Shaker Built - Softcover

LARKIN DAVID & ROCHE

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500341362 ISBN 13: 9780500341360

Publisher: THAMES HUDSON, 1999

Synopsis

This is a visual record of the Shaker's unique architectural style, and a historical tour of Shaker villages and buildings from Maine to as far west as Ohio. It sets out to provide evidence of who the Shakers were, how they lived and how they designed their communities, buildings and interiors. Whenever possible, they sought to remove extraneous furniture and fittings from their lives and concetrated on positioning and planning their structures with a simple and functional beauty. This simplicity, the use of highly accomplished carpentry and masonry, and a rigorous attention to detail, are the hall-marks of the Shaker-built environment.

About this title

About the Author

June Sprigg has written extensively about the Shakers since 1972, when she began to live and work with the Shakers in Canterbury, New Hampshire. Her major works include By Shaker Hands, Shaker: Life, Work, and Art, and Shaker Design. She has curated exhibitions on Shaker design in the United States and in Japan.

Among Paul Rocheleau's books are American Colonial: Puritan Simplicity to Georgian Grace; Farm: The Vernacular Tradition of Working Buildings; Harlem: Lost and Found; and Henry Hobson Richardson: A Genius for Architecture.

From Library Journal

With over 100 books about the Shakers in print, the obvious question is, Why one more? Simply put, this is a lavishly illustrated book that adds little to scholarship but would make a splashy gift. It has been several years since the publication of William Lassiter's Shaker Architecture (1966) and Herbert Schiffer's Shaker Architecture (1979), but, unfortunately, the present volume is an advancement in style rather than substance. Apparently, nothing new has been unearthed about the origins of the Shakers' architectural ideas. Thus, much of the commentary consists of observations like "Afternoon sunlight pours through western windows in the Meetinghouse." Libraries with Sprigg's other fine Shaker books, By Shaker Hands (LJ 4/15/76) or Shaker: Life, Work, and Art (LJ 11/15/87), can pass this by until a more comprehensive book on the architecture of this utopian communal society is written.
Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: THAMES HUDSON
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0500341362
• ISBN 13: 9780500341360
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272