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    Bemrose on Traditional Woodworking: Carving, Fretwork, Buhl Work and Marquetry
    Bemrose on Traditional Woodworking: Carving, Fretwork, Buhl Work and Marquetry
    Bemrose on Traditional Woodworking: Carving, Fretwork, Buhl Work and Marquetry
    Ebook263 pages1 hour

    Bemrose on Traditional Woodworking: Carving, Fretwork, Buhl Work and Marquetry

    By William Bemrose and Frederick Wilbur

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    About this ebook

    This three-in-one volume combines a trio of hard-to-find classics on artisanal woodworking techniques and designs. Professional and amateur woodworkers will find it a treasure trove of projects involving buhl work (creating cabinetry using metal inlays), marquetry (pieces adorned with colored wood, shells, and ivory), and fretwork (low-relief or cut-out decorative designs).
    Filled with practical instructions, helpful diagrams, and illustrations of finished projects, this manual presents time-tested techniques that remain valid for modern woodworkers—only the tools differ. A Victorian-era expert on woodworking, ceramics, and decorative arts, author William Bemrose offers tips on choosing the right wood, staining and polishing, and engraving. His projects range from undertakings as small as picture frames, book rests, and letter racks to such ambitious endeavors as bookshelves, chests, cabinets, and screens. A source of useful methods, this book also serves as a wellspring of design inspiration.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateFeb 22, 2013
    ISBN9780486156262
    Bemrose on Traditional Woodworking: Carving, Fretwork, Buhl Work and Marquetry

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      Bemrose on Traditional Woodworking - William Bemrose

      www.doverpublications.com

      Introduction to the Dover Edition

      The three books presented in this volume by William Bemrose, Jr. (1831-1908) are among the exceedingly popular craft instruction manuals produced during the latter half of the nineteenth century. What we broadly term the arts and crafts movement evolved throughout the century, culminating at the end with the definable Arts and Crafts Movement articulated by William Morris and the one mimicked by a significant following today.

      An introduction for these books serves two primary purposes: to provide context and to point out their relevance. Ultimately, a work of art—whether a woodcarving, a painting, or a literary work—has to stand on its own, yet context enhances one’s appreciation of the work. History (as I’m sure someone has stated) keeps on changing. There is little doubt, however, that the reader, as an amateur woodworker or artist (the exact same audience addressed in the originals), will read this volume with the same enthusiasm that made the books so popular. To be sure, the social attitudes of the late nineteenth century are not the same as of the early twenty-first century; attitudes toward work, time, education, women’s status, religion, science, and so forth, have all been transformed. What has remained constant is the desire to make household accessories by hand for personal satisfaction, for personal knowledge, and social camaraderie.

      To determine the value of reprints such as these, one has to analyze and compare. Some areas one could explore are that of their contribution to historical understanding, particularly the information contained in the text and the usefulness of the illustrations. There are a number of active craft and cultural societies, such as The Victorian Society, The Society of American Period Furniture Makers, and The Early Industries Association, which strive to elucidate the activities and culture of former times, and these books serve as primary resources for them. The text supplies basic information on process, and because handwork does not rely overly on technological advances, there is a timeless quality to the methods described. Lastly, the illustrations of these reprints, which, apart from the method of use, stand as resources for adaptive re-use, also serve as an adjunct to the many pattern books produced during the period. These illustrations are contemporary creations (with some historical references), and not extrapolations from artifacts.

      To summarize the complex relationship of aesthetics with industry in the nineteenth century is not in the scope of these introductory remarks, but placement of these texts within the overall timeframe must be made. The importance and recognition of quality in manufacturing began in the mid-eighteenth century when various goods were compared, given prizes, and put on display. Societies and academies were established in England and on the continent as self-regulatory watchdogs, and a series of exhibitions were sponsored in the early years of the nineteenth century. The French Industrial Exposition of 1844 and the Great Exhibition of 1851 in England were both national and international in scope. This latter exposition, even in its day, was considered a watershed event, attracting six million people, the equivalent of one-third of the population of Britain at the time.

