With the impending release of the standard edition of “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture,” we have received lots of questions about the deluxe edition of this book. We don’t know many details at this moment, but here’s everything I know.
The design process for the deluxe edition of “Roubo on Furniture” will begin shortly. Designer Wesley Tanner created both the standard and deluxe editions of “Roubo on Marquetry” – and he designed the standard edition of “Roubo on Furniture.”
The deluxe “Roubo on Furniture” will look and feel the same as the deluxe “Roubo on Marquetry.” Same paper, same binding, same slipcase. We likely will use the same printing press and bindery. So it will be as stunning as the deluxe “Roubo on Marquetry,” which was named one of the 50 “Books of the Year” in 2013 by the Design Observer.
Here’s what’s going to be different: the thickness of the book (it’s almost twice as long as “Roubo on Marquetry”) and the way we will handle pre-publication orders.
Once we get a feel for how many pages the deluxe edition will be, we will be able to set a price – I’m going to guess that it’s going to be be about $475. Then we will open up pre-publication ordering for both domestic and international customers. Everyone who orders a book will get a book (and will get their name listed in the book as a “subscriber.”) After taking pre-publication orders for a month or so, we will close down ordering and go to press. We might print a few dozen extras for ourselves and family, but we are not going to stock this book in our online store after the pre-ordering period.
Then, when the book is done, we’ll mail them out in a custom cardboard (repeat: cardboard) box to protect the book during shipment.
The books will not be numbered or autographed. In 2013 we had many people request that we have all the authors sign the marquetry book. We simply cannot do that. We are not in the business of creating collectibles. Apologies.
So now you know everything I know. We’ll get to work on the deluxe edition and update you when we have more information.
Customers who order the book before it ships will receive a free immediate download of a pdf of the book. This offer will end on the day this book ships. As always, the $57 price includes the cost of shipping to customers in the United States and Canada. International customers will be able to order the book from our retailers. (Sorry, but the offer of a free download is not available for international customers.)
Representing a decade of work by an international team (Donald C. Williams, Michele Pietryka-Pagán & Philippe Lafargue), this book is the first English translation of the 18th-century masterpiece: “l’art du Menuisier” by André-Jacob Roubo. This, our second volume, covers Roubo’s writing on woodworking tools, the workshop, joinery and building furniture.
In addition to the translated text and images from the original, “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture” also includes five contemporary essays on Roubo’s writing by craftsmen Christopher Schwarz, Don Williams, Michael Mascelli, Philippe Lafargue and Jonathan Thornton.
You can download the complete table of contents here.
“Roubo on Furniture” is filled with insights into working wood and building furniture that are difficult or impossible to find in both old and modern woodworking books. Unlike many woodworking writers of the 18th century Roubo was a traditionally trained and practicing joiner. He interviewed fellow craftsmen from other trades to gain a deep and nuanced view of their practices. He learned to draw, so almost all of the illustrations in this book came from his hand.
The above facts are important because many early woodworking books are filled with information that is not quite right and drawings that were made by non-woodworkers. Not so with Roubo.
No matter what sort of woodworking you do or your skill level, we think “Roubo on Furniture” will expand greatly your knowledge of how fine furniture was (and still should be) built.
Like all Lost Art Press books, “Roubo on Furniture” is made entirely in the United States with quality binding and materials. All of the acid-free pages are sewn together and then bonded with a fiber tape so the book will not fall apart. The cover is a heavy and stiff board covered with cotton cloth. The book is 8.5” x 12” (the same size as “Roubo on Marquetry”) and is 472 pages.
That deep exhaling noise you just heard is probably coming from Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio and Maryland. Today we finished initial production of the long-awaited “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture.”
Weighing in at 470 pages, this book represents too many hours of work by too many people on too many continents. As I paged through the final product today before sending it to our printers for a quote, I could feel only relief. Not joy. Not satisfaction. (Those feelings might come later.)
Instead, today I have only to tell you something that we rarely say: This project was difficult at every stage. It ground all of us down to a nub. I am glad that I’ll never have to repeat it. And I am fearful to tally up all the money that we spent on it.
Was it worth it? I hope so. Like all of our difficult and protracted publishing projects, I know “Roubo on Furniture” was the right thing to do for the craft and the historical record. But when I count up the hours and calculate the communal grief, I question its value.
All of us can see how much better this project could be if we only had 20 more years to explore this, that or the other thing from the original text.
But some of us won’t be around in 20 years. So here is what we have. It’s not perfect. But it is done with all the precision possible.
In the next week or so, we will offer “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture” for sale in our store (and through our network of retailers worldwide). And then we will start work on the deluxe edition of the book (details to follow on that). But as of today I don’t have any more information for you on this book. No prices. No delivery date.
Indexer’s Note: As I reread “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture Making” and update the index I can hear my father’s voice say the same things that Roubo wrote. “Draw a plan, measure correctly, cut precisely, hand me that hammer.” OK, maybe not that last one. As he points out how the work should be done Roubo interjects his frustration with joiners, chairmakers and caners when they do not work with precision, or try to improve the quality of their work. He is especially exasperated by carvers. I decided to have a little fun at Roubo’s expense.
In the atelier there was a great commotion in the carver’s corner.
But Monsieur Roubo was not done.
