Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

to use the continental dovetailing methods of
joining boards which foreign craftsmen had
introduced into England.
The ardent desire of tradesmen to maintain
differentials resulted in the London Court of
Aldermen (in 1632) deciding that carpenters
should be restricted to making nailed and
boarded work and that only joiners could use
glue, mortise and tenon and dovetail joints. It
was this process that divided the joiner’s craft
into those who fitted up rooms, for example
with panelling, and those who would be called
cabinetmakers.
Furniture history 17
By the second half of the century the cabinetmaker
was supreme, one of the earliest references
to a ‘cabinetmaker’ being in Samuel
Pepys’s diary in 1664. The increasing division
of crafts and trades continued with chair makers,
cane chair makers, japanners, turners and
other crafts, developing their specialities.
Drawer construction is a reference point for
the skill of cabinetmakers, and drawer development
is related to the rise of the cabinetmaker
(Figure 1.12). The frames were
invariably of oak, possibly due to the wearability
on sliding surfaces, whereas oak and
Figure 1.12 Development of dovetailed drawer construction. (a) Up to around 1650: Sides fit into a rebated
drawer front and are butt jointed at the back. Note that sides are thick (up to one inch) to accommodate the
groove. Grain of drawer bottom runs front to back. (b) Up to about 1700: Drawer sides have a single coarse
through dovetail at the front and are butt jointed at the back. The drawer front was veneered. Runners sometimes
added to lift the drawer bottom clear of cross rails in the carcass. (c) From around 1670: Coarse lap dovetailing
may be found. (d) Around 1700: Drawer sides have two or more coarse lapped dovetails at the front and through
dovetail/s at the back. Drawer sides can be thinner now they are not grooved. (e) Around 1700: Drawers now slide
on runners and both drawer bottom and runners may be rebated into the drawer side. (f ) Early eighteenth century:
Lipped drawers concealed through dovetails with an applied cross grain moulding. (g) From the early eighteenth
century: Dovetails further refined as multiple pins and tails introduced. (h) From around 1715: cockbeading added
to drawer fronts to protect veneer and as a decorative feature. Drawer bottoms with the grain running from side to
side begin to be used from the first quarter of the eighteenth century. (i) From the last quarter of the eighteenth
century: Dovetails become finer. Whilst the side and bottom cockbead remain in rebates, the top cockbead is the
width of the drawer front and requires a half mitre. Drawer bottom fitted into rebated slips that are glued to the
drawer sides