Tools: Working Wood in Eighteenth-Century America (Wallace Gallery Decorative)
By Nancy L. Hagedorn and James M. Gaynor
Publisher: Colonial WILLIAMSBURG Foundation
122 pages beautifully illustrated book
Tradesmen in the eighteenth century performed the tasks at hand with sophisticated tools of amazing effectiveness and efficiency. The authors of this case study used early tools to investigate life in colonial America and understand the handmade products so admired today
In the words of the authors, this book is not meant to be a detailed technical discussion of eighteenth-century woodworking tools “but rather a summary overview of how these tools came to be, how their users acquired and learned to use them, and how they influenced the working lives and products of woodworking artisans” (p. ix). Within this framework, James Gaynor and Nancy Hagedorn have made a significant contribution to our understanding of tools and their impact on the life and work of early American woodworkers. They have also added to an increasing body of literature on the question of tool ownership and its meaning for artisans in a host of trades. Much of their information is relevant to the experiences of other producing craftsmen. Silversmiths, for instance, encountered many of the same obstacles when attempting to amass shop tools, and their working tools defined their products in much the same way as did the tools of woodworkers. What is perhaps most impressive about this book is the extent to which the authors have based their analysis on well-documented examples of eighteenth-century tools. Most collections include few tools that can be dated with any precision, and by bringing together the best documented examples, Gaynor and Hagedorn have provided curators of such collections with valuable information for dating and cataloguing the objects in their care. They have also proffered ample data for scholars attempting to put those tools into a wider historical context. The emphasis of the book and the exhibition that it accompanied is on the experience of artisans working in Virginia. Although many of the tools included in the book were owned by Virginia woodworkers, the authors flesh out their treatment with tools owned elsewhere in America. Most of the mass-manufactured tools treated here are of English origin, but the authors have also included as many American-made tools as possible, as well as some intriguing examples of tools made by the artisans who owned them.
The book is divided into two sections. The first section, lavishly illustrated with tools, period prints and paintings, and advertisements and documents, puts tools and the artisans who owned them into broader perspective and clearly demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between tradesmen and their tools. Covering sixty-two pages, this section of the book includes chapters on “English and American Toolmaking,” “Tools for Sale,” “Tools and Work,” and “Tools and Products.”
The book is divided into two sections. The first section, lavishly illustrated with tools, period prints and paintings, and advertisements and documents, puts tools and the artisans who owned them into broader perspective and clearly demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between tradesmen and their tools. Covering sixty-two pages, this section of the book includes chapters on “English and American Toolmaking,” “Tools for Sale,” “Tools and Work,” and “Tools and Products.”
CONDITION
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Very Good
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