This publication is the first to comprehensively document the furniture inventory and the surviving master drawings of Mainz carpenters from the 18th and early 19th centuries. The focus is on the craftsmanship and design quality of the furniture created in the regional guild system, which is reproduced in full-scale drawings and photographs. The extensive supplement of plates contains both design sketches for examination pieces and examples of execution from workshops in the city of Mainz.
The editor Fritz Arens not only categorises the objects in terms of style history, but also sheds light on their significance for the local furniture culture and the craft training system. The work thus offers valuable insights into an independent, hitherto little-researched regional form of German furniture art.
Today, the book is considered one of the most important sources on the history of carpentry in Mainz and is an important contribution to the study of bourgeois furniture production in the 18th century.
Edited by: Fritz Arens
Series: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Mainz, Volume 14
Place/year of publication: Mainz 1955
Length: 76 pages of text and 184 plate illustrations
Publisher: City of Mainz (delivered by the city library)