Lost Art Press

‘Welsh Stick Chairs’ Now Shipping

Posted on by Lost Art Press

WSC_1000_cover_IMG_6705

Our warehouse began shipping pre-publication orders for “Welsh Stick Chairs” yesterday and is working on getting the remainder out in the mail today.

I’m going to be a bit of a wiener here and say that I think our edition exceeds the quality of all the previous editions. This had little to do with me and everything to do with our prepress agency, the special printing press we used for this job and the press operators.

In comparing the images among all the editions of “Welsh Stick Chairs” I own, I can find no image degradation in ours. The text is, of course, super crisp because we reset the entire thing using the original fonts and line spacing from the first edition (even replicating a number of typesetting errors in the interest of accuracy).

The biggest manufacturing improvement is that we sewed the signatures in addition to bedding them in adhesive, making for a permanent book.

John Brown’s words are, of course, the same and cannot be improved upon.

Even if you decide to pass on purchasing this book, don’t worry. We’ve made sure our edition will be around for generations to come when you (or your children) decide to pick up a copy.

“Welsh Stick Chairs” is $29, which includes domestic shipping (yes, even to Alaska and Hawaii).

— Christopher Schwarz

Now in Store: ‘Hands Employed Aright’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

HEA_coverYou can now place a pre-publication order for Joshua Klein’s “Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847).” The book is $57, which includes domestic shipping, and should ship to customers in early or mid-August.

All pre-publication orders placed through the Lost Art Press store will receive a pdf download of the book at checkout. After the book ships, the pdf will cost extra.

“Hands Employed Aright” is the culmination of five years of research into the life of Jonathan Fisher. Fisher was the first settled minister of the frontier town of Blue Hill, Maine. Harvard-educated and handy with an axe, Fisher spent his adult life building furniture for his community. Fortunately for us, Fisher recorded every aspect of his life as a woodworker and minister on the frontier.

In this book, Klein, the founder of Mortise & Tenon Magazine, examines what might be the most complete record of the life of an early 19th-century American craftsman. Using Fisher’s papers, his tools and the surviving furniture, Klein paints a picture of a man of remarkable mechanical genius, seemingly boundless energy and the deepest devotion. It is a portrait that is at times both familiar and completely alien to a modern reader – and one that will likely change your view of furniture making in the early days of the United States.

This hardbound, full-color book will be produced entirely in the United States using quality materials and manufacturing methods. You can get a sample of the writing, photography and design of the book via this excerpt.

You can place your order for “Hands Employed Aright” here.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. As always, we do not know which of our retailers plan to carry this book – it’s their decision; not ours. We hope that all of them will stock it. Contact your nearest retailer for more information.

Why Add Stretchers to a Chair (And Why Not?)

Posted on by Lost Art Press

replaced_leg_irish_chair

A fair number of the stick and staked chairs that I make lack stretchers between the legs. But some of my chairs have them. So I get asked regularly: When do you use stretchers and why?

The simple answer is I add stretchers when the customer wants them. But that’s not a helpful answer for those getting started in designing and building chairs.

First a little history: Chairs don’t have to have stretchers to survive. I’ve seen plenty of chairs that have survived 300 years or more without stretchers. And yet, because most modern chairs have stretchers, a chair can look odd or alarming without them.

Stretchers add rigidity to the undercarriage and make the lower area of the chair visually balanced with the stuff above the seat – the spindles, arms and other hoo-ha. And they really aren’t a lot of labor to add to a chair. I’d guess that the stretchers add about an hour to the construction time of a typical chair.

So I guess the question then becomes: Why would you omit stretchers? A lack of raw material? Stylistic reasons? A lack of skill by the maker?

I think those reasons are unlikely.

The best explanation I’ve read is in Claudia Kinmonth’s “Irish Country Furniture: 1700-1950” (Yale). She begins her explanation with a description of the damp and earthen floors in a typical cottage. Then she adds:

Uneven floors have a bad effect upon seats with legs rigidly joined by stretchers. Except for mass-produced chairs, the majority of locally made stools and chairs had independent unlinked legs, which could be individually removed and replaced by the householder whenever they become worn or loose. This lack of stretchers combined with the common use of the through-wedged tenon to attach the legs to the seats, meant that chairs could survive inclement periods for long periods.

Kinmonth then goes on to describe several historical examples of stools and chairs that have had repairs.

To me, ease of construction and repair makes the most sense. If anyone else has a better explanation, you know what to do.

— Christopher Schwarz

stick_chair_stretchers_IMG_1987

The Final Touches on ‘Hands Employed Aright’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

HEA_cover

Joshua Klein’s biography of Jonathan Fisher, “Hands Employed Aright,” needs only a few tweaks today before it goes into production with our prepress agency. With any luck, the finished book should be in our hands in early August.

Even though I’ve edited this book several times, reviewed every photograph and examined every finished page, I am continually struck by how amazing this book is. It is – in short – a window into the daily life of a working hand-tool craftsman on the American frontier in the 19th century.

In many ways, this book answers the question a lot of us ask ourselves: What was it like to run a pre-industrial furniture shop? But instead of answering that question with conjecture or breadcrumbs of evidence from probate inventories and price guides for piecework, Klein answers the question with an absolute fire hose of original material that has been under wraps for almost 200 years.

Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) documented every aspect of his life in daily diaries written in a code he made up. Many of his tools and finished pieces of work have survived. And once his secret code was broken, the diaries and the archaeological evidence could be put together to paint an incredibly detailed portrait of Fisher and his daily life in the shop.

While that’s interesting, Klein didn’t stop there. He examined Fisher’s tools and furniture in remarkable detail to figure out his working methods. Then he put those methods to use in his shop, reproducing several pieces to determine if his theories were correct.

While this book won’t teach you how to cut dovetails or plane boards, it will definitely make you reconsider your own methods and your view of what craftsmanship really is.

In addition to all this, Fisher provides us with a photographic inventory of Fisher’s tools and finished pieces, much like Charles Hummel’s classic “With Hammer in Hand.”

HEA_dustjacket_June21-2

It has taken five years of hard work by people all over the country to put together “Hands Employed Aright,” and I think you will be pleased with both the content and the way we are making this book. Designer Linda Watts took immense care with the layout and was slowed down by the fact that she kept reading and re-reading the book herself.

We will open up pre-publication ordering in the next couple days. “Hands Employed Aright” will be 288 pages, hardbound, in full color and printed on heavy coated paper. The price will be $57, which will include domestic shipping.

— Christopher Schwarz

The Last of the Signature Plates

Posted on by Lost Art Press

signature_plates_IMG_1984

Because of a variety of factors outside of our control, we are discontinuing the autographed signature plates included with the books I’ve written.

We have a fair number left right now. But will likely run out this summer. So if there’s a book you’ve been meaning to order and you really really want a signature plate, this is the time to do it.

I know this change will perturb some people, and for that I apologize. I hope that most of our readers buy our books for the content and not for my gorgeous handwriting (see above).

For those of you who really want a signed book, I encourage you to make the trek to our storefront in Covington, Ky., where we are open on the second Saturday of every month. I am always happy to sign books and include a naughty message as well.

— Christopher Schwarz