Lost Art Press

Category: To Make as Perfectly as Possible, Roubo Translation

In Praise of Microsoft (Really!)

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Thank you, Microsoft.

There, I said it. Words I thought would never cross my lips or flow from my fingertips are now out there for all the world to know. Our project makes me awestruck by the Twinkie-eating pencil-necked geeks who created the sublime “Track Changes” function in the otherwise forgettable Microsoft Word. I remain a mostly WordPerfect guy, and yearn for the day when some inventive entrepreneur merges WP’s “Reveal Codes” with MW’s “Track Changes” to create truly first-rate word processing software.

We are approaching the final stages of editing and revising the translated text for our first volume generated from A.J. Roubo’s “L’Art du Menuisier.” I am pleased to report Philippe’s assessment of Michele’s indefatigably brilliant translations (she is still averaging almost a page an hour!) and my extensive edits and annotations as being “on the mark” more than 95 percent of the time! Still, his light but authoritative touch on the manuscript is unmistakable, and invaluable.

The project remains simultaneously exhausting and gratifying, all the more enjoyable due to the opportunity to collaborate with these two dear friends. Recently I received a note from Philippe commenting that in a particular passage he was uncertain which was more vexing; the French or English. And this is from a native Francophone who trained at Ecole Boulle and has entirely mastered the arcane nuances of corporate and technical English! I can only imagine the trials of Roubo composing by hand an encyclopedia in a foreign tongue. True, it was not foreign to him, but it is sure foreign to me.

Which brings me back to Microsoft. I have already recounted the byzantine framework and implicit telecommunications technology we three are employing in leaving our own marker on the history of woodworking. Safe to say that any inventory of our computers would reveal several hundred versions of the sometimes gigantic documents we are jointly creating, and each contains dozens (more likely hundreds) of changes large and small that we MUST monitor in order to have any level of success in the end. Being able to track each iteration makes this a do-able project. Otherwise? Not likely, at least not in a span of a few dozen months instead of multiple decades.

If my experience with “Saving Stuff” (Simon & Schuster 2005) is any indication there will come a day quite soon when we will move past computers and back to reviewing the page proofs by hand, reading every sentence carefully and placing a blue check mark at the end of EVERY LINE with a sign-off initialing EVERY PAGE. Ugh. Otherwise the copy editor will track me down and beat me up. (Ed note: Don’s right. Not about getting beat up. But about the manual process at the end.)

I know we are getting closer to the end as Chris and I spoke only a few days ago about some of the arcane minutiae about book printing, binding, pricing, distributing… In the meantime I will continue to be transformed as a craftsman by accounts and descriptions older than our Republic.

Now, if I could just get Algore to make my Verizon DSL perform better than 54k baud…

— Don Williams

An Update on the Roubo Translation Project

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After more than a dozen months and many thousands of hours of grinding work consuming countless evenings, Chris and my reviewer/readers received the final installment of a complete rough draft text manuscript of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.”

At this point, the material for this first volume has been 100 precent translated by Michele, I have edited and annotated it and returned it to her for a second pass, and we have made it ready for its limited (five recipients) editorial distribution. There are still many rounds to go, making sure our new English version presents accurately the tenor and substance of the original, and that the new annotations and still-in-development photo essays result in these becoming “must have” books for everyone interested in historical furniture craftsmanship.

For now, Chris and his posse have the task of familiarizing themselves with approximately 450 legal-sized pages of text and illustrations to enable the strategic editing, design and marketing decisions necessary for the production of the volume. It is probably akin to legislation and sausage making: it’s best not to watch.

My critical readers have an entirely different responsibility. Their goal is to help ensure that “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” is much more than a simple recitation of historical materials and techniques (as remarkable as that would be all by itself). Yes, it will present faithfully the seminal historical treatise, but it will also serve as a contemporary guide for today’s artisans wishing to employ the techniques of 250 years ago. My readers’ charge, then, is to provide critical feedback from the artisan’s perspective on whether or not the illustrated annotated manuscript accomplishes that goal. In some cases it is as simple as telling me whether some passage of text actually makes sense; in others it is to suggest additional or different illustrations for the photo essays demonstrating the techniques. This conversation will undoubtedly be ongoing until after the book hits the shelves.

I appreciate the many offers to read and comment on the book-in-progress, and I may just take some of you up on them!

This project has proceeded out-of-order much like a movie, which is rarely filmed in the order of the final product beginning with shooting minute one and concluding with minute 120 (or minute 6,483 in the case of “Lord of the Rings”). Movies are generally filmed in a manner most amenable to logistics, and are not woven together until long after most of the participants have moved on to other endeavors.

