Product Description

A visual tour of 150 pieces of classic Shaker furniture. The book covers: Shaker history and philosophy; cases; chairs; benches and stools; tables and stands; built-ins; desks; beds; and clocks. The photographs feature the pieces "in situ" in real Shaker communities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286942 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent book, with more depth than usual
An excellent book by the leading expert on the Shaker's furniture. The book is in two sections; a historical survey of the Shaker movement, and photographs of museum pieces.

The history of the Shakers is well presented, with just the right amount of detail to explain their principles of design and their geographical organisation. It's not a full history or theological description of the movement, nor is it intended as one, but it explains a lot more than th eusual furniture book. Some description of modern designs with Shaker influences, particularly from Danmark, is also welcome.

The furniture is illustrated by large clear colour photographs, usually one per page, with a simple description and most valuably, their date and origin. This is one of the few books I've seen that illustrated the range of coloured finishes found on Shaker pieces.

This is not a constructional guide to reproducing Shaker pieces. There are any number of such books, from Thomas Moser's (somewhat surpassed) "How To Build Shaker Furniture" and Ejner Handberg's valuable series of volumes of bare measured drawings to Fine Woodworking's "In the Shaker Style". Anyone serious about reproducing Shaker pieces though, or understanding the style's development enough to be able to design their own stylistically consistent pieces, would certainly benefit from reading it.

Photography and production values are as good as ever from Taunton.

Beautiful and well-written
The Shaker Legacy does several things beautifully. First there is the history of the Shakers which looks at the sect as a part of the history of our country and of the expansion of the European culture westward. Next there is the comprehension of the intense feelings which attended the creation of furnishings used by this unusual group. Further there is a delightful section which compares the influences of what we think of as Shaker Style with other spare and pristine styles from Norway to Japan and back to America. Finally there are the photos of familiar and of never before photographed pieces which bespeak the dedication of the creators. From these photos a competent woodworker could design his or her own tribute to the Shaker Legacy. Truly a pleasure to read and to return to time and time again.

A wonderful compilation of Shaker history and design.
Christian Becksvoort's book is a bit surprising in that the first third of the book (a full ninety pages) addresses Shaker philosophy more than furniture design itself, but the reading is well worth it. Each piece of furniture is shown by only one (terrific) photograph and is accompanied by very limited information. Additional pictures of some of the construction details would have been well worth it. Having read the book, however, one should be able to understand the Shaker philosophy of furniture design well enough to develop the construction details in an authentic manner.