Lost Art Press

Search Results for: cat

Early Dividers from Pompeii

Posted on by Lost Art Press

pompeii_compass_IMG_6389

Here are the earliest dividers I’ve seen in person. These bronze dividers (or “compass” if your name is Peter or Jennie) were found in the ruins of Pompeii, which was destroyed in A.D. 79.

The originals reside in the Munich Residenz. Museum officials made a copy that is displayed in the Deutches Museum in Munich. A quick search of the web site of the Residenz revealed nothing about the dividers – mostly just pictures of the jewelry of princes and the like. Yawn.

These bronze dividers are interesting because they are a lot like the slightly more modern tools used for navigating on the sea. (Lee Valley offered a set in brass I believe.)

The Deutches Museum was a treasure trove of cool tools relating to making things, everything from an entire section on sectors to water-powered machinery, shipbuilding, early machine tools, the history of casting, you name it.

The best part: Every room smelled like a different lubricant.

I was able to see only a portion of the collection this morning before we had to catch a train. Next time I have to plan an entire day at the museum.

On the topic of classes for next year, Dictum officials have asked me to submit some topics of classes to teach in Germany next year. While I am trying to reduce my teaching schedule next year, it would be foolish to turn down a trip to Bavaria now that I can count to 10 in German.

So here were some of the students’ ideas for courses:

• Roubo workbench (I can already hear my back whining)
• Campaign chest
• Campaign writing desk or shaving kit
• Officers’ portable desk.

I also need to come up with ideas for one- or two-day courses. But I’ll work on that another day – right now I need to finish a chapter in my book on campaign furniture.

— Christopher Schwarz

Passing of the All-Round Mechanic

Posted on by fitz

mechanic_bench

When thinking of the modern wood-working establishment, with its finely-drawn divisions and subdivisions of all the different operations in the hands of experts and specialists, it is with a feeling of regret that we see the old-fashioned all-round mechanic being gradually crowded into the background, with the prospect that sooner or later his type will become extinct.

Not so many years ago the skilled workman was an indispensable factor in every wood-working shop. He was a combination of cabinetmaker, carpenter and machineman who could make a complete door or window or a piece of furniture from the raw material, with no other assistance but his own skill. He could lay out his work, match, joint and lay his own veneer, knew all about the properties of glue, the nature of the various kinds of wood and their adaptability for different purposes, besides a thousand other shop kinks, acquired by years of practical experience.

It used to be a source of real pleasure to watch such workman handle his tools when building up, piece by piece, some intricate design of artistic woodwork, and the evident satisfaction he derived from viewing the work of his own hands, showed the earmarks of the artist. On account of his ability and wide range of usefulness, he was looked up to by his shopmates, and his work called forth the admiration of everybody.
(more…)

Final Pricing & Details on ‘To Make as Perfectly as Possible’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Columns

The price of the deluxe version of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” will be $380 plus shipping ($20 less than our target price of $400).

Shipping on the book will cost $10 for customers in the United States and $20 for international customers.

If you paid the $100 deposit on the book, you will receive an e-mail in the next two weeks from John Hoffman at Lost Art Press with easy instructions on how to pay the balance to receive your book. Your book will not ship until you have paid the balance.

Here are some answers to common questions on the deluxe version of our translation:

When will the deluxe book ship?

We hope the book will ship in early August. We are working with a different printer on this book, so we are not entirely sure (yet) when our press date will be. As soon as the printer tells us a press date, we will publish it here.

How many deluxe books are you printing?

The plan is to print 600 copies of the deluxe version of the book. Once these are sold, we will not print this edition again. Almost all of the 600 books are spoken for, but we will offer what is left here on our site. The deluxe version will be sold only here on the Lost Art Press site. We are not selling the deluxe edition through our retailers.

What will the deluxe book look like?

It will be nice – a book that we would like to have on our shelves. The book will be 12” x 17”, 248 pages, hardbound and printed in the United States. The interior of the book will be printed on #100 Mohawk superfine white eggshell paper.

The binding will be a Smythe-sewn three-piece binding with a square back plus head and foot bands. The spine will be covered in an Italian fabric that is printed in gold and black foil. The boards will be covered in #80 Mohawk loop antique vellum with a special image printed on the paper.

