“It is surprising,” said an intelligent workingman, “to notice the change that machinery of all kinds has worked in the different trades within comparatively few years. For a time there was an objection to machine work of all kinds as not being equal to hand work, but this has worn away and machinery rules everywhere.”
“In the trade of a blacksmith machinery has made great changes and actually new trades; but there is one trade which machinery in recent years has killed, that of the cabinet-maker. I have known hundreds of good cabinet-makers, after serving a long apprenticeship, finding that machinery has taken away their occupation, to become house carpenters straight away and are now earning good wages.”
“I do not think,” he continued, stroking his chin reflectively, “that contractors will be able to do without house carpenters or lay bricks by machinery for many years yet, which is one comfort.”
Two ardent amateur collectors of old mahogany recently entered a shabby looking shop together in search of a bureau of a type they scarcely dared hope to find, and, to the amusement of one of the two, the other pounced eagerly upon a very dilapidated chest of drawers and a bureau in equally bad shape, and got them for $4.50 and $5, respectively. In response to the query. “What can you possibly do with such junk?” she said:
“You know all those pieces you admire at my house? “Well, some were worse than these, and I have done them over myself on rainy days, only having an old carpenter come in for a few hours to put in braces where needed. I have a regular scraper that every hardware shop can supply, and a file to roughen it up when needed, and with this, some boiled linseed oil and a cabinetmaker’s glue-pot-on-heater, I work wonders and amuse myself for weeks at a time.” (more…)
Signed, limited-edition art prints of the image above will be for sale at the Studley Tool Cabinet & Workbench Exhibit in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on May 15-17. Come by and say hi, get a book signed, buy a print and, oh yeah, go see this tool cabinet and workbench everyone keeps talking about.
I refer to this image endearingly as the ensemble’s “yearbook” photo – it’s one of a few photographs I took that contains the entire tool cabinet and workbench, and I think it’s a fitting keepsake for a truly special viewing experience of the full Studley Ensemble. An image like this one appears across the title spread of Virtuoso, but the book features the empty tool cabinet and a cropped workbench base.
The prints measure 24″ by 24″ (the image is 20″ x 17″) and are printed with archival inks on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308, a very thick matte art paper whose silky-smooth, reflective-free surface yields prints with outstanding depth, detail and character. They will come packaged in clear archival bags and will cost $100, payable by credit card or cash.
This art print edition will be limited to 100 prints, each one signed and numbered in pencil by me. I’m hoping to bring all 100 prints to Cedar Rapids (production time might be an issue), but given the pre-release interest in Virtuoso, Handworks,and the H.O. Studley exhibit, I’m fairly certain the prints I bring will sell out, making this poster an event exclusive. The prints will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, though I will ensure that some are reserved to be sold on Saturday afternoon for those of you who won’t be in the area until the weekend.
I know many of you are interested in prints of images from Virtuoso, and you’ll be happy to know that I intend to offer prints of other images from the Virtuoso photo archive at future woodworking events (such as WIA). But for the time being, prints will not be offered for sale online anywhere – I won’t quit my day job to become a poster-making factory, and I prefer the kind of care and quality control I can exercise in these small-batch production runs. There’s already a made-for-the-masses poster for sale and, for what it’s worth, I have one myself.
Speaking of care and quality control, I’m still tweaking and proofing the image; I’ll post a photo or two on Instagram or on the LAP blog when production is in full swing.
Whether the fad for collecting old pieces of mahogany furniture—most of it being in unpresentable condition—is responsible for the new direction given to woman’s energies, or whether it is merely an effort to invade a hitherto little known field of work—one in which the majority of the sex is interested, however—the fact has become known that furniture restoring and renovating are added to the list of accomplishments approved by the practical woman.
She may be a housewife or she may be living in tiny quarters by herself, but if there is room anywhere for the few tools required in the simpler lines of cabinet work, she spends an hour or more now and then in improving the appearance of her Heppelwhite desk or polishing a candle stand until its value is increased, while its charm is more than doubled. (more…)
As the public school is the lever by which the improvement of society must be worked, every effort to provide means of training for those who would otherwise be without it—every endeavour to give the children of the poor useful knowledge of common things—merits the support of every educational influence. And this brings us to the practical observation that toys ought to be made to advance education, whereas a majority of those furnished to children in this country do more harm than good. At least half of them should be burnt ignominiously as early corrupters of public taste. (more…)
