In JT's quest to turbo charge a Luv truck, we have a major void here on insprational projects. In the meanwhile, I hope to fill a small part of that void by suggesting some books. I recently bought Wallace Nutting's "Furniture Treasury" Volumes 1,2 and
3 from an online book exchange and have been quite impressed by the reading and furniture pictured. Volumes 1 and 2 are together in one large book and it contains 5000 pictures of early American furniture, some with brief descriptions. There are chests, high boys, low boys, chairs, tables, desks, and endless pictures of other inspiring stuff. Not much reading, but many, many great pictures. Volume 3 has 1000 drawings of the details from some of the pictures in Volumes 1 and 2. Legs, finials, carvings, ornaments, clocks, and the like. The author also discusses history, reproductions, designs, collecting, and some hard opinions about furniture made "today" (about 1933 to him). In fact, he says basically that most furniture lost its beauty and taste due to the designs of furniture changing in order to be produced by a machine, not "the marvelous power of the human hand", therefore most of the furniture pictured was built before 1830. His stern opinions are everywhere throughout vol 3 and are quite enlightening as to the evolution of furniture and design. I could go on and on....... Any way, the 3 volume set comes *highly* recommended, a must have for anyone with even a slight interest in antique furniture. Just be prepared for a hard dose of reality about craftsmen losing their skills to a achine! --daveBTW- How's that Luv coming along JT?