Mission Furniture

Consider one example - a large and complicated sideboard: after a long list of the "stock needed" and a small sketch of a portion of the sideboard, the bookk simply says "A detailed description is hardly necessary for such a piece of work as this. Anyone capable of building it, will know the order of the different operations that are required in its construction". That's it. I am an accomplished furniture builder who can make a sideboard, but this is not helpful at all- the partial measurements and partial drawing are so content free you need to completely lay it out yourself - and then what is the point of the book? Old catalogs with similar black and white sketches and rough measurements will provide as much information as this book.

The key to a woodworking book publishing old designs is the quality of the plans. In this instance the plans are pretty good, and the author used color to help the reader distinguish parts. The disappointment comes from the age of the designs; that is, the tables et al are obviously made in an era when wood was cheap - at least compared to today. The amount of materials used for most of the projects is truly prodigious. Legs on some of the side tables take up more material than the top (for example).Still, it is a book of old designs and you can alter them to use less material or update the design to be a bit more "modern" without too much trouble. The finishing advice is totally out of date and the materials used to finish the wood are substandard compared to modern finishing materials. See Bob Flexner's book on Finishing for top notch advice on that subject. That book is also available on Kindle.Since the book I purchased is a Kindle edition I worried about being able to pull up the plans to a size that was readable. There was no problem. The plans easily expand to a more than full screen size and you can move around over the plans and see them very well in most cases. I have a Kindle Fire so the color in the plans really helped.AD2

This book is a reproduction of three Popular Mechanics Magazine publications from before WW I, at the height of the Mission furniture craze. It includes about 100 projects. Each one consists of a parts list, one to two pages of text (a total of about 200-500 words), a black-and-white shaded drawing of the finished piece of furniture (sort of like a bad photo) and minimalist plans. The plans are simple front and side elevations. Don't expect exploded views like one would find in a modern woodworking magazine.A paragraph from the text for a five-drawer dresser/mirror combination is illustrative of the brevity of much of the instructions:QUOTE: In working up the various parts, proceed in the usual manner. If not thoroughly familiar with the various tool processes involved, it will be necessary to investigate pieces of nearby furniture and to read up some good text dealing with the processes involved.In other words, don't buy this book if you are a novice woodworker looking to have your hand held, step-by-step through the construction process.What one really gets with the purchase of this book are two things. First, an interesting look at turn-of-the-century America and the arts & crafts period, from the perspective of a middle-class magazine for home craftsmen. Second, one gets a collection of designs for generic mission or arts & crafts furniture. To me, the vast majority of the designs are unappealing. At best, they seem just a little off target, as though a high-school woodshop class student were given an assignment to make an original mission furniture piece. However, there are a few interesting pieces.I bought this book because I buy *EVERYTHING* about Stickley/Mission/Roycroft furniture. I do not regret the purchase, but I will probably never make any of the projects, and if I did I would have to spend a half a day (at least) making production drawings of the parts for the furniture.

I agree with most of Donald C. Thompson's review, but wanted to add a few points.If you are not skilled at making furniture, this is not the book for you, because the descriptions on how to make each project consists solely of a parts list, plus two to three small paragraphs. In some instances the plans are not accurate. If you are looking for examples of mission furniture, this is a good overview, but the pictures/illustrations are barely legible and there are many other much better books.In regards to the binding, this book is of substandard quality. Paying $18-24 for the hardcover version is not suggested. The binding is that of a cheap child's textbook with a plastic feel. After opening the book about 4-6 times, the binding is already showing stress. I would suggest purchasing the paperback version for about $10. I have a huge library of furniture books and furniture plans. As a note, this is one of many recent books I have purchased that are now printed and bound in China. I purchase all my books when possible in hardcover format to make them last longer, however in almost every instance of a hardcover book bound in China, I have been disappointed. The bindings break very easily on most of these books.

Accurate, systematic information about style, methods and finishing is all included. With this book it is possible to recreate one of the most interesting periods of furniture-making - try it for yourself!

This book is worthless. Save your money. There are no pictures, diagrams, drawings or sketches. This is a computer file, printed out and bound as a book. In the file there must be pictures but they didn't come across in the printout.

My wife and I are trying to decorate our new house with Mission style stuff. The problem? We have different ideas on what is "mission." I bought this older book to use as an argument arbitrator. (Didn't want 36 years of blissful marriage to end on a furnishings argument!)

on time, very good

Great historical book to get ideas from. Had trouble with some of the old product references but, awesome information here.

i like the pictures