for the info on perfect binding Brian.
Looks like the museum has an issue with us. This morning I saw the images on my phone, now on a real computer at the library I get a page not found message. If I search on Henry Lapp or the item number in the link above I get one result which is a small picture of the cover. Clicking on the picture send you to page not found, not a larger picture.
If a perfect bound book is truly worth it, I will take it apart, attach a fine linen band to each page, then stitch the binding and put a hard cover on it – often with the soft cover glued permanently to it if it is in reasonable condition. A permanent bound book is not often considered so valuable in its original state that it is devalued by this treatment.
I’m sure Suzanne’s browser history would be an interesting book in its own right.
I would love a copy of this book, but not for a hundred bucks! (Or $135!)
It will come down in price after the surge in demand. They are usually $25.