We had considered using calfskin on the spine but decided we preferred the cloth spine. (Wait until you see the whole package before you start howling.)

The book will come in a handmade slipcase that is wrapped in matching cloth.

Can my club/magazine/blog/library receive a “review” copy?

No. We have been approached by several clubs, magazines, bloggers and libraries about getting a free or discounted copy. There will be no free or discounted copies of this book distributed. Even I, John Hoffman and the authors will be purchasing our copies.

I cannot afford the deluxe version. When will the trade edition come out?

Work on the trade edition is proceeding, and we will have this second version of the book out by fall. It will be in a smaller size, with different printing specifications and no color photos, but it will be as nice as any other Lost Art Press book we’ve printed so far. Our target price is $60, but we are having trouble getting the manufacturing costs under control. The trade edition will be sold by our retailers who choose to carry it. Eventually there will be an e-book version of the trade book, plus other ancillary products. But I don’t have any more details other than what I’ve written above.

— Christopher Schwarz

Apprenticeship and Handicraft

Posted on by fitz

postcard_g

The man who designs and makes a good chair, or other useful article of any kind—all the more if it be beautiful as well as useful—is second only in the respectability of his occupation to him who brings grain and grass out of otherwise barren ground.

It is a very mistaken notion of the relations of things that sets trading—that is, buying and selling—a very different matter from commerce, which is the bringing of the products of one country into another—above handicraft. But handicraft seems to be falling into neglect.

The number of artisans who thoroughly understand their craft, and take a pride in doing good work, seems to be diminishing at a rate which is perceptible from one five years’ end to another. Indeed, it is notorious among all those who have occasion from time to time to employ skilled labour, that if they need the services of, let us say, a carpenter, a cabinet-maker, a watchmaker, or a painter, they cannot be sure, without some troublesome inquiry, that the work will be done in a workmanlike manner.

This uncertainty has no reference to that skill and taste which are the personal attributes of the individual workman, and give one man a reputation which another can never attain, but to that knowledge and skill, at once elementary and complete, which is possessed by every artisan who has “learned his trade.”
(more…)

Roubo: Il est Fait (Quasiment)

Posted on by fitz

rouboproof

The final round of copy editing has been completed on “To Make as Perfectly as Possible,” the penultimate proof has been sent to the designer, Wesley Tanner, for corrections, and, well, I’m confident it will be as perfect as possible. I’ll get one last proof to check again this marked-up copy (thank you Linda Watts for catching errors that I did not), then I believe the plan is to have it to the printer on or before July 1. (At which time there will be much rejoicing.)

I’ve read this volume four times now in as many weeks, and while I realize I couldn’t possibly execute a perfect work in marquetry (having never before attempted it – and Roubo reminds us time and again that good work requires lots of practice), I’m quite certain that I could tell someone how to do it (along with what tropical hardwoods would be best used for any given effect).

I eagerly await volume two (Don et al., get on that, would you?!).

Below, I’ve copied a few of my favorite quotations (I kept a running list whilst editing). So until the thing itself is available, enjoy these wee excerpts.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

“The prevailing display of luxury is also one of the causes of the lack of excellence in works of cabinetry – everyone wishing to have it but without having the means to pay what they are worth.” (Sounds quite contemporary, eh?!)

“This might be due to laziness or inability, or, which is more accurate, by the impossible situation they are in when the merchants pay only half the necessary amount for it to be well made.” (Nice to see that little has changed in the intervening centuries)

“If woodworking is, by itself, an important art should not the knowledge of it be acquired (or at least attempted) as much in theory as in practice? Sadly, this is not very common at the present.” (Kids today…)

“One of the biggest obstacles that I have had to overcome is the cry of the public against big books, which they will not buy because they are too expensive, or they buy but do not read because they are too voluminous. But how could I do otherwise? Should I fool the Public in pandering to their taste but against their interests by giving them an abridged and consequently less expensive edition, but where they will learn nothing…?” (He’s absolutely right, then and now)

“…but when speaking badly of a piece I have always respected the worker, at least that was my intention.” (Good on you, A.J.)