Great Book for my Birthday

bones | Posted in General Discussion on January 29, 2010 10:47am

Well I had my birthday yesterday and the wife was working last night (hospital) so that was a bummer but she left my gift on the table. It was the book “Southern furniture 1680-1830” published by the Williamsburg foundation. IT is reccomended by Charlse Neil on the DVD “Bases and Cases”. I really like his stuff so I took him at his word it was a great book. I was not dissapointed. It’s a hard bound book thats 640 pages. It covers so much teritory and you get a lot of history and something I had not seen in a lot of other books. You get real detail pictures with drawings and dimensions and a lot of the pieces you get to see the insides and bottoms and they show the brandings on the pieces. It was nice to see how they signed their stuff back then and the close ups of the joinery and some original drawings from private collections. They cover chairs tables dressers and a wide range of other things. It also covers the western part of the state of VA (where I’m from) and you don’t get to see a lot of that area represented in other books. All I can say is I could not put it down (till after midnight). If you like furniture from this period, you will enjoy this book. It was not cheap at $75.00, but the information I’ll gain from it makes it sound cheap. That was not the best gift I got though. My son who is at Ft. Benning GA right now in Boot camp called me out of the blue and said he got a surprise gift from his DI for a 10 minute call. Talk about picking up the spirits. Had to be devine intervention. Anyway check out the book. http://www.williamsburgmarketplace.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductView?storeId=10001&categoryId=14266&ssr=1&catalogId=12121&langId=-1

Replies

jhonbaker | Jan 29, 2010 01:33pm | #1
Happy Birthday Bones.

Westchester | Jan 29, 2010 02:04pm | #2
A healthy one for sure -

You didn't mention a Cake ?

SA

jimmy | Jan 29, 2010 05:43pm | #3
Great book, and the show was even better. Good news though. Roanoke is'nt that far from Williamsburg, and most of the pieces in that book are on display in the Musuem next to the old insane asylum. Forgotten the name of the museum, but the pieces are a wonder to behold in the flesh. Check out the Colonial Williamsburg websight and look for the museum. Jimmy

Its the Dewitt, Wallace Decorative Arts Museum...
joinerswork | Jan 29, 2010 05:51pm | #4
Hi bones,
Yep that's a good
Hi bones,

Yep that's a good book. Another one is the 1997 "American Furniture" from Chipstone Foundation, Editor Luke Beckerdite. The focus is on Southern Furniture (Beckerdite was formerly with MESDA in Winston-Salem NC)

If you get to Winchester, stop in at the Museum of the Shenandoah, there's an interesting exhibit of Valley country chairs just opening this month. Other local items on display as well. Not as cool as the DeWitt Wallace Gallery in CW, but still...

Ray

Rdit: Great feeling to hear from your son at boot camp. I know your heart swells with pride.
forestgirl | Jan 30, 2010 02:02am | #5
Happy Birthday, Bones. Sounds like a great book, sure to inspire!
wotnow | Jan 30, 2010 04:53am | #6
Happy Birthday Bones.

Sometimes you get one of those books that hits you where it pleasures you most. It's rare so treasure it.

wot
RalphBarker | Jan 30, 2010 11:09am | #7
Belatedly, happy birthday, Bones. Sounds like a great book.