american furniture 1650 to now

[Electric Comet]

very interesting video

did not know those things about mahogany

[Sonny]

Not very interesting, at all. From this video, seems Fritzgerald, mainly, distinguishes between the different styles of furniture.... essentially, a list of the styles. This info is already available. There is no clue, given or hinted to, as to the actual construction of the pieces.

At about the 47-48 minute mark, he mentions Wallace Nutting. Nutting's bo oks, 3 volumes - "Furniture Treasure" - is a much more detailed tome of the actual construction and discussion of the different styles. I think Nutt ing assumes the reader already knows the "list" of the different styles.

Also, Fritzgerald mentions his book focuses on the chair, has 850 pics in 6

00 pages. I don't think one can get a good grasp of American furniture bas ed on only the chair, unless you're only interested in learning how to dist inguish between the different styles. Nutting's books focuses on all furni ture, has 5000 illustrations in volumes I & II.... the pages aren't numbere d as the page reference is the illustration's (pic's) number. Volume III has 1000 pics in 548 pages. Nutting's books's info is valid up to about 1 933, so they don't include most of the "modern era" furniture, which includ es lots of furniture, or parts, made of something other than wood.

Though the video may not reveal all that's in his book, from what I gathere d, I wouldn't be interested in obtaining his book. Nutting's books are m uch better.

A side note: For a French-Canadian furniture interest, "The Early Furnitu re of French Canada" is a very good book, discussing and illustrating early French-Canadian furniture from about 1600 into the early-mid 1800s. Way back then, there weren't too many dedicated (commercial) furniture shops, s o many of those early pieces were made by local craftsmen or by individuals making pieces for themselves. Much of this early furniture was big and bu lky, rustic-like, though there were finer pieces being made, as more and mo re master craftsmen came over from Europe. As in the early US, those fir st settlers, especially in the rural areas, had to make lots of their own f urniture. Likewise, this book focuses on those very early pieces of Frenc h Canadian furniture. Lots of this early furniture looks like it was made with salvaged lumber, so I find it an excellent reference for working with my salvaged lumber.

Sonny

[Electric Comet]

since i know nothing about furniture history i liked it just for that

as for the other criticisms

will just say that if some info has already been covered that has never meant it will not get covered again

it is the library of congress so there is bound to be a lot of similar books for example

a video only on construction would be a good suggestion to make to the loc

he did mention construction several times at least but just at a high level nothing detailed

interesting to see how much turning was done in the early stuff