Complete Book of Shaker Furniture

I bought this book as a present. The receiver has really enjoyed the book and said it has exceptional drawings of the furniture.

"The Complete Book Of Shaker Furniture is DESTINED TO BECOME THE STANDARD IN ITS FIELD. A comprehensive survey of the entire 150-year range of Shaker design arranged to show the works of 14 Shaker communities, it combines lavish illustrations, including 117 in full color, informative background essays, updated research largely based on original sources, and detailed construction analyses....." [from the book of the front flap]

I'm obsessed with Shaker furnitue and architecture. I'll get around to reviewing all of my books in time. I think I have every Shaker book printed! This one isn't "Complete" but there's an aweful lot in here. I look at "complete" more or less as meaning "most" variety of furniture. I didn't take it literally. This is one book that gives a lot of weight to Shaker built-ins as well. Of which I'm trying to re-create so I've been referencing this book a lot lately. I do have other books, some of which focus more on details and drawings with potential variety in drawer configurations for example, others more on color and simple photos etc. So far it 's been one of my favorites in terms of the wide variety of material it contains. An overall wonderful photo and text reference to existing furniture.

Probably because it is one of the newer books on Shaker furniture, this one seems to be the most accurate on the provenance of the many surviving Shaker items. It appears they have done an excellent job of deciphering where a piece was made regardless which village it was found. THERE IS WARNING HOWEVER! Don't be fooled by what they mean by "The Complete Book." They use the word complete to mean, that in addition to covering the "Shaker Golden Years" of 1830 to around 1850, they have included items from the 18th to the 20th century. With approximately 400 beautiful illustrations, they can't possibly cover every important piece of Shakerdom. To my disappointment, they did not discuss the particular 12 to 20 foot benches of two slightly differing styles that I have seen pictured in the meeting room at Sabathday Lake. Nor did they show the small wall clock at Sabathday Lake that I wanted to know about.The authors certainly accomplished their goals of descibing the various, differing forms used by the different locatations over the approximate 150 years covered.For me the final test is, would I buy it again -- Abosolutely.