Excellent study by distinguished historian examines lives and work of American craftsmen in the years before the Revolution — cabinetmakers, silversmiths, pewterers, printers, painters, engravers, blacksmiths, button-makers, shipwrights, and many more. "A fascinating study not only of the work of the 18th-century American artisan but of his place in pre-Revolutionary society." — The New Yorker. 18 illustrations.

Describes the shops, working methods, and products of the different types of tradesmen and craftsmen who shaped the early American economy.

Profiles the lives of those who worked as craftsmen in colonial America, including apprentices, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, silversmiths, wigmakers, and printers.

Historical account of the work of colonial craftsmen. Chapters are devoted to workers in wood, cabinetmakers, clockmakers, glassmakers, pewterers, porcelain and pottery makers.

Thomas Dennis emigrated to America from England in 1663, settling in Ipswich, a Massachusetts village a long day's sail north of Boston. He had apprenticed in joinery, the most common method of making furniture in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain. He set up shop in the heart of the village and during his lifetime became a highly accomplished craftsman. Today, connoisseurs judge his elaborately carved furniture as among the best produced in seventeenth-century America. In this unusual study, historian and woodworker Robert Tarule brilliantly recreates Dennis's world in recounting how -- from selecting and cutting trees to polishing the assembled piece -- he created a single oak chest.