The Shaker Legacy: Perspectives on an Enduring Furniture Style [Hardcover]

Christian Becksvoort (Author), John Sheldon (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

Solid construction and honest functionality make Shaker furniture one of the most popular and timeless design categories. Based on extensive research and personal experience with the last working Shaker community in Maine, this book traces the roots of Shaker design to Shaker belief, which inspired the clean lines, careful craftsmanship, and signature details that define the style. The author also discusses the less known Victorian period of Shaker design and shows how this style has influenced subsequent ones. A bibliography, glossary, and index are included.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many appreciate the clean, simple lines of traditional Shaker furniture, yet few know the people behind the designs or the spiritual beliefs that play such an integral part in both their work and daily lives. In his book, The Shaker Legacy: Perspectives on an Enduring Furniture Style, author Christian Becksvoort, a contributing editor of Fine Woodworking magazine and an experienced custom furniture maker and restorer who's worked for the last remaining Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, examines the Shakers' faith in relation to their furniture. Becksvoort believes that "understanding Shaker furniture requires understanding the faith of the people who created it." Their religious practices--the constant striving for spiritual perfection in everything they did, the desire to emulate Christ and to live practically, "purely, free of vanity, greed, and pride"--permeate Becksvoort's insightful discussions of the Shaker culture, their recognized inventiveness (inventions include the circular saw, apple peeler, wash mill, and chimney cap), their influence on other furniture styles, and finally the furniture itself, which is the focal point of the book. Highly perfected, free of vain ornamentation, and utterly utilitarian, the furniture is indeed the Shaker faith in physical form. In addition to covering the classics--including the ladder-back chair, trestle table, and the built-in--Becksvoort points out subtle variations in design that existed from community to community: the curved, cutout base of a case of drawers was typical for the communities in Ohio, while bevel-edged drawer lips and straight, tapered feet on a blanket box point to the Mount Lebanon community. Becksvoort's intelligent account of the Shakers and their furniture, combined with hundreds of full-color photographs, taken on location at various communities and pulled from archives, make The Shaker Legacy a beautiful tribute to these talented craftsmen and their enduring design. --Stefanie Hargreaves

About the Author

Becksvoort builds custom furniture for well-known Shaker collectors.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press; 1ST edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561582182
• ISBN-13: 978-1561582181
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #764,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and well-written, April 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shaker Legacy: Perspectives on an Enduring Furniture Style (Hardcover)

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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly excellent, August 10, 2005

By 

Oavde "oavde" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shaker Legacy: Perspectives on an Enduring Furniture Style (Hardcover)

This is a truly excellent book that should be on the shelves of all who work with wood, even those of you who, like myself, are not particularly keen on shaker furniture.

The first part of the book overviews the Shakers and their attitudes to working with wood, their seeking of elegant simplistic functional beauty and their enjoyment of the process of working with wood - these are an inspiration to the modern woodworker, all of whom I suspect share the same enjoyment of the process and attention to detail, regardless of their chosen style. The Shakers themselves are quite interesting, and their attitudes of constantly improving and making work easier, more joyful and freeing time for better pursuits than toil are a mantra we all should live by, perhaps. Although the Shakers were very minimalist, I believe many other great craftsmen of the past shared their attitudes and enjoyment of the process of making furniture.

The second part of the book details many fine examples of Shaker furniture. These are great items, well made, well designed, and even if the style is not your preferred one, they still may inspire you.

Note that it is NOT a "how-to" book as another reviewer pointed out, although if you have some skill you could easily reproduce the items in it ? more importantly, be inspired by them.

I have an extraordinary library of woodworking and furniture books covering all styles and all ages and I would definetely recommend this one as being in the top 10% - but I have to stress, it is not a how-to book, look elsewhere if you are looking for that.

Finally, thanks to all the other reviewers here who convinced me to purchase it, I had seen it in the shops before but passed it over (not preferring Shaker style). I will now go tick all your reviews as being helpful.

Did I mention it is absolutely full of colour photos, sidebars of interesting information and very readable and interesting?

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful compilation of Shaker history and design., September 24, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shaker Legacy: Perspectives on an Enduring Furniture Style (Hardcover)

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.