If the display is carefully studied it will be noticed that just enough goods are shown to suggest the line carried. A small assortment of up-to-date samples often proves more effective than a window crowded with samples of well known goods, which everyone knows can be found in a stock carrying such new and thoroughly up-to-date goods.
The firm in whose window the display was made (Fig. 10), carries one of the most complete lines of tools in the metropolis. Hence it would have been easy to fill the window from top to bottom with goods. But this concern, as well as all successful window display advertisers, recognized the value of exhibiting only a limited number. Such a window has greater selling power than one in which samples of all lines are placed, entailing considerable expenditure of thought, time and money. (more…)
When thinking of the modern wood-working establishment, with its finely-drawn divisions and subdivisions of all the different operations in the hands of experts and specialists, it is with a feeling of regret that we see the old-fashioned all-round mechanic being gradually crowded into the background, with the prospect that sooner or later his type will become extinct.
Not so many years ago the skilled workman was an indispensable factor in every wood-working shop. He was a combination of cabinetmaker, carpenter and machineman who could make a complete door or window or a piece of furniture from the raw material, with no other assistance but his own skill. He could lay out his work, match, joint and lay his own veneer, knew all about the properties of glue, the nature of the various kinds of wood and their adaptability for different purposes, besides a thousand other shop kinks, acquired by years of practical experience.
It used to be a source of real pleasure to watch such workman handle his tools when building up, piece by piece, some intricate design of artistic woodwork, and the evident satisfaction he derived from viewing the work of his own hands, showed the earmarks of the artist. On account of his ability and wide range of usefulness, he was looked up to by his shopmates, and his work called forth the admiration of everybody. (more…)
The man who designs and makes a good chair, or other useful article of any kind—all the more if it be beautiful as well as useful—is second only in the respectability of his occupation to him who brings grain and grass out of otherwise barren ground.
It is a very mistaken notion of the relations of things that sets trading—that is, buying and selling—a very different matter from commerce, which is the bringing of the products of one country into another—above handicraft. But handicraft seems to be falling into neglect.
The number of artisans who thoroughly understand their craft, and take a pride in doing good work, seems to be diminishing at a rate which is perceptible from one five years’ end to another. Indeed, it is notorious among all those who have occasion from time to time to employ skilled labour, that if they need the services of, let us say, a carpenter, a cabinet-maker, a watchmaker, or a painter, they cannot be sure, without some troublesome inquiry, that the work will be done in a workmanlike manner.
This uncertainty has no reference to that skill and taste which are the personal attributes of the individual workman, and give one man a reputation which another can never attain, but to that knowledge and skill, at once elementary and complete, which is possessed by every artisan who has “learned his trade.” (more…)
The final round of copy editing has been completed on “To Make as Perfectly as Possible,” the penultimate proof has been sent to the designer, Wesley Tanner, for corrections, and, well, I’m confident it will be as perfect as possible. I’ll get one last proof to check again this marked-up copy (thank you Linda Watts for catching errors that I did not), then I believe the plan is to have it to the printer on or before July 1. (At which time there will be much rejoicing.)
I’ve read this volume four times now in as many weeks, and while I realize I couldn’t possibly execute a perfect work in marquetry (having never before attempted it – and Roubo reminds us time and again that good work requires lots of practice), I’m quite certain that I could tell someone how to do it (along with what tropical hardwoods would be best used for any given effect).
I eagerly await volume two (Don et al., get on that, would you?!).
Below, I’ve copied a few of my favorite quotations (I kept a running list whilst editing). So until the thing itself is available, enjoy these wee excerpts.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
“The prevailing display of luxury is also one of the causes of the lack of excellence in works of cabinetry – everyone wishing to have it but without having the means to pay what they are worth.” (Sounds quite contemporary, eh?!)
“This might be due to laziness or inability, or, which is more accurate, by the impossible situation they are in when the merchants pay only half the necessary amount for it to be well made.” (Nice to see that little has changed in the intervening centuries)
“If woodworking is, by itself, an important art should not the knowledge of it be acquired (or at least attempted) as much in theory as in practice? Sadly, this is not very common at the present.” (Kids today…)
“One of the biggest obstacles that I have had to overcome is the cry of the public against big books, which they will not buy because they are too expensive, or they buy but do not read because they are too voluminous. But how could I do otherwise? Should I fool the Public in pandering to their taste but against their interests by giving them an abridged and consequently less expensive edition, but where they will learn nothing…?” (He’s absolutely right, then and now)
“…but when speaking badly of a piece I have always respected the worker, at least that was my intention.” (Good on you, A.J.)
