Country Furniture

This major illustrated study investigates farmhouse and cabin furniture from all over the island of Ireland. It discusses the origins and evolution of useful objects, what materials were used and why, and how furniture made for small spaces, often with renewable elements, was innate and expected. Encompassing three centuries, it illuminates a way of life that has almost vanished. It contributes as much to our knowledge of Ireland's cultural history as to its history of furniture. Lavishly illustrated with a mass of the author's own photographs, mostly in colour and many previously unpublished, it draws on several decades of fieldwork, underpinned by academic research. It looks at influences such as traditional architecture, shortage of timber, why and how furniture was painted, and the characteristics of designs made by a range of furniture makers. The incorporation of natural materials such as bog oak, turf, driftwood, straw, recycled tyres or packing cases is viewed in terms of use, and durability. Chapters individually examine stools, chairs and then settles in all their ingenious and multi-purpose forms. How dressers were authentically arranged, with displays varying minutely according to time and place, reveal how some had indoor coops to encourage hens to lay through winter. Some people ate communally or slept in outshot beds, in the coldest north-west, this is illustrated through art as well as surviving objects. Hanging cradles and falling tables are discussed. A chapter is devoted to the hearth and the shrine, another focuses on small furnishings, such as horn spoons, wooden drinking vessels, basketry, tin-ware, aluminium, coarse earthenware and spongeware pottery.

A practical guide to fashioning traditional country furniture by hand, using the techniques of old-time craftsmen.

Fifty step-by-step projects for popular furniture projects from master craftsmen, including a dry sink, harvest table, Shaker candlestand, pie safe, ladder-back chair, and more. Build David T. Smith's most popular furniture reproductions. Includes common woodworking techniques.

This study focuses on the various customs and behaviour surrounding the objects which belonged to the majority of the Irish population. Where some were too impoverished to own furniture, it looks at how they managed without it, as well as the interaction of means of survival. The emphasis is placed upon materials, techniques, and makers; within this framework there emerges a functionalism and purity which has no heroes.

Building Furniture for Country Living Nothing conveys the comfort and warmth of hearth and home quite like handmade, solid wood furniture. We've assembled a collection of "comfort" furniture for your home in Building Furniture for Country Living. By following the detailed step-by-step instructions and photos, you too can bring the comfort of country living into your home, no matter what your skill level. • Eleven projects offer options for every room in your house. • Each project includes fully illustrated, step-by-step instructions. • Learn from expert woodworkers how to build and finish heirloom projects.

Extensively researched, profusely illustrated book explores principal elementary antique country furniture designs used in North America over the past 400 years — with English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Dutch, German, Spanish and Norwegian influences represented. 95 measured drawings for constructing candlestand, pedestal table, rocker, corner cupboard, cradle, armoire, many more.

Contains 18 step-by-step projects for making a selection of country-style furniture and other decorative items including authentic rural designs from the 18th- and 19th-centuries.

DIVIllustrated exploration of principal designs used in North America over past 400 years. 95 measured drawings enable woodworkers to construct for candlestand, pedestal table, rocker, corner cupboard, cradle, armoire, many more. /div

An introduction to country woodworking traditions provides sample workshop designs, practical advice on tools and equipment, and an overview of woodworking methods that illustrates the step-by-step process of furniture design from a historical perspective. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

A preoccupation with the finest period furnishings of the upper classes of English society has, until very recently, dominated the literature on antique furniture, resulting in a neglect of the humbler, but equally important furniture used in ordinary homes over the centuries. While furniture historians in North America and in many European countries have long accepted the vital importance of their own vernacular - or "country" - furniture, recognising it as an essential element of social history, the English equivalent has often been treated almost with contempt by British writers and relegated to the back pages of native furniture studies. This attitude is now recognised as unacceptable, however, and the vernacular furniture of England has accordingly become the focus of intensive research. Making use of much of this recent research, English Country Furniture throws fresh light on the uses, dates and stylistic differences of the everyday furniture found in cottages, farmhouses and town houses of ordinary people over a span of some four centuries. Special emphasis is placed on the 18th and 19th centuries in recognition of the much higher survival rates of true "folk" furniture from more recent times. Each of the examples illustrated, most of them previously unpublished in book form, is accompanied by a detailed caption giving timber, an accurate date-range and an extensive description, including such information as regional characteristics, finish, stylistic influence and construction. This is the only major work devoted to the evolution of both national and regional vernacular furniture in England from the Middle Ages up to the 20th century. It is also the first to stress the full importance of Oriental influence on 18th-century furniture design; the first to make use of fresh and exciting material salvaged from the Mary Rose; and the first to pinpoint precisely the inventions of several items of machinery used in furniture-making.