Furniture Books

This book is a history of antiques and architecture used in gardens since early times. Lots of great pics and very, very interesting to read and learn.

"Anvil Of Adversity" is well written and is especially relevant in today's 2003 current furniture market and hard times for any USA manufacturer. The historic lesson to be learned from the manufacturing past of Broyhill's assembly line furniture production is that when times are economically hard like he experienced during the great depression, then was the best time to cut your workforce to the bearest of minimiums and to lower your price point to be able to outlast the toughest of times. One might wonder why Jacque Rhulmann's line of furniture failed to survive the depression. If he had been humble enough have followed Broyhill's example he and his design firm might have made it through the depression. Of course, World War II happening in Europe after the depression was also another reason their firm went under. Plus Rhulmann's advancing age. But I digress.

What is important in these current hard times for American manufacturers is that there are current and past manufacturers who we can take other lessons from. The firm of Ikea and the way he used foreign Eastern Block labor to establish a foothold in the furniture markets worldwide is a similiar to what the Chinese are doing now. Perhaps one of the most relevant recent sets of articles that were published on the current state of the market was written by Schmidt in Modern Woodworking this past summer of 2003. In it Schmidt explains how the USA furniture design market is "stuck" in a mold of non-innovative furniture designs that they have been repeating for the past 20 to 50 years. Our country's furniture manufacturers unwillingness to break out of their (current) older furniture designs and manufacturing techniques have been one of our biggest unrealized problems to date.

There are newer design and manufacturing techniques that have been untried and as of yet undiscovered. There are going to be evolving styles and techniques, that I believe will surpass those of former furniture makers and giants of the past. Certain unused and some yet undiscovered materials will be created and cause certain formerly rejected furniture designs to be reevaluated, making possible, perhaps their reintroduction of formerly unuseable furniture and product designs.

There are currently in use some pieces of manufacturing machinery that have never been used to their fullest capabilities. Dovetailing the use of these machines with these readapted manufacturing techniques might well create a whole new vista of creativity in the designs of what were formerly considered "standard pieces of furniture". Why must a chair always remain a chair? Why must a case good exist in a certain range of measurments, to meet certain functional needs. Why must it always be limited to those and only those functional needs?

In the same way that Broyhill took the mass produced assembly line construction techniques of Henry Ford and readapt it to furniture building, so might we now use the strengths of various cultures to discover newer more innovative furniture designs and uses that have hitherto not been discovered. I will leave this conjecture to the reader to explore. Change is coming to the world of furniture design and manufacturing in ways we can only imagine at this point, but it will come. I liked this book because it showed how Broyhill adapted with the times, the technologies, the economics of the times and how we must remember to do so now. It showed how by holding on, persevering, and using new techniques to "think outside of the box" he and his furniture empire was created and survives today.

Anyone wishing to further discuss this book and these ideas is encouraged to email me at www.adamthomson@charter.net . I'm looking forward to hearing from others about this book, this review and its concepts. Until then I remain Adam Thomson, Oct. 11th, 2003

Alistair Duncan presents us 85 of Paris's Art Deco furniture designers from the period 1910 - 1935, including Eileen Gray, Dufréne, Leleu and Ruhlmann. This fine book contains a 7 pages informative introduction with e.g. the history and material of Art Deco furniture. But also 160 pages of biographies of designers, including 244 black and white illustrations & 68 in colour of interiors and furniture, each with a description. Each designer is presented in a concise half a page review. It makes this book an indispensable guide and frame of reference to french Art Deco furniture and a nice book to have on the bookshelf.

i,d love art nouveau furnitur

This book gives detailed descriptions of mat cutting. Many inspiring ideas for the beginner and pro picture framer.

John Makepeace is an internationally famous designer. This book took 11 of the world's top craftsmen and commissioned them to provide plans for 10 unusual peices of furniture. There are 3 sections to the book:

The first section, John Makepeace teaches you "how to use the special potentials of wood, wood in it's natural state, methods of seasoning, and unique preparation of timber prior to making your furniture.

The second section. gives 30 different plans for unusual and beautiful furniture including garden furniture. There are step by step color photos and diagrams with clear instructions.

The last section of this wonderful book is intended to help amateur woodworkers ot overcome problems with their equipment that will help them become more effective.

The furniture designers include James Krenov, Richard La Trobe Bateman, Fred Baier, Norman Beverton,, Ashley Cartwright, Wendell Castle, John Hardy, Sam Maloof, Richard Raffan, Howard Raybould, Bob Stocksdale.

This book if for the woodworker who wants to make a unique and artistic piece of furniture. It is not your average furniture how-to build book, although plenty of wonderful photos and diagrams are given for each unique project.

This classic book on the art of making museum quality miniature furniture is again available for the same price as it's previous release. Ask amazon.com to reorder thru Scott Publications 1-800-458-8237

I bought my copy in England 25 year ago. This book presents English antique furniture based on construction techniques and methods. The late Mr. Negus came from a family of craftsmen and became familiar with construction techniques for furntiure at an early age. He states in the foreword that he selected Mr. Butler as the most knowledgeable person to write this book based on their interactions at auctions. I have applied the knowledge presented and never found it wanting.

If you want to know the construction techniques that distinguish true English antiques (period pieces) from reproductions and fakes, then this is the book for you. Although I have long since disposed of any true antiques I might have owned, I have kept the book as a valued friend. It sits in the (modern) bookcase next to my bed.

Tarule, himself a furniture-maker in Vermont making reproductions of 17th-century furniture, tells Thomas Dennis's story almost as if Dennis were a character in a novel. Dennis was one of the first furniture-makers in America to gain notoriety. Coming to America and settling in the Massachusetts village of Ipswich in the mid 1600s, Dennis used many of the techniques and styles found in British furniture-making of this period. Yet having to select appropriate trees from American forests, usually in consideration of village laws relating to certain kinds of trees, work with other American craftsmen, make furniture to order from nearby residents, and give it suitable embellishments for attractiveness, Dennis is seen as an originator of American woodworking and furniture-making. But in this work, Tarule is not interested in a study of furniture-making, or a history of it. The author's concern is the work and expertise Dennis put into making one oak chest. From the author's following this in detail, one learns a great deal about 17th-century furniture-making and also the regional Colonial society. For Dennis is viewed in the narrative as both a extraordinary and respected craftsman and a member of the community which supported and shaped his trade. Tarule does not simply say what kind of wood the particular chest was made of, but takes the reader right with Dennis as he goes to the nearby woods looking for a tree with suitable oak tree, keeping in mind the village's laws. "As soon as Thomas Dennis entered the Ipswich woods, he was in the New World. The forest was primordial...The sort of trees Dennis looked for are apparent in his furniture. The wood is close grained...." And so on with a discussion of different types of oak trees whose characteristics Ipswich artists knew from "forest type, slope degree and direction, dampness of the ground, soil conditions, and even genetic variation on local trees." Tarule even engages in a comparison of British forests and American forests of the period, and changes in American forests over time. Tarule weaves a fascinating narrative under the general heading of Americana of interest to diverse readers such as antique dealers, woodworkers, and American Colonial historians.

While this book covers many already familiar houses, the layout is thoughtful and inventive, the text is informative while including many interesting asides that make it one of the best introductions to the topic that I've seen. If you just want one book on the Arts and Crafts house, this is it.