The Guide To Trade - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker by James Devlin - 1839
I love to delve into old books about the craft, two of my favourites are the Village Carpenter by Walter Rose and The Wheelwrights Shop by George Sturt. I enjoy these so much as they are first person accounts of what a trade really looked like at that particular moment. Combining both a knowledge of a trade and being able to write atmospherically but not in an overtly wistfully style is a very hard job indeed. I highly recommend these books, both are still widely available second hand.
As well as physical books, I'll also look for books that are freely available on Google books. One title I found was very interesting. The Guide To Trade - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker by James Devlin - 1839, published by Charles Knight. It’s a very unusual little book.
The authorship of the book is credited to James Devlin, interestingly Devlin seems to of been a “Boot-Closer” by trade and wrote “The Shoemaker” which Knight published in 1838. Both the “The Shoemaker” and “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” seem to be part of quite large series of small affordable books aimed at working and middle class, titled “The Guide to Trade”. There was also a shorter collection called “Guide to Service”.
Devlin seems to cut an unusual figure in reference to his work on The Joiner and Cabinet Maker (if indeed he did write it, I think it unlikely he did). Knight, his publisher, seemd to reached out to people from working backgrounds to write about their vocation. Although Devlin may not of wrote “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker”, he is quoted as saying “I may safely say, that I have never found writing, beyond the pleasure derivable from the thing itself, of any advantage’. And as a “Boot-Closer”, what qualified Devlin to write about a trade he didn’t work in? He stayed within his own trade and appears to of not authored anything else that's in the public domain.
Perhaps if Devlin did write the piece, a friend or relative that was in the Joinery and Cabinet Making trade gave information and Devlin, as a writer, used their ability to create a narrative articulate the friend or relatives experience? The books within this series more broadly, (The Joiner and Cabinet Maker is no exception) have a strange cadence. On one hand they feel aimed at young people, they could be considered careers advice or self help of some kind. But this is where the book has a bit of a split personality. There is what I feel to be to much technical information for it to be aimed just at children.
Perhaps I’m being unkind thinking that way, but trying to remember being a child most of it would of gone over my head. I think it’s fairest to think of it as guide for an apprentice in both expected behaviour, with a liberal dusting of technical detail. For instance there is advanced and accurate discussion presented on how to use the cap iron on easy working deal or interlocked mahogany. In the book it’s called a blunt iron, a term I’d not heard before. With a bit of digging, it seems these books were aimed at “Schools and Families”
The setting is a workshop within a Town. It's impossible to say how large of a town it was imagined to be. My hunch is was likely at least a medium sized town. It would be unusual for a small rural setting to be just a Joiner and Cabinet Makers (although I’m sure there were a good few).Even speaking with retired people who were in the carpentry and joinery trade, more than one has spoken of polishing coffins as an apprentice job. Most rural workshops were often a combination or all of undertakers, carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights and builders all rolled into one. Quite a range of skilled people! Perhaps the Thomas character was portrayed as being from good sized town?
It did make me feel reflective and I couldn’t help but overlay my experience as an apprentice with that of Thomas’. Clearly there are huge differences but, most notably that Thomas had to survey jobs for workers! That's a lot of pressure for a child. But also other aspects were familiar. How experimenting with offcuts and tools gets you the feel of things in the workshop.
This book continues to reaffirm typical processes that were performed by hand during the time. Read from a fictional story but overlaid with accurate guidance on how joints were formed in this book is a good guide on what you would of expected to see within typical 19th Century workshops.
If you want to go on the full journey, it is possible to use this as a guide for yourself as you explore the craft of woodworking from an early 19th Century perspective. You don’t have to dress up and turn off the electricity to get the experience. Following the text and experimenting with your hand tools would surely be great fun. Depending on how much time I find myself with, I’d love to give this a go at some point. There is enough information provided to make the packing case, dovetailed box and chest of drawers.
The whole series of books “The Guide to Trade” seems to of largely disappeared. This is a shame as there is some very interesting information held within this particular book. I’m sure others would yield very interesting nuggets of information. I still have questions I want to answer. Namely did James Devlin actually write the book (unlikely)? Does that even matter? No. Quite simply, this book is a bit of fun for the modern era general reader or woodworker and at just over one hundred pages you will be able to devour it quickly.
I am also aware that Lost Art Press have made taken their own journey with this book. I’m so pleased that they did. They produce good work and have given this book a new lease of life. I have kept away from any of their information and I don’t own their book on The Joiner and Cabinet Maker. I just didn’t want my journey with this piece to be influenced by theirs. However, I noticed a while back they are offering this as a free audio book. You can find more information here.
Research Sources;
How to Observe: Morals and Manners By Harriet Martineau. Scroll to the bottom for a full list of titles within “The Guide To Trade”
The Guide to Trade: The Joiner and Cabinet Maker. Enjoy the story for yourself
The Common Writer: Life in Nineteenth Century Grub Street. Discovering more about the possible author James Devlin, Charles Knight his Publisher, and finding out about writers from the trades writing books.