18th century AD

Magazine Antiques, May, 1994 by James M. Gaynor

Popular myth, originating in our romantic view of hand craftsmanship, has led us to believe that most early American cabinetmakers worked with a very limited assortment of tools, since they were expensive and hard to get. It has also been believed that these tools were primitive and their limitations were overcome only by extraordinary skill and an almost spiritual devotion to creating sublime furniture. While there can be no doubt that many cabinetmakers were very skilled, these notions about their tools are far from accurate.

Eighteenth-century woodworking tools were the culmination of thousands of years of experimentation and refinement. Just to handle a saw, plane, or chisel from this period reveals how comfortable and superbly balanced these tools are. A closer examination discloses the careful attention paid to mechanical details and aesthetic quality (see Pl. 1). Many tools were made in a large variety of types and sizes. In addition to general-purpose tools, there were highly specialized implements for tasks such as measuring and marking, boring holes, forming joints, turning on a lathe, carving, and shaping moldings. A multitude of jigs increased the speed and precision of specific operations. In the hands of skilled artisans, eighteenth-century tools were incredibly efficient.

By the mid-eighteenth century, toolmaking in England was a major industry, supplying international as well as domestic markets. Reasonably priced English tools of high quality were available to most American cabinetmakers, either by direct order from England or from local storekeepers in America. Cabinetmakers also obtained competently made tools from local makers, who ranged from general blacksmiths to specialized plane makers. Indeed, plane makers were among the earliest specialized toolmakers in America, and by the end of the eighteenth century, they could be found in a number of New England and Middle Atlantic locales (see Pls. V and XII). Cabinetmakers also had the skills to fashion the wooden components of many of their own tools, and they usually made squares, gauges, tool handles, jigs, tool chests, lathes, benches, and other shop furnishings that were not commercially available (see Pl. IV). It was not unusual for a complete mid- to late eighteen-century cabinetmaker's or joiner's kit to contain several hundred sophisticated tools (see Pl. VIII).

Mardun V. Eventon (d. 1778 or 1779) of Chesterfield County, Virginia, advertised in the Williamsburg Virginia Gazette for August 22, 1777:

WANTS Employment, and is now at Leisure, a Master Workman in the various Branches of the Cabinet Business, chinese, gotick, carving, and turning ... I have an elegant Assortment of Tools, and Books of Architect, which I imported from London, and Liverpool

The advertisement is unusual because Eventon thought it worthwhile to mention his tools and note their elegance. The evidently hoped that they were indicative not only of the quality and variety of work he could produce, but also of his taste. The fact that he had imported his tools from England himself emphasized his urbane background and probably was intended to imply that his cabinetwork also met the English standards so admired by Virginians. The mention of "Books of Architect" tools in their own right, reflected Eventon's knowledge of fashion and design. The few surviving pieces of furniture made by Eventon show that he may have exaggerated his skills and understanding of fashion,(*) but his implication that tools influenced the nature and quality of eighteenth-century furniture was well grounded.

There has almost always been a give and take relationship between products and the tools used to make them. On the one hand, the capabilities of existing tools and an artisan's accustomed ways of using them influence the design and consumption of Ids products. On the other hand, consumer demands for more, improved, or entirely new products motivate toolmakers to create new tools and artisans to develop new tool-using techniques to make the manufacturing process easier. Both of these forces were at work in the eighteenth century.

The emergence of the cabinetmaking trade during the early eighteenth century illustrates the interplay between tools and products. As customers desired more refined and highly finished furniture, artisans began to make case pieces by dove-tailing together wide boards rather than constructing them using the older panel-and-frame technique favored by joiners. This approach to case pieces, as well as other new furniture forms, prompted a number of developments in tool designs, including the manufacture of thinner and finer-toothed saws and the refinement of specialized planes for cutting joints. Innovations in decorative techniques led to the introduction of new molding planes and to the increased availability of carving tools (see Pl. III). The growing popularity of veneer created demand for tools with which to cut and apply it (see Pl. XV). Cabinetmakers who wished to manufacture fashionable furniture at competitive prices found they had to acquire at least some of these implements.