Category: To Make as Perfectly as Possible, Roubo Translation

If you are considering plunking down $400 on a book, you have every right to ask questions. And while I’ve answered as many questions as I can in the last 24 hours via e-mail, I’d like to offer even more details about our two forthcoming books: “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” and “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making.”

Question: Why did you choose these two particular volumes – marquetry and furniture making – to translate and comment upon? Don’t you like carriage-making?

Answer from Don Williams: “These sections addressed the questions I had compiled over the past four decades in the business of finishing, patternmaking and restoration. It may be worth noting that this project began as a simple labor of love driven by my own curiosity, with originally no expectation of any audience interest.”

Question: WIll these two volumes be “complete” works?

Answer: Yes and no. The book on marquetry will include all four chapters that A.J. Roubo penned on ébénisterie. One chapter in the middle of this volume, Chapter 13: Tools and Machines for Furniture Making, fits better with the book we will be publishing on furniture making in 2014. So we moved it there.

Here’s what Don had to say about that: “(Chapter 13’s) inclusion here in the original was always an oddity to me, since it really has almost nothing to do with ébénisterie and has everything to do with menuiserie. So I removed it from the volume on marquetry and moved it into the volume on furniture making. Once you see the final product, I think you will agree with my decision. Incidentally this Chapter 13 is mammoth, almost twice as long as any other chapter in the entire corpus, weighing in at nearly 100 pages in the original. And even though it has been translated, I have not yet unified it but estimate it at nearly 50,000 words by itself!”

The second book on furniture making will be “nearly complete” in its scope. We opted to omit the section on beds and some of the sections on geometry. Don says: “I have omitted those sections that discuss in exhaustive(!) detail the role of geometric rendering and layout for mostly architectural elements.”

As someone who has paged through all five volumes, I concur that the geometry section is huge and relates mostly to large-scale architectural details.

Table of Contents
As requested, here is our table of contents for these two books. These are still a work in progress, though any changes would be minor. Note that the page numbers refer to the page numbers in the original text, not in our editions.

“To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Marquetry”

An Essay on Appreciating and Measuring the Value of Hand Work p1242 -1254

Conclusion of the Art of Carpentry p1255-1264

The different woods appropriate for veneering pp766-814
Section I: Description of “Wood from India” and its qualities, relative to cabinetry.
Section II: French woods appropriate for cabinetry.
Section III: Different dye compositions appropriate for tinting wood and the manner of using them.
Section IV: Thinning of wood for veneer-making.
Description of tools of veneering.
Section V: Appropriate carcass construction for veneering, their manner of construction.

Simple Veneering: general instructions pp. 815-865
Section I: Various Kinds of Compositions.
a. Manner of cutting and adjusting straight pieces and tools for same.
b. Manner of cutting and adjusting curved pieces and tools for same.
Section II: Manner of gluing parquetry veneer.
a. Finishing of veneer and different types of polish.

Ornate Veneering, called mosaic or painted wood pp. 866-897
Section I: Principal rules of perspective absolutely necessary for cabinet makers.
Section II: Manner of cutting, shadowing and mounting wooden ornaments.
a. Manner of engraving and finishing wooden ornaments.
Section III: Representing flowers, fruits, landscape and figures in wood.

About the 3rd type of veneering in general (aka boullework-DCW) pp. 982-1031
Section I: Description of different materials for construction of the 3rd type of veneering.
Section II: The skills one uses in the 3rd type of veneering.
Section III: How to work the different materials used in marquetry, such as tortoise shell, ivory, horn etc.
Section IV: How to construct marquetry and how to finish it.

“To Make As Perfectly As Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making”

Proper wood for furniture making pp. 22-39
Different ways of assembling wood pp. 45-48
Proper tools for furniture makers: different types, forms and uses pp. 49-89
Drafting and gluing pp. 273-291
Section I: how to take measurements
Section II: About wood glues
Furniture-Making in general pp. 600-633
Chair making pp. 634-664
Making case furniture pp. 743-765
Tools and machines for furniture making pp. 898-981

— Christopher Schwarz

I shelved all of my personal writing projects to complete work on “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.” But I know myself well enough that if I don’t spend some time in the shop every day, I’ll spiral into a stressed-out, grumpy and sharp-tongued jerk.

So whenever I could take a short break during the last week, I’ve been banging out this Roubo bookstand in some very old and mild cherry. I considered making it to the exact size specified in the text of “L’Art du Menuisier,” but I think I must have been reading it wrong. My dirty translation had the book stand made from 8/4 stock.

I’ll have to revisit that passage some day. Perhaps next year.

In any case, this one is made from a board that was 1-1/8” x 10” x 21”. The whole thing took about three hours of shop time spread out over several days. I was going to finish it with a polissoir, but I had some fresh garnet shellac handy. If you haven’t tried building one of these from Roy Underhill’s article in Popular Woodworking Magazine, you should. They are as easy as tarte.

And now back to the manuscript.

— Christopher Schwarz

For those who haven’t been following our saga of the translation of A.J. Roubo’s “L’Art du Menuisier,” here’s a brief description of what Roubo published and our translation efforts.

