Lost Art Press

Chippendale Apple Secretary

Posted on by meghanlostartpress

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This is an excerpt from “Mouldings in Practice” by Matthew Sheldon Bickford. 

A Chippendale apple secretary desk and bookcase featuring triple-cusp scrolled returns. Colchester School, possibly Hebron or Lebanon, Conn., 1785-1805.

Dimensions: height: 76-5/8″, width of lower case: 42-1/8″, depth of lower case: 19-3/4″, width of upper case: 40″, depth of upper case: 10″, width of cornice: 42-7/8″, depth of cornice: 11-1/4″.

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Chippendale Secretary, Crown, Perspective
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Chippendale Secretary, Crown

This Chippendale apple secretary desk and bookcase features subtle decoration executed with fine quality and strong lines. The tall and stable straight bracket feet are adorned with triple scrolls, featuring a large lobe, a small pointed return and a second smaller lobe. The graduated asymmetrical returns are a simple but effective design showing awareness of more sophisticated New London County furniture made in the urban centers of Norwich and New London. However, this secretary was made in the Colchester area, likely in the successful farming community of either Hebron or Lebanon. Instead of complex serpentine forms or carved decoration, the cabinetmaker relied on the inherent beauty of native apple. He relied on his skill at creating quality lines and form to exploit the interesting patterns within the material. The irregular nature of the grain in apple makes it a challenge to use in furniture. The reward is the beautiful figuring and warm reddish-yellow tone. The large at panels used in the bookcase display apple at its nest. Two bookmatched sections of apple are used for the two door panels, each with the pattern of striped figuring is set at complementary angles. To accentuate the natural beauty of the panels, the cabinetmaker has created a bold projecting cornice moulding. The layering of narrow and wide sections meets in the front corners with flaring lines pointing back toward the panels. The original owner of this secretary may have lived in a rural farming community, but he was successful enough to own books. Displayed in an 18th-century home, the secretary was a statement that the owner could read and write. This was an important status symbol at the time and was a sign of education, knowledge and success.

— MB

You Can Now Preview all of our Books

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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You can now download an excerpt of all of the Lost Art Press titles in our online store. At the top of the description for each book, you’ll see a link to download an excerpt. Click the link and the pdf will download immediately. No need to register or engage in any silly marketing legerdemain.

Thanks to Kara Gebhart Uhl, our new editorial helper, who made this happen.

— Christopher Schwarz

On Discounts, Sales and Advertisements

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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With the upcoming release of the new volume on joinery of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” several customers have asked if we are going to offer a discount on the complete set of books after we publish the final volume in 2017.

The short answer: no. And the explanation: As a rule we don’t discount our books. In fact, the price of our books can only go up in the future. We price our books fairly from the get-go. We don’t jack up the retail price so we can fleece the early adopters (our best customers) and then discount the book later on to snag the cheapskates.

The reason the price can go up in the future is because the price of raw materials and shipping can go up in the future. So the price you see now in our store is the best price now – it will only go up.

So why don’t we accept advertising on our site, which could lower the cost of books for the customers? The truth is we are approached all the time by companies who want to place ads on our site (we have healthy traffic), and we always refuse. Simply put: We don’t believe in advertising. We find it annoying. We find it ethically compromising. And if we’re annoyed by it, why should we annoy our customers with it?

So sorry, no ads.

I apologize for using this bandwidth to explain something we have discussed before. But not every new reader goes back and studies the last nine years of content.

— Christopher Schwarz

Coming Soon: Issue 2 of Mortise & Tenon

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Joshua Klein and company are working hard on the second issue of Mortise & Tenon magazine, and from all accounts it looks like it’s going to be another fine issue.

They’ll start taking pre-publication orders on Nov. 1 here, which is also where you can read about the articles that are planned for the issue.

Joshua had asked me to write an article for the issue, and had I proposed a piece on Kentucky-style furniture, a backwoods style that I’ve admired for many years and is on display at the Speed Museum in Louisville, Ky. (If you’d like a woodworker’s view of the museum, check out Mark Firley’s photo collection here and here.)

My summer went to crap, however, and so I wasn’t able to do the research and interviews that would make my article worth publishing. Luckily, Joshua was also interested in my Roman workbenches and let me write up an article on the interesting workholding on the low one that I built from Pompeii.

My understanding of the bench has increased greatly since Woodworking in America, and after working on it every day this fall. You might not think that it’s easy to work while sitting down, but you might give it another thought after you read the article. Roy Underhill helped me decode a couple of the important details for the article, and I hope to have a short book on the bench (and a 1505 workbench with a Roman undercarriage) ready for the printer by the end of the year.

— Christopher Schwarz

Less English; More Welsh

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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This week I’m assembling two Welsh stick chairs that are based on examples from several sources, including John Brown and Don Weber. I’ve made this sort of chair about a dozen times, and every time I build it I stray a little further from the originals.

About five years ago I started using a different arrangements of back sticks and a different crest rail. Now I’m changing the seat and undercarriage. First I made a new seat template. It’s still a D-shaped seat, but I started fresh with trammels and a compass to make it slightly larger.

I increased the rake of the rear legs to make the chair more lively. And I also changed the front legs to make them look appropriate with the new rear legs (wire models like those shown in “The Anarchist’s Design Book” guided these changes).

But the biggest change is to the stretcher turnings. I’ve been using 1-3/8”-diameter turnings with a bulbous center, much like what I first learned from Don Weber about 13 years ago.

After looking at a lot of English Windsors and Welsh stick chairs, I decided to simplify my turnings and thin them down to 1-1/8” in diameter. After getting both undercarriages together this afternoon, I was pleased with the result.

Tomorrow I start steam-bending the arm bows and am considering one more design change for this generation of chairs.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Peter Galbert’s book “Chairmaker’s Notebook” is invaluable for making all sorts of stick chairs, including Windsors and Welsh stick.