Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Awesome Steampunk Toolbox

OK, so this is only steampunk in terms of being 19th century, tool-centered, artisan crafted of fine hardwoods and brass... and well wait, that makes it pretty freaking steampunk! The Dragon's lovely resident woodworker, the beautiful Ms. Auerbach, informs us that building a tool chest used to be a kind of thesis project for apprentice woodworkers, once you'd constructed an adequate one it functioned as a sort of masterwork portfolio piece. I know I wouldn't feel any qualms about commissioning this gentleman for any fine carpentry projects around my manor!

Massachusetts piano maker Henry Studley built his magnificent tool chest over the course of a 30-year career at the Poole Piano Company. The chest lived on the wall near his workbench, and he worked on it regularly, making changes and adding new tools as he acquired them. Using ebony, mother-of-pearl, ivory, rosewood, and mahogany -- all materials used in the manufacture of pianos -- he refined the chest to the point that now, more than 80 years after his death, it remains in a class of its own.
Tauton press has desktops for free download of another shot of this chest. In these photos, you can more clearly observe that within the compass there is a "G" and it is flanked by the pillars Jachin and Boaz. If we can indeed know a man by his work, then I'd hazard a guess that Henry Studley was a brother who was on the square, and on the level.

2 comments:

sky said...

Dragon! There's a Harry Potter Ad Attacking the top right corner of your blog! Munch some limestone and blast it with yer friggin' fire!

What happened? I remember when our sites were neck and neck, now you have twice as many visits as me.

Fucking busy parents.

Nice work though, your niche market is coming along nicely.

Combatscoot said...

Boy, that beats my rollaround any day!
John