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Lately (last year or so) I have had a penchant and thirst for knowledge on a more academic level, for anything related to woodworking and the items made from wood, and the tools and process's used to make wood items. This quest for knowledge has come from my own desire to build a woodworkers wiki, where all can enter the wiki, and open edit and collaborate, and contribute to the knowledge base. Click here for our wiki under construction. As many know by now, our wiki is under construction, and it's turned out to be a monumental task, the software behind the scenes is very complex, and the wiki engine is a different animal that takes some getting used to, in order to use it. But once our wiki is built, and once we open the doors, it will be relatively user friendly, compared to most wikis, and you will enjoy contributing and leaving your mark in cyberspace, for all woodworkers to benefit from, and learn, and share. Now that is out of the way, and some context has been laid down, I wanted to share with you a wonderful book I have been reading, it's a general history of American Furniture, and how the design components came to be, and how specific joinery was introduced into the market, and how the styles morphed from one to another, and how our society and the differing economic classes influenced furniture design. The book is named "Sotheby's Guide to American Furniture". It's a paper back written by Patricia P. Petraglia and I have been reading it over the last couple months, just before bed time. Yes, it's a sleeper, but it is also very interesting. A few weeks ago I came upon the chapter that finally described the period in which the Dovetail joint made its appearance in our colonies. If you've read this far, you may be interested in reading a paragraph on this subject from the above mentioned book. The less sophisticated shops were still using peg and mortise and tenon for everything, and they were still building the bulky style of "Pilgrim Furniture" of the late 1600's, specifically from 1640 - 1690. But, the Pilgrim Furniture was beautiful as well, so we shouldn't sneeze down on those builders, there were intricate carvings, beautifully raised panels, Jewels and Boss's, Split Spindles, and turned feet. But the William and Mary designs just took the colonies by storm, and the makers either had to transition their shops, or die. In a way you could say, the dovetail joint, was responsible for the demise of many shops, not all makers could adapt! I love history, especially American History, and this book I found sitting on the shelf of a used book store here locally where I live has a place on my nightstand, and I am taking my time to read it, and absorb it. It's amazing what was actually involved in design, and style, and how our society and economic classes played such a huge roll in the designing of our American furniture. Thanks for reading, and I hope when we open our new wiki, you'll be motivated to share your knowledge, and resources for all to see, read and learn.
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