As I can now step back just a bit and browse the completed rough manuscript for the first volume of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” in its desired order for the very first time, I feel my excitement building all over again. Such enthusiasm waned occasionally in the middle of the night after spending several hours reconstructing a single transliterated paragraph or page into comprehensible artisan-friendly American English – some really tough passages were left with more red ink than black type on the page.

It is truly an astounding compilation of knowledge, and as one of my readers exclaimed just a couple days ago in response to the gigantic chapter on Boulle-work techniques,

“This information goes DEEP. These are the ‘lost’ techniques that I currently crave.”

That pretty much brings you up to date on “To Make as Perfectly as Possible,” the culmination of my decades of interest, scholarship,and craft related to veneering, engraved brass and tortoiseshell Boulle-work.

About the only thing that gives me as much satisfaction as learning is the delight in sharing it with you. I will be teaching Boulle-work at Marc Adams’ school in September and also at Woodworking in America 2010, and veneer and marquetry restoration at DCTC in Rosemount, Minn., in July (www.woodfinishing.org). I hope to see many of you there

And no, I still don’t read a lick of French!

— Don Williams

Part Two: Planting and Nurturing the Seeds of 'To Make As Perfectly As Possible'

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Part Two: Philippe LaFargue entered my studio as a post-graduate intern from Ecole Boulle. Since intern abuse is not in my blood (I know, it makes me a bad fit for Washington, D.C.) I refrained from having him do anything more than translate the Table of Contents of “L’Art du Menuisier” and tell me about some of the sections on marquetry.

The Seed that Pop planted, Philippe nurtured.

Fast forward to 2009. My old friend and colleague Michele Pagan, a textiles conservator, had begun working with me to develop some innovative upholstery conservation techniques the year before. On our way back from the lunch room one day she stopped to talk to another colleague and the conversation revolved around some translation Michele was doing of a French dye treatise. Suddenly a very bright light went on in my head.

I was starting to work on a monograph about historic finishing and wanted to know about some odd tools represented in Roubo plate 296. Could she help explain what they were used for?

After looking at the plate in the gigantic volume, she said, “Sure.” She did, and the rest is history.

The Seed that Pop Schindler planted and Philippe nurtured was brought to fruition by Michele’s translation.

Last fall we pitched a wild idea to Chris Schwarz and he graciously agreed to partner with us in bringing Roubo to the modern cabinetmaker. Rather than translating, annotating and interpreting the whole of “L’Art du Menuisier,” we decided to focus on, well, the parts that interested me. Some time late next year we will present the first of the Lost Art Press volumes, which will contain the following sections (you can refer to original page numbers):

“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

Some time in 2013 we hope to present the second offering, which will (tentatively) contain these portions:

“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

This project is indeed a labor of love for us, and we render our deepest thanks to the cohort of friends and colleagues who are helping to make it happen. I hope you will find useful what we make of it. Let’s hope we finish it before it finishes us!

— Don Williams

Planting and Nurturing the Seeds of 'To Make As Perfectly As Possible'

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by Don Williams

Part One: I don’t speak or read French. Not a word. So how did I wind up involved in a project to bring the greatest French treatise on cabinetmaking to an Anglophone audience? ‘Tis a long a winding trail.

The seed was planted sometime around the year 1975. I was a kid working as a finisher and restorer at shop in Florida. The old man, “Pop” Schindler, had started the company on the cusp of our first “Great Depression” and had somehow managed to keep the doors open, in great part thanks to his incredible depth of knowledge and skill as a traditionally trained Swiss apprentice. Pop was a curmudgeonly soul, and he had devolved into near-crotchety-ness since his son Fred had taken over the business and freed Pop to putter and mutter (in French).

One day an old-money Palm Beach client (Ambassador Something-or-other) pulled up with boxes full of parts for what looked like just another old piece of junk to put back together. It was, in fact, a simple (for him) tulipwood parquetry secretaire by Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), successor to ebeniste du roi Jean-Francois Oeben, and cabinetmaker to King Louis XVI, renowned for the Versailles Desk.

As I began working on the secretaire, Pop started hanging out with me. It made me nervous, given that I did not know him well and all the other guys in the shop told me he was a cranky old coot who always “knew a better way” to do whatever task was on the bench and would butt in whenever he wanted to because he was the owner of the shop.

The other guys were right.

Yes, he could be a cranky old coot, but I grew to hold him in great esteem and affection over time. And guess what; he really did know a better way to do almost anything being done in the shop (except spraying lacquer, which he viewed as a sin against nature and God). Fortunately I was the victim of a loving and excellent upbringing, so out of respect (at first) I let the old man blather on about old furniture and ways of doing things. What a treasure trove of knowledge was slung at me in rapid fire Frenglish! Once he realized that I actually was trying to pay attention and learn, his attitudes softened and he took me under his wing. I can state with certainty that the time with him working on that cabinet was among the most important learning periods of my almost-40-year career.