The “Masterpiece” was revealed to the atelier and the chair denizens reacted.
Well past midnight Monsieur Roubo faced a terrible reality and was inconsolable.
We are making the final pass through “Roubo on Furniture” during the next couple weeks. Kara Gebhart Uhl is looking for mistakes that have eluded us for the last three years, Suzanne Ellison is updating the index and I’m building the book’s table of contents.
We plan to go to press with the standard edition of “Roubo on Furniture” in early January with a mid-February release. We also will publish a deluxe edition, which design Wesley Tanner will begin working on shortly. Details to come on how to order the deluxe version.
In the meantime, take a look at the table of contents. Whew.
— Christopher Schwarz
Preface xi
A Key to the Text xiv
The Woods Appropriate for Joinery 3
Section I. The Different Qualities of Wood 3
Section II. Fashioning and Stacking of Wood 7
Section III. The Cutting of Wood 13
The Art of Assembly, its Uses and Proportions 21
Section I. Different Ways to Elongate Wood 25
Some Tools Belonging to Woodworkers, Their Different Types, Forms and Uses 29
Section I. Tools of the Shop 32
Section II. The Tools Belonging to the Workmen 33
Section III. Some Tools Appropriate for Cutting and Planing the Wood 34
The Plate 11 Workbench: How it (Really) Works 38
Make Roubo’s ‘Winding Sticks’ 54
Section IV. The Tools for Marking and Making Joints 59
Section V. The Tools for Fretwork, and those for Cutting the Straight and Curved Mouldings 76
The Art of Drawing 89
Section I. The Way to Take Measurements 89
The Way to Draw the Work on the Plan 93
The Way to Prepare Joinery to Receive Carved Ornaments 95
Section II. The Way to Glue Wood 99
The Way to Construct Columns in Wood; Bases, Capitals, Entablature and Pedestals 103
Section III. The Way of Gluing Curved Wood 109
Joinery in Furniture, in General, and the Different Types 112
Section I. The Tools and Woods appropriate for Furniture 114
Ancient Furniture in General 115
Some Different Types of Seats in Use at Present 119
Section II. The Description of Folding Chairs, Stools, Benches, etc. Their Forms, Proportion and Construction 120
Section III. Descriptions of all sorts of [side] chairs, their decorations, forms, proportions and construction 126
The Way to Prepare Seats to Receive Fabric Ornamentation 135
Roubo on Upholstery 137
Section IV. The Upholstery of Chairs with Caning and the Art of Caning in General 141
The Way to Prepare Seats for Caning 141
Selection of the cane, the way of splitting it and the caners’ tools 145
Various Methods of Weaving and Diverse Operations of the Caner 149
Different Sorts of Seating Forms, Proportions & Construction 155
Roubo, Meet Reality: The Making of A Classical French Chairmaker 164
Section I. Description of all the major seats, like canapés, sofas, ottomans, etc. 181
Section II. Description of Private Apartment Seats, like Bathing-tubs, Demi-bathing tubs, etc. 193
Of Beds in General and the Different Sorts 201
Section I. The Beds of France: Forms, Proportions & Construction 202
Canopies of Beds, Commonly Called Pavilions or Imperials; Their Forms and Construction 210
Section II. Description of Polish-style Beds, their Proportions, Shapes & Decoration 220
Section III. Description of different types of campaign Beds, their shapes and construction 226
Section IV. Description of Daybeds, some Cradles and Cots 235
Tables in General and the Different Types 239
Section I. Different Forms and Constructions of Dining Tables 245
Section II. Game Tables and their different types, forms and constructions 249
Description of a Billiard Table, its form, proportion and construction 249
Description of Gaming Tables, their form, proportions and construction 261
Section III. Tables for writing and their different types, forms and constructions 270
Description of Dressing Tables and Night Tables, and others 293
Description of Screens and Windbreaks; their forms and proportions 296
Case Pieces Known under the General Name of Large Pieces 301
Section I. Description of Armoires; their decoration, proportions and construction 302
Description of Buffets; their forms, proportions, decoration & construction 309
Description of Commodes; their forms, proportions and construction 315
Of Solid Cabinetry Or Assembly in General 325
Section I. Description of the Tools of the Furniture Maker, their assembly and how to use them 327
Section II. Basic Elements on the Part of the Art of Turning necessary for the Furniture Maker 331
Some Screw Taps and Wooden Dies used by Cabinetmakers 343
The Machines Appropriate for Making Fluting for Cylinders and Cones 347
Description of the Machine commonly called the tool for waves 358
Reproducing and Using Moxon’s ‘Waving Engine’ 366
Section III. Different Locksmithing Tools for the Furniture Maker 378
The Way to fit the iron work for cabinetry 392
The Manner of polishing iron and copper relative to cabinetry 402
Section IV. Different Kinds of Solid or Assembled Cabinetry in General 404 Description of different sorts of embroidery frames 405
Description of a printing cabinet 417
Description of Gueridons and Small Tables 427
Description of Different Forms of Desks 430
Necessaries and Other Types of Boxes 437
With the impending release of the standard edition of “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture,” we have received lots of questions about the deluxe edition of this book. We don’t know many details at this moment, but here’s everything I know.
At long last, you can now order “
