Medieval Furniture: Plans and Instructions for Historical Reproductions - Softcover

Daniel Diehl has collaborated with Mark Donnelly on 18 books and more than 100 hours of documentary television, including programs for the Discovery, History, and Biography channels.

Those wishing to create furniture very few living people have seen the like of need look no further than this book. The furniture described in it is based on one-of-a-kind museum pieces 400 years old and older. Many of the originals haven't met the test of time very well, it is true, and Diehl and Donnelly fudge the measurements a tad, if only to make things come out reasonably square and true. Those who dive into this book and its predecessor, Constructing Medieval Furniture (1997), should possess considerable woodworking skills and able carving and metalworking hands. These projects aren't for beginners, and the pieces themselves aren't what one would see in a typical modern home. It also helps not to forget that, for example, the church pew herein was originally built when you got 10-foot boards 2 inches thick and 18 inches wide by heading out to the forest and harvesting them. Very much on an offbeat subject, this book is simply wonderful because of that. Jon Kartman