When the piece was finished and awaiting delivery, he made a remark that puzzled me.

“Roubo would be proud,” he said simply. With that remark he planted the Seed.

“Roubo? I thought this was Ambassador Something-or Other’s cabinet,” I said.

His look in reply could only be described as that glance from a man towards an idiot in-law or elected politician.

Then he told me about “L’Art du Menuisier.” Pop did not own a copy, but the shop’s most important patron (a renowned collector of French decorative arts) did, he said. A first edition from 1765 or some such time. Someday when we were over at the estate together he would ask to show it to me. That day never came, and I did not see Roubo with my own eyes until almost 10 years later. I devoured the images and plates, and wanted to know what the text said almost enough to learn French. Almost. — Don Williams

Coming in 2011: Andre Roubo's 'L'Art du Menusier'

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“To Make As Perfectly As Possible” by Donald C. Williams and Michele P. Pagan

Andre Roubo’s 1769 “L’Art du Menusier” is one of the most important Western works on woodworking. Roubo, a learned man and a Master Cabinetmaker, chronicled the craft and its tools from the unique perspective of a practicing menusier (woodworker). Yet until now his five-volume masterwork has never been translated into English.

Lost Art Press is pleased to announce that we will publish the first of two volumes of Roubo in 2011 (the second in 2013) that have been translated into English and annotated by a special three-person team that possesses unique knowledge of the history of woodworking and the language, history, craft and skills of 18th-century France. Our title for these volumes, “To Make as Perfectly as Possible,” is taken from a phrase Roubo used repeatedly in his exhortations to excellence.

As a result, these two volumes – one on marquetry and the other on furniture making – will be more than a simple transliteration of the text. These books aim to capture the spirit and intent of Roubo, explain the processes in language that a modern woodworker can understand and (in some cases) fill in the gaps of knowledge that Roubo assumed his readers would have.

Work on this project is well underway. And after reading more than 80 pages of the team’s initial work, I can tell you that it is mind-blowing and is easily the most important publishing project I have ever been involved in.

The Team and its Work

The translation process begins with Michele P. Pagan, a Washington, D.C.,-based textiles conservator with more than 20 years experience in preservation of historic materials. Ms. Pagan has previously translated conservation and other historical and technical materials privately for colleagues.

Pagan translates Roubo as verbatim as possible, making no alterations to the original syntax unless that renders it incomprehensible. This is the best way to capture both the information and the flavor of the original.

Then the text goes to Donald C. Williams, an internationally recognized furniture conservator, educator, writer and scholar who has been employed for more than two decades by the nation’s largest cultural institution in Washington, D.C. He is the co-author of the highly successful “Saving Stuff” (Fireside: Simon & Schuster, 2005), and is an expert furniture-maker, marqueter and finisher (his specialty is shellac).

Williams edits the text, reconfiguring it as much as necessary to make it readable to an artisan of the 21st century. He is not rewriting Roubo, but merely modifying it enough to make it comprehensible and read smoothly. He also inserts explanations of some of Roubo’s processes. Readers of this blog may be most familiar with his writings on historic finishes (especially shellac) and historical tool marks.

After a couple rounds of editing, the manuscript then goes to his colleague Philippe Lafargue who trained as a traditional chair maker at the Ecole Boulle in Paris. He is well-versed in the arcane jargon of ancient French cabinetmaking, which is fortunate since some of the phrases Roubo used are simply untranslatable otherwise. Lafargue reviews the result from the perspective of a native Frenchman and historical craftsman to make sure the new English version would meet with Roubo’s approval.

In addition to this, Williams is constructing tools and exercises contained in Roubo, combining photos with new essays on the making and using of the tools, and explaining processes that Roubo glosses over.

The Result Lost Art Press will publish two large-format hardbound volumes (the exact size has not been established), on acid-free paper with Smyth-sewn signatures. Like all Lost Art Press books, these will be produced entirely in the United States, from production to printing to binding. We have not yet determined the price.

The volumes will feature replicas of the artful original plates, plus the translated text with details of the plates inserted into the text at the appropriate place.

As this project advances we will keep you posted here on this blog. I’ve already received two extensive chapters for review and am practically sick that I cannot tell you everything I’ve learned so far. But I guarantee this: It will be worth the wait.

When we first spoke of this project, Williams stated the team’s goal as, “… to let the reader practically experience the sounds of the saws and fragrance of the wood shavings and glue pot in the shops where Roubo worked.”

They have succeeded.

— Christopher Schwarz