Welsh chairmaker and teacher Chris Williams, who will join us once again in March/April.We have alerted Crafts & Vines so the owners have ample time to stock up on red wine.
We have a handful of new classes – including one from Welshman Chris Williams – to announce for the first half of 2025, tickets for which will be on sale at 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept. 16, 2024, on our ticketing site.
For more information, click through (above) to each class (but pay no mind to the “Register Now” button you’ll see – you cannot register until 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept 16).
Christopher Schwarz’s Welsh-style stick chair, which he’ll be teaching three times at LAP this winter and spring.
– Fitz
p.s. Classes sometimes sell out within nano-seconds (class sizes are quite small, so there are very few spots available), so if you’re interested, limber up those fingers and get ready. And if you don’t get in, sign up for the waitlist – we almost always have at least one spot that needs filling.
p.p.s. We might add a class or two in the coming months – so stay tuned!
The prototype of a Shaker-inspired dovetailed step stool that I will be teaching; I have finally tired of making and teaching Shaker trays.
It’s part of an all-day livestream event on Saturday, Sept., 21, during which Joshua will take you behind the scenes at Mortise & Tenon, show you his historic house reconstruction, answer all your questions and more, as well as lead the Jonathan Fisher House guided tour.
We’ve added a special class and spaces are available now: Learn How to Make Woodcuts with Rudy Everts. The class is Sunday, Nov. 24 and Monday, Nov. 25. Rudy, who is visiting from Munich, will also be filming a video on making a stick chair using nothing but feral green woodworking techniques, from log to finished chair. (But not during the class, of course.)
Students will learn how to draw a design, transfer it to a woodblock, cut the block using edge tools, then print the woodblock by hand onto paper using printing ink.
Rudy has developed a woodcut style that draws inspiration from MC Escher, Wharton Esherick and Paul Landacre, and he has developed numerous shading techniques making woodcuts over several years. (You might know just some of Rudy’s work from the cover of “The Stick Chair Journal” and “The Stick Chair Book” – as well as various carvings he’s made for Chris over the years. Also, Rudy is one-third of the Chair Chat trio, so you know it’s going to be a fun class.)
Our storefront will be open the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 23. We will be selling our full line of books and tools, of course. But we will be on hand to answer your questions, give demos and talk about woodworking. And to ply you with cookies. And to show you the clock if you ask (if you know, you know – but let’s just say you need to be 21 to see the clock, and it’s not naughty).
We will have a special, free, commemorative Lost Art Press…something…to give away – one to a visitor. It’s so special that we can’t yet reveal what is it. (We’re still workshopping ideas.) And we will also likely have blemished books and other LAP/Crucible items at 50 percent off. We might also have a few personal tools to sell – both Chris and I have some basement cleaning to do. (Blemished books and tools will be cash only). Our storefront is at 837 Willard St., Covington, Ky. 41011
So mark your calendars – we hope to see you in November!
The desk and bookcase was an essential piece of furniture for a minister because it housed his most important books.
The following is excerpted from “Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847),” by Joshua Klein. In this book, Klein (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.
The Desk & Bookcase The value of a minister’s library was substantial and, therefore, the fact that Fisher invested time in the construction of a desk and bookcase is not surprising. One biographer calculated that Fisher owned approximately 300 books, describing it as “not an inconsiderable store for a poor minister in a small village.” That Fisher valued reading is even seen in the plans for his house in which one of only two items of furniture depicted was a bookcase in the kitchen.
Though Fisher’s desk and bookcase is not explicitly mentioned in the surviving journal entries, attribution can be confidently made based on provenance, numerous construction features and the homemade wooden lock on the door.
The desk is constructed of pine and was painted (although the current paint is modern). The desk has three drawers and downward-extending lopers that provide a slanted writing surface. At the top of the writing surface, there is a small secret compartment with a sliding-dovetail lid for valuables. The bookcase has both full-length shelves as well as small compartments for letters, etc. The panel doors lap with a beveled edge when closed, and a homemade wooden lock secures the minister’s library from tampering. Despite the fact that the lock operated with a key that is now missing, there is an identical lock on the door to his clock face that still functions, operating by turning a knob. Fisher made many wooden latches in his house, all of which are fascinating, but these locks are particularly delightful. They are easy to overlook by assuming that they are the same metal locks Fisher might have purchased from Mr. Witham’s store at the head of the bay, but they are clearly Fisher-made and completely made of wood. Their delicateness and smoothness of operation add a touch of sophistication to an otherwise unassuming piece of furniture.
It is understandable that Fisher’s work has been compared to that of the Shakers but there are differences, especially in ornamentation.
