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Welsh Stick Chairs
From the Lost Art Press website:
"Welsh Stick Chairs" by John Brown is a small but mighty book. At 104 pages long, this book can be read in an afternoon, but it has changed the lives of thousands of woodworkers all over the globe.
John Brown (1933-2008) was a chairmaker in Wales who specialized in Welsh stick chairs, a vernacular form of furniture that was typically made by the end users. Compared to Windsor chairs, Welsh stick chairs are masculine, lively and even sometimes a bit aggressive.
They are built with simple hand tools and (when made properly) are designed to last for hundreds of years.
John Brown made hundreds of these chairs, and in 1990 he published a small book that explained how he made the chairs, plus some history of chairmaking in Wales and a critique of the Windsor chairs they were sometimes confused with.
The book electrified woodworkers everywhere. Even those who weren't chairmakers were fascinated by John Brown's approach to the craft. His disdain for measured drawings. And his honest and forthright writing style.
"Welsh Stick Chairs" has been out of print for some time. But thanks to the efforts of Matty Sears, one of John Brown's sons, and the rest of the heirs, we are pleased to present a beautiful and well-made edition of this important work.
Using first-edition examples of "Welsh Stick Chairs," we reset the entire book in the original font to ensure the text was crisp. We rescanned and processed the photos and drawings and cleaned them up. And we spent weeks researching the paper stock of the original in order to capture the same earthiness and perfection of the first edition.
We also made a small but invisible improvement – we sewed the signatures together to ensure the book will last for lifetimes.
The book is a softcover, covered in heavy card stock like the original. The book measures 7-1/4" x 9-5/8".
Our version includes John Brown's original introduction to the book, plus the additional introduction he wrote for the third edition and an updated essay on John Brown by Nick Gibbs.
"Welsh Stick Chairs" by John Brown is a small but mighty book. At 104 pages long, this book can be read in an afternoon, but it has changed the lives of thousands of woodworkers all over the globe.
John Brown (1933-2008) was a chairmaker in Wales who specialized in Welsh stick chairs, a vernacular form of furniture that was typically made by the end users. Compared to Windsor chairs, Welsh stick chairs are masculine, lively and even sometimes a bit aggressive.
They are built with simple hand tools and (when made properly) are designed to last for hundreds of years.
John Brown made hundreds of these chairs, and in 1990 he published a small book that explained how he made the chairs, plus some history of chairmaking in Wales and a critique of the Windsor chairs they were sometimes confused with.
The book electrified woodworkers everywhere. Even those who weren't chairmakers were fascinated by John Brown's approach to the craft. His disdain for measured drawings. And his honest and forthright writing style.
"Welsh Stick Chairs" has been out of print for some time. But thanks to the efforts of Matty Sears, one of John Brown's sons, and the rest of the heirs, we are pleased to present a beautiful and well-made edition of this important work.
Using first-edition examples of "Welsh Stick Chairs," we reset the entire book in the original font to ensure the text was crisp. We rescanned and processed the photos and drawings and cleaned them up. And we spent weeks researching the paper stock of the original in order to capture the same earthiness and perfection of the first edition.
We also made a small but invisible improvement – we sewed the signatures together to ensure the book will last for lifetimes.
The book is a softcover, covered in heavy card stock like the original. The book measures 7-1/4" x 9-5/8".
Our version includes John Brown's original introduction to the book, plus the additional introduction he wrote for the third edition and an updated essay on John Brown by Nick Gibbs.
- GenresWoodwork
Paperback
First published December 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
John Brown
1,630 books4 followersThere is more than one author with the same name in the Goodreads database. This profile contains several publications for different John Browns.
See also:
John Brown, c.1610-1679, Christian books
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John Brown, trivia
John Brown, 1830-1922
John Brown, 1784-1858
John Brown, 1810-1882, Scottish physician
John Brown, 1797-1861, geographer
John Brown, 1800-1859
John Brown, 1778-1848
John Brown, 1715-1766
John Brown, Goodreads author
John Brown, 1944-2006
John Brown, Goodreads author
John Brown, chess
John Brown, c.1810-1876
John Brown, active 1806-1823, English historian
John Brown travel author circa 1950s
And:
John Brown Jr.
John Brown of Haddington
See also:
John Brown, c.1610-1679, Christian books
John Brown, Minecraft
John Brown, trivia
John Brown, 1830-1922
John Brown, 1784-1858
John Brown, 1810-1882, Scottish physician
John Brown, 1797-1861, geographer
John Brown, 1800-1859
John Brown, 1778-1848
John Brown, 1715-1766
John Brown, Goodreads author
John Brown, 1944-2006
John Brown, Goodreads author
John Brown, chess
John Brown, c.1810-1876
John Brown, active 1806-1823, English historian
John Brown travel author circa 1950s
And:
John Brown Jr.
John Brown of Haddington
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 24, 2018
Despite the description , this is not a step-by-step guide. It is much more - it explains what is distinctive and Welsh in this form of customary country furniture and it inspires the reader to believe that (s)he could and should try to make an example, not just as an exercise in woodwork, but also as an intellectual and emotional homage to generations of Welsh farmers that developed this distinctive vernacular form.
Displaying 1 of 1 review