This book is included in the Self Reliance Shelter section.
Introductory Observations
The very great improvement which the arcs and manufactures of this country have attained, within the last fifty
years, renders it essential that every person engaged therein should use his utmost endeavours to obtain a
perfect knowledge of the trade or art which he professes to follow. The workmen of the last century were,
comparatively speaking, with but few exceptions, mechanical beings, who worked by rule, unguided by any scientific
principles, and followed step by step the beaten track of their ancestors.
The workmen of the present day have the road of science opened for them; the clue of knowledge is unwound to
the inquiring mind; but unless industry and perseverance accompany them in the pursuit of information, they will
never obtain sufficient to justify a pretension even to a medium knowledge of the principles of their respective arts.
These remarks apply to scientific and mechanical professions generally; but to the cabinet-maker and upholsterer
they attach with peculiar force. It is not enough for a person following either of these branches of domestic
decoration to have attained the character of a good workman, that being now considered a mere negative phrase,
implying only that quantum of excellence which consists in following implicitly the directions of others, or imitating
with neatness and accuracy their details and plans. In a business where change and caprice rule with unbounded
sway, in which the fashion of to-day may become obsolete to-morrow, and in which novelty forms the greatest
recommendation—an inventive genius and a discriminating judgment are, certainly, essential qualifications; and if
the young workman ever feels the least ambition to excel, or entertains a wish to rise above the bench, he will find
them to be not only essential, but actually indispensable.
In this business, as well as in many others, the workman who understands the principles of his trade, and applies
them correctly in practice, has a decided advantage over his fellow-workmen; and if to his superior knowledge he
add a steadiness of manner and industrious habits, his endeavours cannot fail to secure approbation, while his
worth will be certainly and duly appreciated.
If, then, in order to secure constant employment—the only means of insuring comfort to himself and family—it is
essential that the workman should excel, how much more must it behoove the person who superintends a business
of the kind to be fully acquainted with every department of the business? for how can any one pretend to direct
others who is himself in need of information? Nor is this all; it will often fall to his province to sketch out new designs,
or to alter or improve those in present use. If his employer, or a respectable customer, should not approve of the
fashion or ornamental embellishment of any new article of furniture submitted to their approbation, a
superintendent would feel himself sadly at a loss, if he could neither sketch out the improvements or alterations
which his own genius might suggest, nor imbody those pointed out by others.
Again; the researches of the chemist are daily adding to a stock of information valuable to every department of the
arts and sciences. Among these, the cabinet-maker and upholsterer will find many peculiarly serviceable—witness
the modern improvements in cements, varnishes, gilding, polishing, and every other part of ornamental decoration.
The experience of few, indeed, is sufficiently extensive to enable them to store their minds with one-tenth part of the
information which has been published to the world on these heads. A work, therefore, which contains the most
approved receipts, and from which the workman will be enabled to select those applicable to his purpose, will be
appreciated as equally useful and necessary.
This work, a fifth time submitted to the public under the title of "The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Companion," is
intended as a book of useful information to the apprentice, a work of real utility to the workman, and a manual of
experimental reference to the trade generally. It does not profess to give diffuse instructions how to make a table, a
chair, or any similar article of furniture: that would be not only superfluous and unnecessary, but a vain attempt.
Practice only—and that under good instruction—can make a good workman or a neat finisher. Our aim has been to
produce a work which shall give those instructions which are not always to be met with in every one's practice, but
which are not the less essential to be known by every workman.
To make our work useful, and easy of reference, we have adopted the popular plan of dividing the subjects into
distinct parts, and of again subdividing them under their proper heads. This will enable any one to trace out any
particular direction or receipt with facility, and show, generally at one view, all we have to say upon the subject.
Part I. comprises the rudiments and principles of ornamental cabinet-making and upholstery generally; and contains
plain and familiar instructions, exemplified by easy examples, for attaining a proficiency in the art of drawing,
particularly that department applicable to the cabinet-maker and upholsterer. In this part, we have endeavoured to
lead the student, step by step, from first principles to the more determinate forms; and, by placing before his view
the progressive examples, to render the attainment of this useful art equally speedy and certain.
We have not only endeavoured, in this part, to practise the pupil in such a familiar and progressive manner as to
render it a pleasing recreation, rather than an abstract study; but we have also laid down the most approved
principles for the development and exercise of his inventive faculties, in the practice of the ornamental department
of his art, and to lay before him such elegant and classic designs, and such modern examples of furniture, as will
lead him instinctively to form a style at once chaste and appropriate.
Part II. comprises the processes of veneering, inlaying, and finishing in buhl-work the ornamental decorations used
in cabinetwork. In this part, such directions are given as experience has warranted to be most certain of properly
and successfully performing the embellishment in a neat and complete manner. The materials best adapted for the
purpose are also pointed out, and the cements and glues most suited for this kind of work described.
Part III. comprises dyeing and staining wood, ivory, bone, tortoise-shell, musical instruments, and all other
manufactured articles; with the processes of silvering, gilding, and bronzing. In this, we have laid down the most
approved directions for the selection of the wood or other articles best adapted for the required process; the
method of preparing it, and the dye or stain best calculated to give it the desired colour; and in the silvering, gilding,
and bronzing, nothing has been omitted which modern improvement has added to perfect in these branches the
highest style of brilliancy.
Part IV. comprises lackering, japanning, varnishing, and polishing every article of cabinet and upholstery work; and
contains all the improved processes practised in each of their departments, including India japanning and the
French polishing; together with plain directions for making and employing the best and most brilliant lackers, japans,
and varnishes, according to the receipts of the most celebrated manufacturers.
Part V. contains glues, cement, and compositions for filling up and ornamenting articles of furniture; and a
considerable number of miscellaneous receipts—the result of experience, or selected from the writings of the most
approved authors and the more scientific works.
Such is the outline of its contents. As to its merits, we submit our opinion to the test of a discerning public, in the
confident expectation that the "Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Companion" will soon find a place in every factory
and workshop, and be the companion of every intelligent workman.
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