Fisher’s work has been sometimes compared to that of the Shakers because of its simplicity and conscious restraint. While the overall association stands, it is significant to point out that the primary difference between Fisher and the Shakers is their view of ornamentation. While classic Shaker work has little to no moulding, Fisher relished elaborate profiles. The cornice of this desk (as well as that of his wardrobe) sat like a crown over Fisher as he studied. His artistic vision of furniture design, though similar to the Shakers’ in its modesty, was less inhibited. Even as a young child, his mother, Katherine, taught him to value artistic expression. Katherine, whose drawings look so much like her son’s, saw a world in which chastity and artistic beauty were not mutually exclusive. Fisher was not afraid of flourish. His work fits much more squarely in the Federal vernacular classification than that of the Shakers.
The cornice on the desk and bookcase sets it apart from Shaker work.
The floral drawings Fisher’s mother, Katherine, drew in her notebooks are reminiscent of her son’s. Katherine Avery Fisher, untitled hand-bound booklet, 1778; paper, string, ink, pencil, 6-1/8″ x 3-5/8″; collection of Historic Deerfield, HD 56.296. – Courtesy of Historic Deerfield, Photo by Penny Leveritt.
The desk carcase is interesting in that it is constructed like a six-board chest, with the sides extending to the floor with bootjack feet. The dados are a scant 3⁄4″ wide, matching his surviving dado plane. The backboards are unplaned, rough-sawn boards nailed into rabbets in the sides. The drawers (with the exception of the bottom one, which is a replacement) are of conventional dovetail construction – half-blind dovetails at the front, and through-dovetails at the back. The drawers’ bottoms are beveled and fitted into grooves in the sides and front, and are nailed to the drawer backs
Rather than rely on measurements from a ruler, Fisher relied on simple whole-number proportions used in classical architecture.
The overall composition of this piece illustrates the minister’s education. Even this simple desk was designed with classical proportions from his architectural training. Fisher’s fluency in this geometric layout is obvious from his college geometry notebooks in the archives. These notebooks are full of compass exercises to lay out complex patterns. Designing a desk was easy compared to the drawings he usually did. This “artisan’s design language” (as George Walker has called it) [6] must have been intuitive in Fisher’s cosmos of order and mathematical rationality.
The lock is made of wood, with the exception of the metal pins. This is exactly the kind of detail work Fisher seemed to enjoy.
The top panel was beveled on all four sides to fit in the groove, but the bottom panel was thin enough to fit without beveling. This board must have been thin before planing because rough-sawn fibers can still be seen in places.
The panels in the doors are interesting in their irregularity. Their flat sides face out in the Federal style and are beveled only where needed on the inside. The insides of the panels have heavy scalloping from the fore plane, even leaving behind evidence of a nick in the iron of the plane. This tendency to continue to use a nicked iron without regrinding the bevel is consistent throughout his work and concurs with the notion of pre-industrial indifference toward secondary surface condition. For the bottom two panels, he seems to have run short on material because the panels are only barely as thick as the 5⁄16″ groove and, even at that, both retain minor, rough-sawn texture. It appears he was scraping the bottom of the barrel to get those doors finished.
Willard wrote his name all over the house. His father’s bookcase door was no exception.
The insides of the doors have several inscriptions. “Willard” is written in red ink on one door, and “Josiah F” on the other. There are also compass-scribed circles on the inside of both doors whose randomness appears to have no significance beyond doodling. Even more perplexing, however, is the recording of “1 gallon of vinegar” on the inside of the door. This pattern of documenting purchases (and then crossing them off when paid) as well as notable life events is seen in several other pieces throughout the house. Jonathan seemed to have started the habit but Willard definitely took it far beyond his father. Willard’s name, agricultural notes and weather reports appear all over the house and his son, Fred, seems to have continued the tradition.
The Standing Desk
The standing desk was once painted blue and never had a drawer pull. It is said to have been used by Fisher for preparing sermons.
The standing desk is said to have been used by Fisher and is attributed to him. There are remnants of the light blue paint Fisher used extensively in his furniture, but there is no mention in the journals of his building the desk at all. Fisher did describe building a “high writing table” but this would be a surprising description for such a recognizable form as a desk on frame. Furthermore, Fisher was described as “below medium height.” Because the average height of a Civil War soldier was 5’7″, it seems reasonable to surmise Fisher was certainly no taller than 5’5″. If this were his desk, it would have been uncomfortably tall for him without a stool to stand on. Perhaps, though, the “standing stool” Fisher built soon after moving into his house was intended for that purpose.
6. Walker, Geo. R, and Tolpin, Jim, “By Hand & Eye,” Lost Art Press, 2013.
