The geometry of 18th C. furniture design explored by Steve Brown and Will Neptune

 Steve Brown and Will Neptune, are cabinet markers who also teach. 
They wrote  Classic Proportion in Eighteenth Century Furniture Design.*  It is a fascinating exploration of the use of geometry in the design of 18th c. cabinet makers. The illustrations are beautiful.

I first read the article around 2020. Unfortunately, I knew very little about 18th C. cabinetmaking. Visually, the circles overwhelmed me. I just didn't get it. I put the article aside, hoping that maybe later I would understand. 

Last winter  I tried again. The article references James Gibbs' Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture**, first published in 1722. a book I hadn't read.  I bought a copy. It was a poor reproduction, difficult to read. Then I found a clean, legible copy online. I could enlarge the words and images to easily study them.  This drawing is part of Plate XXXVII.

Gibbs wrote clear and thorough explanations. 

 As I learned, I remembered the tic marks and notations  running up the borders of other pattern books: Wm Pain, A. Benjamin, Owen Biddle.  Now those segmented lines made sense. They are units of measure, a length which determines the other lengths in a specific design, a dimension that can be set with dividers, a compass. Palladio used m for 'module', Gibbs used dia for 'diameter'. Both are names for the same thing, a dimension, a building unit.    

I found that Gibbs' rules for frontispieces were used on this side of the Atlantic. ***  

 

Here is a partial view of Pain's Frontispiece in the Ionic Order, c. 1774.***

The dimensions of the door are noted in diameters as well as in feet and inches. 

 

Asher Benjamin's engraving of a Doric entrance, 1797, lays out the dimensions along the left side, but simply lists them along the bottom. He writes that "the height of the column is 10 parts, one of which is the diameter of the column..."  He uses one diameter for the sub-plinth, two for the entablature.

Yes, Asher Benjamin's first book has poor quality prints.***  

  

 

 

A partial view of an Owen Biddle frontispiece showing  a scale at the bottom, the door width divided into 9 parts, and the height shown as 10 diameters. ***

Finally, I could begin to read 'Classical Proportions'. To encourage you to read the essay, here are 2 diagrams from the article. 

Figure 12, Line drawing of a Chapin high chest of drawers with a modular overlay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 49 is a detail of the foot and ankle of a leg.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 50 shows the diagrams for the geometry used to lay out the sizes and curves of the foot, showing, to quote the authors,"the stages of development." As this is quite similar to my understanding of how designs develop I thoroughly enjoyed thinking through the details. 

 

  

  

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 *Classic Proportion in Eighteenth Century Furniture Design is available on line. https://chipstone.org/article.php/787/American-Furniture-2017/Classical-Proportioning-in Eighteenth Century Furniture Design.  

** James Gibbs, Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture, London, 1722.

*** William Pain, The Practical Builder, published in London, 1774. partial view of PlateXVI.

      Asher Benjamin, The Country Builder's Assistant, published in Greenfield, MA, 1797. partial view of Plate X.

     Owen Biddle, Biddle's Young Carpenter's Assistant, Philadelphia and New York, 1805, partial view of Plate 17. 

My blog posts which explore the use of Gibbs' Rules in the States.  

https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2024/12/james-gibbs-rules-for-drawing-several.html

https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2025/01/james-gibbs-and-rockingham-meeting-house.html