In a couple hundred years, if people use children’s books to understand our culture, I think they will conclude – after reading Dr. Seuss – that we smoked a lot of weed.
Or, if they read the Little Golden books, that we were boring blowhards.
Anyway, Jeff Burks turned up an interesting children’s book on the trades that is in both French and English called “Le Petit Musée Des Enfants – Les Métiers.” Or “The Children’s Little Museum – the Trades.”
The book is undated, but Jeff and I suspect it is a 20th-century example. There is lots of good stuff in here – including the opportunity to improve your French skills. After editing Roubo, I read the book’s section on the menuisier without really thinking about it being in French. C’est bon!
The joiner’s shop is a great image – probably the best one in the book. The bench is clearly German, and the planes are definitely later than the ones shown in Roubo. Plus, check out the ubiquitous clamps on an interesting lamination – looks like the ground for a table with a curved and veneered apron to me.
Anyway, download the book and read it to your kids. And hope they don’t want to become tinners. He’s a creepy-looking bugger.
Le Petit Musée Des Enfants – Les Métiers
— Christopher Schwarz