Jacob finished sweeping the leaves from the front steps of his cabinetmaker’s shop and stood looking down the street. Many of the shop windows and front porches in this older neighborhood were decorated for the harvest season with bunches of corn stalks, hay bales and pumpkins. With Halloween a few weeks away, cobwebs would soon…
Read moreAesop’s Fables have long been an inspiration for carvers and “The Fox and the Grapes” can be found carved on furniture, frames and decorative panels. It offers the carver the opportunity to carve round grapes, grape leaves moving in a breeze, knotty trees and a fox with a bushy tail. In this example, on an…
Read moreWell before gaining statehood in 1796, carpenters, cabinetmakers and chairmakers were leaving Eastern Seaboard states to settle in Tennessee. They crossed the mountains using The Great Road (also known as The Great Wagon Road). They advertised their services in local newspapers and, very fortunately for me, and possibly for you, these ads were collected by…
Read moreSeveral weeks ago I came across an illustrated collection of tools held by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). The approximate date of the collection is 1740, which pre-dates Roubo’s “l’art du Menuisier.” The collection, acquired in 1970, includes 84 illustrations. In the BAnQ’s description it is noted the illustrations may be from a…
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