      There was a cautionary philosophy to counter the juggernaut of industrialization, however. Distrust of rapid industrialization began fairly early in the century; in 1829, Thomas Carlyle recognized, On every hand the living artisan is driven from his workshop, to make room for a speedier inanimate one. These sentiments were echoed by other writers throughout the century. But in spite of much anguish and theorizing about mechanization, design, and the spiritual/cultural consequences of these, individual small handwork shops survived the Victorian Era, only dwindling in the years after the First World War. Ironically, it was the rise of the leisure class, made possible by just this industrialization, that ultimately lead to the ubiquitous amateur interests in the arts and crafts, and ultimately, to their preservation.

      William Bemrose was primarily a printer, who, along with his older brother, took over his father’s long established and successful Derbyshire publishing business in 1858. Several years earlier, the brothers had invented and manufactured a rotary perforating machine, one of which was sold to the United States Post Office to separate stamps printed on a large sheet. Like other successful entrepreneurs, Bemrose was interested in the art/craft concerns of his day and adopted their patronly attitude toward the less fortunate classes (and women), believing that craftwork, the genteel arts, was uplifting, morally and spiritually, if not, as continually evident, financially remunerative. He stated that the arts contributed to the elegance and adornment of [the] home, and subscribed to the Victorian notion of the place of women and their education. Bemrose collected porcelain and was on the council of the Royal Crown Porcelain Works and wrote Langton Hall Porcelain and several other books of local interest. He was honored by being elected to membership as a Fellow of The Society of Antiquaries (F.S.A.).

      With the burgeoning amateur interest in the crafts-mostly porcelain painting, embroidery, woodcarving, jewelry and metalwork, and hand-printing/book illustrating—schools were established, and as a natural corollary, instruction books were produced in numbers. The nineteenth-century fascination with historical styles, and thus the eclecticism of architecture and interior design, produced numerous pattern books, but they were not instructive in the usual process-oriented way. Some, like The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, published in 1856, exerted far-reaching and long-lasting influence. Certainly by the 1870s, the confidence engendered by the Great Exhibition had spread to all corners of Britain and America. Classes for the decoration of wood by carving, fretwork, and marquetry were being offered alongside drawing and painting by art schools to eager amateurs.

      It is to this audience that Bemrose directed these three books, and by noting the numerous editions of each, they must have been very good sellers. Having access to several earlier editions of A Manual of Wood Carving, it is with pleasure that I say that the one reprinted here is a culmination of many additions and revisions and the rant against the deceit and sham of veneered and poorly constructed furniture has been edited out by the author, as such concerns seemed to fade as art-furniture came to dominate artistic practice and some of the former controversies seemed settled. Though it is not clear at first the chronological relationships of the three editions reprinted here, they all seem to be similarly complete. A Manual of Wood Carving, the first of the three, had gone through a number of editions before Fret Cutting and Perforated Carving and Manual of Buhl-Work and Marquetry were published. The process of woodcarving requires more tools and has more complex techniques. True to his business instincts, Bemrose also sold via mail order the tools, equipment, and separate and additional patterns that he recommends in his books. No doubt Bemrose had some familiarity with the subjects he discusses and may have been an avid amateur himself. That he was not a trade carver or woodworker is beside the point. He had a credible understanding of craft, colored by the theories of Ruskin and others, to be sure, and purpose-driven, but he wrote with clarity: free from trade technicalities and lectures on art matters. [page 144]

      All three books consist of textual instructions and a collection of drawings appropriate to the process at hand. A Manual of Wood Carving, as far as I can discern, preceded the manuals of Hodgson, Leland, Hasluck, Jack, and Rowe, which may be familiar to traditional woodcarvers today (through reprints), but the basics are there. The reader familiar with the subjects will unconsciously update some of the terminology found in Bemrose. For example, diaper carving seems to be incised work with stippling, punching or diapering of the background, instead of the repeated (tessellated) wallpaper designs of the current use. He includes inlay in the carving text, merely because the inlay is enhanced by being surrounded by carved mouldings [page 20]. In similar fashion, Bemrose combines fretwork with perforated carving, cavalierly blurring or confusing the distinction; fretwork is usually a design cut through a relatively thin, flat material while perforated or pierced carving has voids or negative space and is three-dimensionally carved. He also combines Buhl-work (a method named for Andre Boulle [1642-1732]), which uses materials other than wood, such as brass, silver, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, and semi-precious stone) with marquetry.

      It is easy to be critical of the methods described and the language used to describe the methods, but the overall value of these manuals is beyond reproach. Even as freshly published works, they represented the continuum of craft, preserving and promoting it. Art/Design should provoke visual thinking; though most of

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