Cover design after engraving from Diderot.


Contributions From
The Museum of History and Technology:

Paper 51








Woodworking Tools, 1600–1900

Peter C. Welsh


Peter C Welsh



WOODWORKING TOOLS
1600–1900

This history of woodworking hand tools from the 17th to the 20thcentury is one of a very gradual evolution of tools throughgenerations of craftsmen. As a result, the sources of changes indesign are almost impossible to ascertain. Published sources,moreover, have been concerned primarily with the object shaped bythe tool rather than the tool itself. The resulting scarcity ofinformation is somewhat compensated for by collections in museumsand restorations.

In this paper, the author spans three centuries in discussing thespecialization, configuration, and change of woodworking tools inthe United States.

The Author: Peter C. Welsh is curator, Growth of the UnitedStates, in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History andTechnology.

In 1918, PROFESSOR W.M.F. PETRIE concluded a brief article on "Historyin Tools" with a reminder that the history of this subject "has yet tobe studied," and lamented the survival of so few precisely datedspecimens. What Petrie found so discouraging in studying the implementsof the ancient world has consistently plagued those concerned with toolsof more recent vintage. Anonymity is the chief characteristic of handtools of the last three centuries. The reasons are many: first, the toolis an object of daily use, subjected while in service to hard wear and,in some cases, ultimate destruction; second, a tool's usefulness is aptto continue through many years and through the hands of severalgenerations of craftsmen, with the result that its origins become lost;third, the achievement of an implement of demonstrated proficiencydictated against radical, and therefore easily datable, changes in shapeor style; and fourth, dated survivals needed to establish a range offirm control specimens for the better identification of unknowns,particularly the wooden elements of tools—handles, moldings, and planebodies—are frustratingly few in non-arid archaeological sites. Whentracing the provenance of American tools there is the additional problemof heterogeneous origins and shapes—that is, what was the appearanceof a given tool prior to its standardization in England and the UnitedStates? The answer requires a brief summary of the origin of selectedtool shapes, particularly th

...

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!


Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!