Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Jacques in Cinci

>You can get reprints from Archambault. They have stores in Montreal and Quebec if you happen to be north of the border.

They also have a website. Search google for the name. I would expect the site to be in both French and English but I don't know for sure.

I've been to the stores a couple times this year and seen the softbound copies and the shelves. As you said nice prints. The stores are much better than Borders or Barnes and Noble.

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

joel

>That certainly cannot be the entire book - maybe just the illustrations?

I have the facsimile that was printed about 10 years ago and it's huge - 3 volumes about 2ft high x 14" deep x 20 inches long.

THe text, what I can understand of it (not mich) is really interesting. there are lots of illustrations of tools that I have no idea what they are for, and some highly specialized tools too.

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Jacques in Cinci

>Joel, at the time they had several copies of the same volume on their shelves. I leafed through it a bit. It was about 2/3rds text and 1/3rd plates. The book was softbound and slightly oversized maybe 12 by 16 inches. Old French text tedious to read, like reading middle English. I did not pay much attention at the time but it was only one volume in a set of at least 6-7 books.

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

John Aniano in NJ

>Jacques,

OK, which one of the several Roubo volumes on the Archambault web site relates to woodworking, the one entitled "Le Menuisier �b�niste", right? What subjects do the other Roubo volumes cover?

My French isn't worth much; neither is my German, and I took 3 years of that language in high school!

Thanks,

John

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

joel

>Sounds like they did repreint the entire book, maybe slightly smaller than full size but reasonably big, in a series of volumes as opposed to my hardbound copy which has BTW a lot of foldout illustrations.

All the volumes relate to one part of woodworking or another. the orignal was 4 large volumes which in my set was rebound to 3 larger volumes and in this paperbound sounds like 6 or seven volumes.

If you are interested in the period and if you can get a set don't pass it up.

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier... *LINK*

Frank D.

>Hi John,

They have 5 volumes:

Le Menuisier en meubles

Le Menuisier �b�niste

Le Menuisier en batiment

Le menuisier carossier

Le menuisier des jardins

Jardins (gardens) and carossier (carriagemaker) probably won't have the bench. Batiment is building construction (i.e. finish carpentry I guess). That leaves �b�niste and meubles. Meubles is furniture (good chance to find a bench in there). �b�niste is also, in modern French, a furniture or cabinet maker, but I suspect here it might mean someone who applied �bony (i.e. veneer, inlay etc) while building furniture (Boule was an �b�niste because he often applied ebony over entire pieces made of oak or poplar). Hard to say which of these two volumes would contain the bench. When were these books written? Maybe Adam or someone familiar with the history of furnituremaking would be able to sort out the two terms (�b�niste and menuisier en meubles).

Hope this helps a little,

Frank D. in Montreal


Roubo books at Archambault

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Rick Hoppe (Los Angeles)

>According to my 10lb Larousse French Dictionary, �b�niste means "cabinetmaker", �b�nisterie is "cabinetmaking",

menuisier means "joiner" and menuiserie is "joinery". Veneer is "placage" and woodwork is "boiseries".

So much for today's French lesson.

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Frank D.

>Hi Rick,

You are absolutely correct, except the French term "�b�niste" didn't mean the same thing in the 17th and 18th centuries. The French cabinetmakers, taking after the Dutch, started using ebony (among other materials) to veneer furniture. This was actually, if I'm not mistaken, a specialized trade. The "�b�nistes" veneered and inlayed furniture in a team with other "menuisiers en meubles". Over time the term "�b�niste" took on a different meaning, expanding to mean cabinetmakers in general (and not just specialists of veneering).

The French term menuisier also used to mean joiner. Over time and still today it means "finish carpenter." Framer in modern French became "charpentier" (which resembles the English "carpenter").

That's why I was saying that if the book was written a good while ago, there is a good chance that "�b�niste" refers to someone who specializes in veneering (furnituremaking in general would probably be in the book "menuisier de meubles": furniture joiner).

But I'm not a historian...

Frank D. (Francois Desaulniers) in Montreal

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier... *LINK*

Mark Harrison -- in Sydney, Australia

>Not that it helps you but I saw a first edition for sale earlier this you and I'm absolutely sure that it was waaaaaay less than $9500. See the link below for Hans Brunner's (the dealer's) gallery page and look down at the bottom for a photo.


http://www.hansbrunnertools.gil.com.au/gallery.htm

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Rick Hoppe (Los Angeles)

>Bonjour Francois!

Vouz avez raison!

Alors, comment on fait(au clavier) les accents au-dessus des voyelles?

(pardon mon francais, mais il faut me pratiquer!)

Rick

Check your email Rick

Frank D.

>

Re: Finding Roubo's L'Art du Menuisier...

Ernie Miller Topeka

>What is with the French and there obsession with plates of the trades. Yester day I was at a book sale and picked up volume 2 of ( A Diderot Pictoral Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry 485 plates selected from L Encyclopedie of Denis Dederot) eddited by Charles Gillispie I wish the had volume 1 as it had more of the woodworking trades but full of great plates mostly glass and textiles but it also has coach making and stone work and bridge building. I think the prints are from the 16 &1700'S i THINK IT WAS A BARGIN AT $2.50