John Shea's "Measured Drawings of Museum Classics" is itself a classic. It is not just a book about furniture; he carefully includes enough information on the Shakers, their history and their religion to give the reader an appreciation and understanding of the people and their passion for piety, humility, industry and kindness. It was these virtues that gave birth to their beautiful classical simple and elegant furniture -- which has been admired by "the world's people" for two hundred years.

During his preparation to write his book, John visited several Shaker communities and museums. At Sabbathday Lake and Canterbury, he was fortunate to meet the surviving members of the Shakers including Mildred Barker and Gertrude Soule, both of whom have now passed away. Written in 1971, it includes pictures of Shaker buildings, woodenware and furniture from five of the Shaker communities and ten museums.

I have owned my copy for several years. I recently bought copies to give to two friends for Christmas, both experienced woodworkers, who indicated a desire to build furniture. It is inexpensive and completely in black and white but it contains pictures and measured drawings of 87 Shaker furniture and woodenware. In addition, it has pictures of hundreds of other shaker items and a wealth of information about the people and their communities.

He includes adequate step-by-step instructions of the assembly and finishing of three simple projects - a candle stand, a step stool and a bench. The instructions for cutting dovetails for the step stool is particularly helpful to a new furniture student.

Of all the books about the Shakers and their furniture, this is probably the best low cost, balanced introduction to the Shakers, their way of life and their furniture.

I was impressed by the detail of the Shaker way of life. I was looking for ideas and drawings,and I found out that the Shakers were very resourceful and inventive. This is a must read if you want to make Shaker furniture.

I purchased this book in 1978. I have made several of the pieces described in the book by using the measured drawings. I made the "hutch-table chair out of Butternut and several other pieces out of Cherry. I cannot tell you how valuable the book is to a cabinet maker. It shows a picture of the piece and then the blueprints. It also describes the old fashioned joinery used. I have personally kiln dried 200 million feet of hardwoods by conventional forced hot air and also ran a "Vacu-Therm" dry kiln system. I also supervised a planning mill with planers,rip saws. band rip saws, straight-line rip saws, moulders, table saws, and end-trimmers. In my 30 years of hardwood background I have never seen a more useful book than this one.

These are good representations of furniture used by average Americans during times past. Shea stays away from 'high style' pieces and deliberatly picks plain furniture that is either taken directly from museum pieces or 'new' designs based on this style. Everything from craft projects to a complete bedroom suite.

The author is quick to point out that the best wood for most of these projects is pine, or native North American hardwoods. This is in keeping with the origin of these pieces - country workshops far away from the fashion centers of the day, and even further from the mahogany importers.

Includes: A short history lesson, lots of line drawings, 'how-to' sections on building and finishing with hand and power tools, and a section on how to replicate a complete colonial room.