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.
This week we will put the finishing touches on “l’Art du menuisier: The Book of Plates” and send it to the printer.
It is astonishing to look at all 383 plates (or 382, depending on how you count them). From a woodworker’s perspective, the plates are enjoyable to stare at for hours. André Roubo drew the majority of them himself, so the drawings show the details that a woodworker wants.
(Many times it’s easy to tell when an artist had no woodworking training – the small bits are slightly wrong. Not so with Roubo. Even the screw threads are drawn correctly.)
We have created “The Book of Plates” so everyone can enjoy Roubo’s plates as he intended – printed full-size and on beautiful paper. No matter how you read the text – on your computer screen, in one of our books or even in a translation in a different language – there is nothing like seeing the plates in full-size and at a resolution approaching the 18th-century originals.
In addition to the plates, this new book will contain the first English-language translation of André Roubo’s table of contents for “l’art du Menuisier.” This document is 10 pages long and is a guide to what is shown in the 383 plates. This document has been a guiding light in the translation of these massive woodworking books.
“l’Art du menuisier: The Book of Plates” will feature all of the plates printed full-size on #100 Mohawk Superfine paper, which is manufactured in Upstate New York. After being printed in Michigan, the pages will be sewn and hardbound. This will be a permanent book, even if your dog takes a liking to it.
The book will be $100 and will be available in November. We will offer this book to our retailers, though it is up to each retailer to decide to carry the book.
We hope you will enjoy the book (and we hope a lot of you enjoy the book – we just wrote a check to the printer for more than the value of my first house).
We are the only publishing company I know of that doesn’t have a release schedule for our books. When they are done, they go to press. No sooner.
So it’s amusing to me that it looks like we are going to have three new products in the store in time for Christmas. This was not planned; it just happened. Here is the list.
l’art du Menuisier: The Book of Plates For years, I resisted publishing this book. That’s because the true genius of “l’Art du Menuisier” is how André Roubo’s plates and text work together to illuminate the craft of woodworking.
What changed our minds about publishing “The Book of Plates?” The short answer is that the best way to experience “l’Art du Menuisier” is to have the plates printed in full size as you read the text.
No matter how you read Roubo’s text – in a book, on a computer screen, in French, German or English – having the full-size plates before you is immensely helpful to grasp Roubo’s intent. And so we have endeavored to make this book useful for the woodworkers and scholars of today and tomorrow.
The plates were digitized at the highest resolution available and are being printed on #100 Mohawk Superfine paper (the same paper as our deluxe Roubo editions) at a level of detail that requires great skill on a top-line printing press. The book will be 10” x 14” and the pages will be sewn and bound so the book will lie flat on your bench and last for generations of use.
All of the plates will be printed at the same size as the 18th-century originals. The only difference in their presentation is with the 45 fold-out plates. We could not find a U.S. printer to produce the fold-outs. So we are printing the fold-outs over a spread of two pages with a small and intentional gap between the two halves.
The hardest part of this project was making the 472-page over-sized book affordable. We succeeded. “The Book of Plates” will be $100. It will be available in November.
Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker! A novel with measured drawings by Roy Underhill
This book is in the final design stages and will go to press at the end of September. The book is a total hoot – I read about half of it last night. I didn’t mean to. It just happened.
This book represents a significant chunk of Roy’s life and has been revised and revised and revised about four times since I’ve known him. It will be worth the wait.
We have just commissioned an artist to create the cover illustration – a 1930s-looking piece that would look at home on the front of a pulp comic.
This book will be available in November or early December. We are still working out the details, but expect it to be less than $30. It will be hardcover, sewn signatures, U.S.-made – all the regular hallmarks of Lost Art Press books.
Lost Art Press Full-zip Hoodie Sweatshirt After many requests, we are going to produce our first-ever sweatshirt – a black, U.S.-made hoodie with a full zipper up the front. The Lost Art Press logo will be screened on the front using a design created by an artist who specializes in hand lettering.
There won’t be any clever phrases. Just the logo and some beautiful hand-lettered text. We expect this hoodie – designed, made and silkscreened in the United States – to be about $55. Also available in November (we think).
Even though I’ve been writing for newspapers and magazines for 25 years, it’s still a thrill to be on the cover or the front page. This month, a campaign-style bookcase I built for a customer is on the cover of the October 2014 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine.
The folding clamshell bookcase is my own design that is inspired by bookcases I have observed and measured during the last few years in my research for “Campaign Furniture.” The bookcase is in sapele. The finish is garnet shellac.
It’s a really good issue of the magazine, overall. And if you don’t subscribe, here’s where you can remedy that.
In addition to my piece, there’s a great article by Willard Anderson on restoring wooden-bodies bench planes. And Don Williams, the author of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” has plans for a clever sawhorse that folds flat.
Oh, and Peter Follansbee, the author of “Make a Stool from a Tree” is now the Arts & Mysteries columnist. (Congrats to both Peter and the magazine.)
Some of the marquetry and boullework in “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” might seem out of reach for your skills. Or perhaps you haven’t seen the beautiful result of this technique.
In any case, head over to Yannick Chastang’s web site to see a short and inspiring video of the process that was produced for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Here’s the link. You’ll have to supply your own soundtrack because there is no audio.
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? 
