Free domestic shipping for “Campaign Furniture” ends at midnight tonight, April 5. After that, shipping and handling will be $8.
Eight dollars is a lot of money (though not as much as $300). That $8 could be a six pack of snooty beer. Or a 12 pack of stuff that has already been through the hobo once.
Save your $8 here.
— Christopher Schwarz
Several of my friends and colleagues have been surprised by how well our new book, “Campaign Furniture,” has been selling.
“That’s amazing,” they say, “for a style of furniture that is so ____________ .” Fill in the blank with any word that is a synonym for “obscure.”
The truth is that campaign furniture has been obscure only in the realm of furniture-makers. Everytime I go to an antique mall, I find at least one piece of campaign-style furniture (whether the seller actually realizes it or not). Plus, I can always find reproductions at used furniture stores. And 1stdibs.com is awash in the stuff.
The British campaign style is generally assumed to have been popular during 1740 to 1940, when the British Empire owned a huge chunk of the globe. That’s a huge run for any furniture style. American Arts & Crafts furniture, by way of comparison, had a much shorter run. About 50 years.
Shaker furniture has a similar timeline to that of campaign furniture. However, it is my educated guess that there are far more pieces of campaign furniture out there than Shaker furniture. This is not to say that the styles are “equal,” whatever that means. But that campaign-style stuff is anything but obscure.
In fact, many times campaign pieces are stealthily hiding as non-campaign pieces. Simon and Sean Clarke at Christopher Clarke Antiques Ltd. had many stories for us about how they encountered chairs, Davenports and tables that were knock-down campaign pieces, but the owners had no idea that their pieces could be taken to pieces.
Now, truth be told, I am also surprised by how well the “Campaign Furniture” book is selling. But not because the style is obscure, but because the book is about a style of furniture. All books about a furniture style are doomed to sell worse than books about birdhouses.
But I was heartened – nay, almost Unicorn-fartin’-a-rainbow ecstatic – by Joel Moskowitz’s assessment of the book: “(O)ne of the most important books on woodworking to appear in the last generation.” Joel is a tough customer.
— Christopher Schwarz
If you don’t read my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, you might want to check out this article I posted there this morning. Git yer polissoirs.
— Christopher Schwarz
This weekend (April 4 and 5) Lost Art Press will be at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Cincinnati. As always, the event will be held at the offices of Popular Woodworking Magazine (go here for directions and hours).
We’ll have all of our Lost Art Press books (including a deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible”) to sell. But this year we’ll have some extra stuff because the show is in our back yard.
We’ll have discounted copies of our books that are blemished or were soiled (don’t ask) and returned. In addition, I have been cleaning out the basement and have gathered together a heap of tools I had forgotten about or were boxed up out of sight.
Some are new stuff I purchased to test years ago. Some tools are vintage ones I bought to study. All will be priced fairly. (And yes, the tools we do not sell will be up here on the blog for everyone at a later date.)
And one last thing: I’m bringing one of my unfinished full-size Anarchist’s tool chests to sell. The shell, skirts and lid are complete. You just have to add the internal guts. As I built this chest during a class, I have already been paid for my labor. So I’ll be asking the cost of materials only: $300.
If this doesn’t sell, however, I’m not going to put it up here on the blog. These are crazy to ship.
If you live within a day’s drive from Cincinnati, these events are totally worth the trip. This show is one of the bigger ones and has a lot of other toolmakers and furniture-makers.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Please, please, please don’t ask me to send you a list of tools in advance. It doesn’t exist. Or please don’t ask to come by the house at 5 a.m. tomorrow. Crazy requests will be ignored.
One of the interesting forms I didn’t get to discuss in “Campaign Furniture,” is the portable library writing table. It’s typically a three-piece affair – the desktop lifts off the two pedestals for travel.
The version shown above is from the 1907 Army & Navy Co-Operative Society catalog, though the form appears over and over again in many of the catalogs.
It also appears as a reproduction at times. And this form is the ancestor of the modern campaign desk that is shown on sawhorses at Pottery Barn etc.
Mark Firley at The Furniture Record shows a particularly nice antique version in his blog today. The top surface of the desk tilts, there is a secretary gallery and the drawers in the pedestal units are protected by drawers. Check it out here.
And by the way, free domestic shipping for “Campaign Furniture” ends on Saturday. So if you were waiting to hide the charge on your April statement….
— Christopher Schwarz