Country Furniture

This book provides an insightful read into American country furniture. Would I buy again - no - I already have it. But would recommend the book to anyone who is like-minded, that is, interested in some of the history of woodworking.

Country Furniture is a wide-ranging book about furniture made from the 17th to the 19th centuries by amateurs and semi-professionals in New England. The book is as much about the furniture makers as it is about the furniture itself. Watson describes these furniture makers as resourceful, independent craftsmen working with locally-sourced materials in small shops in or near their homes. Watson shows how they used a relatively small but varied set of tools, and he indicates that they did not hesitate to modify and re-purpose tools when necessary. While professionals made fancy furniture for the rich in the large shops of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, these country craftsmen built furniture largely for themselves and for a small, local clientele, but at their best, their furniture was no less refined or durable than the products of their urban counterparts.If Watson’s account of these country craftsmen sometimes seems romanticized, it is nevertheless well-supported by historical documents like letters, diaries, and estate inventories. Watson’s book details each aspect of the country furniture maker’s craft, from the town he lived in and the lumber he used, to the tools and techniques he employed to make furniture for himself. The techniques Watson selects for illustration are sometimes haphazardly selected, but his descriptions are always informative. And like his other books, Country Furniture is lavishly illustrated with Watson’s own line drawings, which are unsurpassable for clarity and precision.This book won't teach you how to build country furniture, but if you already know the basics of woodworking, it will show you many clever techniques for period work. Best of all, it will give you a deep appreciation for the woodworkers who have gone on before you.

This is a seriously excellent work on early the history American craftsman. The artwork is truly great tools and appliances are shown with description of traditional use. While not a how to book it has many illustrations of tools and use I find very useful. As well as appliances and jigs I’m definitely copying. This is the best history of early American wood work I have read to date.

This book is very helpful for the beginner or advanced hand tool woodworker. It has plenty of lovely illustrations, drawn by hand, with a history of woodworking and helpful information about drying, stacking, and choosing proper wood for a project. Highly recommended!

This is a reprint of a book that had been out of print for a while. Most of it is really good. It has amazing information about what life is like woodworking in the 1800s. The reason I am taking off 2 stars is because the copy I have is missing some text. At the beginning of chapter 5, it skips at least a few lines and causes that section to not to make sense. The rest of the book is great though. If the publisher can find those missing lines and revise it, it would definitely be worth a 5 star designation.

Country Furniture is a true premiere view of turn of the century when tried and true craftsmanship was in bloom. From page one to the last it involves the spirit of wanting grasp the tools of the past and go to the shop and recreate some of the items within the text. I recomend anyone from wood butcher to millwright with a desire to recreate majesty in wood.

This is a very good for a beginner (like me) to understand the pre-industrial age of woodworking in North America. The illustrations of various techniques and tools are fabulous.

Grew up in rural America where and back-when folks made and kept useful things needed in the home and farm by using their own hands and efforts. No IKEA around for instant stuff. This book helps one to understand what it took to make even 'simple' things, and what the rightful pride the maker had in a well-finished product gave him/her.If you are curious about how it used to be before Walmart, and how those pricey antiques in the showcase shops came to be, this is a good place to start to understand the past that is getting too far away from our 'modern' life.

My husband enjoyed this book and appreciated the plans and simple layout used to explain the furniture making, the language used make the ideal "give it a go it is easy" attitude that my husband appreciated to re-ignite his carpentry skills

in a ten-hour day. This was a prodigious innovation that immediatelyaffected the economy, for it brought the price of lumber downwithin reach of many more consumers.In one form or another, this technique continued on a commercialscale well into the late 1800s when the coincidental development ofthe steam engine and the invention of the circular saw togethercreated the first fully powered sawmill. Actually, the up-and-down

Text is missing on page 49, seven lines. This makes the sentences on the previous/following pages non-comprehensible. It could be a great book if all the text was there.