The Craft of Smithing

[ThomasPowers]

I've been reading the companion book to the BBC's Victorian Farm series and ran across something I thought was interesting in a discussion on craftsmanship and the extreme localism of it:  At one time the craftsman was also the designer of items they made.  I believe this held on in smithing longer than some of the other crafts; pattern books for wood workers showed up in substantial numbers when I'm still cudgeling my brain to think of Blacksmithing examples.    Moxon's "Mechanicks Exercises" does have an example of a clockwork cooking spit turner; but not a large number of examples like the woodworkers  of the American Colonial period had, (example: Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director,1754; George Hepplewhite's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide,1788 and Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book,1793,)  Does anyone know of similar works for smiths that predate the 19th century?

The idea of the craftsman being also the designer  would seem to associate the role of "artist" to many of them  as well in the old hand, head, heart trichotomy....

Already answered my own question:

English decorative ironwork from contemporary source books, 1610-1836 : a collection of drawings and pattern books including.

A new book of drawings / by John Tijou, 1693.

A new book of iron work / by J. Jores, 1756.

The smith's right hand / by W. & J. Welldon, 1765.

Ornamental iron work / by I. & J. Taylor c. 1795.

A book of designs / by J. Bottomley, 1793, etc.

I have a feeling that these are rather high end objects and the general smithing was still based on the smith's experience in their location.  (have to wait till the book arrives and I hope to read it over the Christmas holiday.)

[JHCC]

Chippendale's, Hepplewhite's, and Sheraton's books were all for high-class cabinetmakers; I suspect that the majority of general woodworkers would have been working in their local vernacular, just like your local smith. 

[Farmall]

Thanks Thomas for the book name - I, too, am curious about early iron and have now ordered a copy of the book as well.  I have some of the pattern books already (as I am sure you do) like Joseph Smith's "Explanation or Key to the Various Manufactories of Sheffield", so this book looks like it will be quite a treat.  There is some discussion of local English blacksmithing such as nailers, in Elihu Burritt's "Walks in the Black Country" as well as a brief mention of the Peter Wright anvil foundry...., there is also the book "With Hammer in Hand: The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton, New York". I enjoyed it especially for the tooling descriptions and the work from the Dominy's.  With Hammer in Hand is probably the most specific to a particular smith book that I am aware of.  Lastly, I would assume you have seen the books "Iron at Winterthur" and Don Plummer's "Colonial Wrought Iron, the Sorber Collection and "To Draw, Upset, and Weld: The Work of the Pennsylvania Rural Blacksmith, 1742-1935" by Jeannette Lasansky.  I am fortunate to live near Colonial Williamsburg, so I spend a lot of time discussing and researching the colonial smithing with their help.  They have pointed me to many of these titles.  I know my library is not as voluminous as yours, especially in the early arms making titles about the halberds, armour, pikes, swords, etc, but I hope this response is helpful as is many of yours.

[Farmall]

Just got my copy of "English Decorative Ironwork from Contemporary Source Books, 1610-1836" and it looks very interesting.  Not going to take long to read, but will take quite a while to review.  While it is 184 pages long, only 18 pages more or less have reading material - the remaining 168 pages are just illustrations of the ironwork. Some amazing work in the few illustrations I have looked at.  

Again, thank you Thomas for the reference.  Good stuff.

[ThomasPowers]

I got my copy today too, as mentioned like most "pattern books" it's mainly engravings of things they have made like one section has 60 fence designs not to mention some of Tijou's excessively excessive gates earlier in the book.   The stuff they were doing in the 1820's is astounding and the 1690's even more so.

However if you don't have an interest in architectural smithing then this book will not be one to track down save by ILL from the library.