My book on Roman workbenches and early workholding is now a free download for everyone. You don’t have to register, or give up your email, or sign up for sausage-making lessons. You can just click here, and the download will begin.
If you forget to do this, you can always go to the book’s page in our store and download it from there.
This is the seventh book of mine that I have made free to download. It is a small way to help people get started in the craft who might not have a big budget. Here are the other six free titles.
I am working toward making all my books available for a free download. Sometimes this involves getting permission from others who have a stake in the book. That’s why it takes some time and effort.
Late this year, we sold out of “Cut & Dried”. Author Richard Jones had some changes he wanted to make in the third edition. This week, we sent the book, with these changes, to press.
Some of the changes were small corrections, such as moving an illustration up a bit to better match the text and a degree mark slightly lower and larger than the rest.
Other changes were more significant.
This includes an extensive rewrite of section 6.6: Measuring Wood Moisture Content. Here, Richard adds new information on how biomass fuel moisture content is assessed, which differs from the methodology used for assessing the moisture content of wood used by woodworkers.
Richard wanted to add this because it’s particularly relevant to environmental considerations, such as reducing pollution from wood smoke.
This addition added a few pages to the book, which may not seem like a big deal until you consider the table of contents, text in chapters directing readers to a particular page number, and the index. We were lucky enough to once again work with Rachel, who created the original index and was familiar with the book, to make the necessary index updates.
Another significant change is the cover. Since the book’s second printing in 2019, paper and printing costs have skyrocketed. When we received the quote for the third printing, we had two choices: Increase the retail price (by a lot) or ditch the dust jacket and switch to paper over boards for the cover. We chose to keep the retail price the same. This means the design on the dust jacket will be printed directly on the hardback cover. The 9” x 12” book will still be printed on heavy #80 matte-coated paper.
When reviewing ‘Cut & Dried’ back in 2019, J. Norman Reid of Highland Woodworking wrote: “‘Cut & Dried’ is one of the most complete and detailed works on wood and wood technology available to non-specialist cabinetmakers. For this reason, it merits a place on the reference shelves of all serious woodworkers. I highly recommend this important book.”
“Cut & Dried” should be back in stock in early 2025.
This year has been a good one – maybe our second or third best since we started in 2007. I won’t have all the numbers for a couple weeks, but to close out the year, here are our top 10 books in terms of unit sales. There are some surprises.
The Anarchist’s Tool Chest: This book topped the list because we printed the last press run of the current edition in an original tan cover. (If you want a copy, you better snatch it because we are almost out.) I’m working on the revised edition, which will be in color and will be released in 2025.
The American Peasant: We sold out the first press run and we are now into the second.
Principles of Design: We printed (and sold) 3,000 copies in three months. We weren’t planning on doing a second run, but y’all changed our minds. This book will be back in stock in January.
Set & File: Not a surprise. This book sold well right out of the gate and has long legs.
Dutch Tool Chests: A surprisingly strong showing for a book that was released so late in the year (October). The book sold more copies on the first day than any book in our history.
Top: carved panel on the lower section of a high Chest of Drawers, dated 1765-1775, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Bottom: woodcut by William Caxton from his English-language edition of “Aesop’s Fables,” dated 1484, British Library.
Aesop’s Fables have long been an inspiration for carvers and “The Fox and the Grapes” can be found carved on furniture, frames and decorative panels. It offers the carver the opportunity to carve round grapes, grape leaves moving in a breeze, knotty trees and a fox with a bushy tail. In this example, on an 18th-century Philadelphia high chest, foliate swirls curl around the scene creating a frame.
The High Chest of Drawers & Dressing Table
The high chest and dressing table, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art had the high chest of drawers in their collection from 1957, but the museum did not know of the dressing table until years later. The set is dated 1765-1775 and the maker is unknown. The chest would have been used to store textiles and the dressing table would likely be used in a ladies bedroom. The notes for the set identify the work as American because “the raised space underneath the high chest distinguishes it as a confection of North America since the British had abandoned that design by the 1730s.”
The high chest is certainly a bonbon of woodwork with an abundance of ornamentation from the carved urn at the top, a cascade of blooms along the front rails down to the claw and ball feet.
Dimensions of the high chest are: 8 ft.-3/4 in. x 46-1/2 in. x 25-3/4 in. (245.7 x 118.1 x 65.4 cm). Dressing table dimmensions are: 29-7/8 in. x 35 in. x 23-1/4 in. (79.9 x 88.9 x 59.1 cm).
Both pieces are made of mahogany, tulip poplar, white cedar and yellow pine. The drawer pulls and keyhole escutcheons are brass.
Why That Carving on This Chest and Dressing Table?
The museum notes, “Aesop’s moralistic tales were the only fiction Quakers were allowed to read.” The tale of “The Fox and the Grapes” features a fox trying its best to reach grapes hanging high above, but he cannot reach them. In William Caxton’s book, the disappoined fox turns away and complains the grapes are probably as sour as crabs. He dismisses what he can’t have. The high chest and the dressing table are the opposite: an expression of wanting, and having, it all. The two pieces were made with mahogany brought from the Caribbean and a skilled cabinetmaker and carvers put in long hours to complete the work. Each extra detail added to the expense of the set.
It was common to include designs inspired by the natural world on 18th-century furniture. The museum has similar profusely-ornamented high chests in their collection, with lower central panels carved with large scallop shells. A carved panel with a lesson is different. There is a dissonance between the carved panel and the luxury on display on each piece of the set. Was the person who commissioned the set sending a message to the recipient, as in, be thankful for what you have?
Who Was the Carver?
The carved panel and cartouche.
The fox and grapes panel sits above an elaborately-carved cartouche. Although the maker of the chest is unknown, it is thought the panel and cartouche were done by Martin Jugiez. A much-needed conservation and restoration of the high chest began in 2007.
Christopher Storb, then conservator for furniture and woodwork at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wrote an article about the restoration of the high chest for the Spring 2008 issue of Antiques & Fine Art magazine. His article includes background information on Martin Jugiez and some surprising details concerning the cartouche. You can find the article here.
The gallery below shows a few more views of the high chest and dressing table. The last photo, from the article in Antiques & Fine Art magazine, shows the carved panel during restoration.
