17th-Century Essex County Cupboard, Peter Follansbee (book)

17th-Century Essex County Cupboard by Peter Follansbee, Lost Art Press. It is about as close a description as we'll ever get of how complex 17th-century furniture began in the forest and progressed through the workshop. The cupboard involves a multitude of operations: riving stock, enormous amounts of tricky and simple joinery, drawboring, nailing, faceplate and spindle turning, some of it on a massive scale, plus sometimes wild mitring to add all the decoration to this enormous and beautiful piece. It includes measured drawings by Jeff Lefkowitz, with details of the turnings and mouldings.

Building a cupboard like this isn't just figuring out the joinery. It is also working out how the original makers may have held the odd-shaped parts, the order of assembly, and when to carve, paint, rive and cut joints to keep the work moving. Follansbee has spent his adult life researching and building 17th-century furniture, and the book is the culmination of decades of research and shop experimentation. Yet it is no dry treatise: his wit, honed by 20 years of demonstrating at Plimoth Plantation, is reflected on every page.

The book is 6" × 9" with 232 pages, sewn and bound in heavy cloth-covered boards with foil stamping, and the end sheets are printed with the measured drawings of the cupboard. Peter Follansbee reproduces 17th-century joined furniture, boxes, chests, chairs and tables, using only hand tools and mainly oak.