Author: Lost Art Press

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).

We are temporarily lowering the price of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” to $37 (down from $52) in a sincere effort to clear out a huge section of our second floor devoted to warehousing this title. This is not a junk title – “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is our second best-selling book of all time.

We have more than 400 *boxes* of this book – nearly a three-and-a-half year supply, which we ordered during the dark days of the pandemic when it was next to impossible to get inventory. We are trying to move all our inventory to one location in Covington – right now it is spread over three locations, which is expensive and complicated.

The sale on the book starts today and runs through Jan. 19. 

“The Anarchist’s Design Book” is the second book in the series and begins with the question: 

“The people who could afford high-style furniture also owned mega-farms, factories and (sometimes) entire towns. This is not a knock on their wealth. But it is a simple way of asking a question that rarely gets asked among amateur makers: Why would you want to imitate the taste of your boss’s boss’s boss?”

The book offers vernacular furniture forms – classic and simple pieces that have changed very little during the centuries – that can be built with simple tools. Things like six-board chests, backstools and solid freestanding bookshelves.

“The Anarchist’s Design Book” focuses on two simple joints, nails and the staked mortise and tenon, to build all the pieces. It is designed for beginning and intermediate woodworkers. And it is a different path (and destination) than the one most woodworkers take.

“The Anarchist’s Design Book” is a massive hardbound book at 656 pages. Casebound, with a bookmark ribbon and made in the USA.

We very rarely discount products (unless we are closing them out). We hope this short sale will give us the space we need in our warehouse and put this book in the hands of some eager woodworkers.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. We have notified all our retailers that they can also lower the price during this period if they wish (and we have reduced the wholesale price for them, as well).