I no longer sell my book direct but it is available direct from the publishers Stobart Davies
This lovely coffee table book is crammed with full colour pictures of wonderful old wooden bowls and also in depth information about the history of the craft. It makes a great gift whether for someone you know who loves wood or alongside a wooden bowl to show how they were made.
The book is the first authoritative account of the history of the wooden bowl and took me around ten years researching in museums across Europe. It details evidence of the turners craft dating back 4000 years and looks at the development of lathe technology, as well as the tools and timbers used.
Extracts from Medieval account books show the wide range and vast quantity of work turners produced and even how much they were paid. Many examples of their work recovered from excavations show the vessels from which our ancestors ate and drank and how the forms changed through the centuries. The last chapter shows me step by step turning and carving a replica Tudor porringer.
182 Pages, Hardback.
Here’s a review from a well known online bookseller
“This is a gem of a book. It is well written, researched and wonderfully presented. Robin is evidently a master of his craft and his enthusiasm and knowledge leaps from every page.
This is an absolute must of a book for anyone interested in history and woodcraft and would compliment anybody’s book collection.” *****
John, From The Great State of Kansas
I really enjoyed this book. I liked the overall history but especially liked learning the English history of bowl making. You can’t help but wonder what it was like to make a living in those tough times. It would be interesting to know their thoughts on their own lives and their work.
Alberto, From Cambridge UK
Thanks very much for this book!. I have never been very interested in archaeology or ethnographic research beyond just curiosity and purchased it mostly interested into turning bowls myself. Nevertheless, I plunged and read it through in record time, amazed by my own enjoyment. Beyond your writing skills to make the book a joy, it seems to me a piece of scientific work in its own right. I have worked in a different branch of research (biology), so I lack the knowledge to appraise the academic value. Be that as it may, I have an opinion: a careful review of the existing literature, with any assertion backed by reference or personal experience. And such experience, not the I-tried-this-one-myself kind, but 10 years of professional work after having reconstructed the craft yourself!, that is serious experimental work by any standard. Just like a doctoral thesis, only unlike most Ph.d thesis, this one is a pleasure to read too!.
Robin Wood
Thanks for that, at one stage I was being pushed to develop it into a PhD but having supported a spouse through that process I am very glad that I didn’t go that route. It would have been much less readable if I had.