Category: To Make as Perfectly as Possible, Roubo Translation

No matter how much we write about a new book, there are always additional questions we didn’t think of at first. Here are some of the common questions I am fielding about “l’Art du menuisier: The Book of Plates.”

Question: If I buy all the deluxe editions of the André-Jacob Roubo translations, will I then have all the plates in full size? In other words, do I need to buy “The Book of Plates?”

Answer: While we hope to eventually translate every word of Roubo, that will take many more years to accomplish, and I can offer no guarantees that it will be possible. “The Book of Plates” is a way to have all 383 plates in one quality binding.

Question: How many are you printing? Will you sell out?

Answer: To keep the price reasonable, we are printing several thousand copies of “The Book of Plates.” Unlike the deluxe editions of Roubo, this book is not a limited edition. We plan to keep “The Book of Plates” in print for many years. So if you cannot afford it now, it will be available in the future. No rush.

Question: Will there be a deluxe edition of “The Book of Plates?” Will this book match my deluxe edition?

Answer: There will not be a deluxe edition of “The Book of Plates.” This book is not designed to “match” either the standard or deluxe editions of Roubo now in print. It is larger than the standard edition and smaller than the deluxe. But all the books were designed by the same person, Wesley Tanner. So they all look like part of a family.

Question: So I’m confused about what plates are in what book. Will I have all the plates if I buy “Roubo on Marquetry” and “Roubo on Furniture?”

Answer: Here’s the shortest answer I can offer without a Venn diagram: “Roubo on Marquetry” contains 34 plates. “Roubo on Furniture” (due early 2015) will contain about 84 plates. So the “Book of Plates” will have more than 260 plates that are not in those two books. These 260-plus plates include lots of good stuff on interior woodwork, carriage-making, garden woodwork and some miscellaneous stuff on geometry.

Question: Will you ship “The Book of Plates” internationally?

Answer: This book will be offered to all of our retailers, including the overseas sellers. So we hope it will be available worldwide through them. As retailers officially sign on, we will announce it here on the blog.

Question: Will this book be signed by the author?

Answer: We don’t have an Ouija board that works that well. Sorry.

— Christopher Schwarz

As of three hours ago, “l’Art du Menuisier: The Book of Plates” is officially off to the printer and is now about five weeks away from landing in our warehouse (during a rainstorm, most likely).

“The Book of Plates” is 472 pages long and contains every single plate from all of the volumes of André-Jacob Roubo’s 18th-century masterpiece. All the plates are printed in full size and on #100 Mohawk Superfine paper – the best paper we could find. The book itself is 10” x 14-1/4” x 2” thick – a sizable chunk.

As with all Lost Art Press books, “The Book of Plates” is produced entirely in the United States. It is hardbound, casebound, with sewn signatures and a cloth cover. The book is designed to outlast us all. The plates were scanned from 18th-century originals (which are sitting before me right now) at the highest resolution possible and are printed at a linescreen that will produce the maximum detail possible for the paper and available technology.

The retail price is $100. When the book goes on sale we will offer it with free domestic shipping for the first 30 days to domestic customers. “The Book of Plates” will also be carried by many of our retailers – details to come on availability.

Why should you consider buying it? It’s an intoxicating look at 18th-century work, everything from furniture to architectural woodwork, carriage-making, marquetry and garden woodwork. Roubo’s volumes are still the legal standard when it comes to the craft of woodworking in most of the world.

Even if you never buy one of our translations of Roubo’s text, “The Book of Plates” will inspire you (for many years I owned two copies of Roubo with only a passing knowledge of French). And if you read Roubo in the original French, German or one of our English translations, having the full-size plates in front of you makes a huge difference.

In addition to containing all 383 plates from “l’Art du menuisier,” we have included the first English translation of the table of contents for the books, which serve as a guide to the plates. This table of contents is 11 pages long and is a roadmap to the contents of every plate. There also are short essays from Don Williams, our partner in translating the text, and me.

When we have a release date, we will post it here. So stay tuned.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. There will not be an electronic version of “The Book of Plates.” This product is print-only and intended for people who love ink on paper.

Jason writes: I have a question for you about your announcement of “The Book of Plates.” I have already purchased the first installment that Lost Art Press has published on marquetry, and I plan to get the one on furniture when it comes out. My question is this: Is there more information that can be gleaned from “Plates?” Or would having Roubo 1 & 2 have the same information?

Keep up the good work! I look forward to Roubo 2 and the Studley book (yeah, for French fitting).

Answer: “The Book of Plates” includes all the plates from all of Roubo’s books, which includes architectural woodwork, furniture making, carriage building, marquetry and garden woodwork. So far, we have published most of Roubo’s writing on marquetry. The second book (due early next year) will cover most of his writing on furniture and woodworking tools.

We hope to publish the other books in Roubo’s series, but these translations take many years of effort.

So the primary reason we decided to publish “The Book of Plates” now was so everyone could own the complete set of plates from the entire 18th-century opus.

The second reason is we wanted to ensure that Roubo’s plates could be enjoyed at full size at an affordable price and on quality paper. We printed them at full size in the deluxe edition, but the standard edition has them in reduced size. With “The Book of Plates,” you can easily see all the detail at the scale that Roubo intended. Plus, if you own Roubo in the standard edition or the pdf download, having the book of plates handy in front of you is a great way to absorb the text.

— Christopher Schwarz