“L’Art du Menuisier” was a five-volume work written by Roubo, a professional cabinetmaker, and was published between 1769 and 1774 by De L’Academie Royale des Sciences. The five volumes were bound into three books, according to book collectors I’ve talked to. It was reprinted in 1977 in three oversized books.

The five volumes are as follows:

1. Tools and Architectural Woodwork
2. Carriage Making
3. Furniture Making
4. Marquetry and Finishing
5. Garden Woodwork

Our first translated book, “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” will include more than 100,000 words of translated text from the volume on marquetry and finishing. The translated text will include extensive notes from Don Williams. (Read more about the translation process here.) The book also will include essays by Williams that demonstrate the tools and processes shown in Roubo and how they can be accomplished with materials available today.

We are publishing two versions of this book. A glorious oversized edition worthy of the originals that will cost about $400. You can read all about that edition here. That version will be released in March 2013. We also will publish a trade edition of this book that will be physically smaller and less expensive – about $60 – but it will have all of the same words and illustrations as the oversized edition. We will have more information on the trade edition in 2013.

In 2014, we plan to publish our second book, “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Furniture.” This book will be about twice as many pages as the first book and encompass translated text from the volume on furniture and tools.

Like the book on marquetry, the second book will be published in two versions – a deluxe edition that matches the first deluxe book and a trade edition that matches the first trade book.

We have no plans to translate the sections on architectural woodwork, carriage making and garden woodwork. Feel free to learn French and get busy.

Why are we taking deposits on the deluxe edition of the first book? So we know how many to print. We want to make sure that everyone who wants one will get one. Why do we take a $100 deposit? So we know you are serious. Though woodworkers are generally good customers, we’ve had about a dozen or so welch on us after committing to buy a leather-bound edition.

I hope this clarifies our plans. I know it’s complex, and for that I apologize. But this has been the most complicated publishing project I’ve been involved in during my 22 years in the publishing industry.

— Christopher Schwarz

After four years of work, we are ready to take pre-publication orders and deposits for a special edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” by Don Williams, Michele Pagan and Philippe LaFargue.

As mentioned before, there will be two editions of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.” The special edition will be oversized and similar to the 18th-century first edition of “L’Art du Menuisier” (about 11” x 17”) and printed in the United States using the best materials available. It will have a special binding, full-size plates printed in the original color, color photos and a unique page design.

Additionally, all customers who purchase this book before Jan. 1, 2013, will have the opportunity to have their name printed in a “List of Subscribers” at the end of the volume.

There will be only one printing of this special edition. But please note this: Everyone who makes a deposit on this book before Jan. 1, 2013, will receive a copy. Mark that date on your calendar. We will also print some additional copies of this edition to sell in 2013, but once those are gone, this large-size edition will be gone forever.

To place a $100 deposit on this book and guarantee you will receive this special edition, visit our Lost Art Press store. The final price of this edition is still undetermined, though we expect it to cost about $400 and ship in March 2013. You will be contacted when the books are ready for shipment and to collect the balance that is due.

Note that we will take foreign orders on this special edition. Please contact John Hoffman at john@lostartpress.com for information on how to place your deposit.

For those of you who do not want the special edition, we will sell a trade version that is much like all of the books in the Lost Art Press portfolio. It will be about 9” x 13”, Smythe sewn with cloth-covered boards, black-and-white illustrations and black-and-white photos. And, like all of our titles, it will be printed in the United States. This version will have an entirely separate page design compared to the special edition and should cost about $60. It will remain in print for many years (we hope), unlike the special edition.

We will have more details on ordering this trade version of the book in 2013.

— Christopher Schwarz

We were forced to move the time of our Roubo event to 3 p.m. this Friday (instead of 6 p.m.) because of a scheduling conflict that was out of our control.

It’s a long and complex story, and I’m going to skip the details about why this happened. So as a result of this change in timing, there’s some good news and bad news.

The good news: The event will be a lot closer to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center and we now have the space to accommodate a lot more attendees.

The Roubo event will now be from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at The Grand, which is located in the Oddfellows Hall at Fifth Street and Madison Avenue in Covington.

Directions to The Grand are here. It’s a very short walk from the convention center.

Yes, we know this conflicts with some classes at Woodworking in America, but we hope you can stop by The Grand because we have some great stuff to show you and give you. Yes, give you.

Here’s the stuff we were keeping under wraps:

1. The first 200 people to stop by will receive a special printed keepsake of one of the plates from A.J. Roubo. This was designed by Wesley Tanner, the designer of the forthcoming translation of Roubo titled “To Make as Perfectly as Possible.”

2. And for the first time we will be taking pre-orders (and deposits) for both the limited edition volume of the Roubo book and the standard trade edition. This is the only place and time we will be taking pre-publication orders at this point. We’ll open up pre-publication orders for everyone later on this year.

So add all that to the other cool stuff – seeing the real first-edition Roubo, the tools, marquetry panels made from the book – and it should be worth your time.

No need to register – just show up. We have plenty of space for you at The Grand.

The bad news? There will be no alcohol at the event. My recommendation is to stop by AmerAsia (half a block south of The Grand) and get a beer before or after our event. AmerAsia has the best craft beer list in the city. (And the dragon’s breath wontons are awesome, too.)

I apologize for the change in time and want you to know that it was out of our hands.

— Christopher Schwarz