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Title:Folk Furniture of Canada's Doukhobors, Hutterites, Mennonites & Ukrainians
Author:John Fleming & Michael Rowan
ISBN:0888644183 : 9780888644183
Illustrations:colour photos
Format:Hardback
Size:230x310mm
Pages:155
Weight: 1.255 Kg.
Published:University of Alberta Press - September 2004
List Price: 35.5 Pounds Sterling
Availability:In Print
Subjects:Cultural studies: Ethnic studies: Canada


With over 100 colour photographs, Folk Furniture of Canada’s Doukhobors, Hutterites, Mennonites and Ukrainians offers a stunning visual record of the culture and values of these four ethno-cultural groups. Authors John Fleming and Michael Rowan take an interpretative approach to the importance of folk furniture and its intimate ties to people's values and beliefs. Photographer James Chambers beautifully captures both representative and exceptional artefacts, from large furniture items such as storage chests, benches, cradles, and tables, to small kitchen items including spoons, breadboxes, and cookie cutters.

"[Folk Furniture] contains more than 100 beautiful photos of the four immigrant groups' furniture, showing the skill and variety in the pieces they made. The book highlights the four groups' histories as people subject to religious persecution or severe economic hardship who made a new life in Canada's West, and shows how their experience was reflected in their craftmanship." -- Canadian Home Workshop Magazine, Winter issue. "The authors do a credible job assessing and describing the handiwork of untold Canadian craftsmen. Equally impressive are James Chambers' photographs, which impart a fine-art feel to this book in the way they make, say, a simple late-19th century tripod table itself look like a work of art." -- The Globe and Mail. "Just as architecture catalogues culture, furniture tells us much about a society. Purely functional in its most basic form, tables, beds and even coat hangers are given ornamental treatment to add depth and meaning to the world we live in...The book tackles each group separately and thoroughly." -- University of Alberta folio. "A fan of the unique esthetics of western folk furniture - simple lines, quirky decorative touches, bright colours, often in daring combinations - Rowan is also a proponent of the objects as repositories of cultural and historic meaning worthy of more expansive museum collections and academic study...Aside from the historic value of these pieces, Rowan says western folk furniture is valued by many fine artists for its intrinsic esthetic qualities." -- Gilbert Bouchard, The Edmonton Journal. "Many of the pieces represented were saved or salvaged from workshops or barns by the efforts of pickers and museum personnel traveling Canada's western provinces in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as by dealers and collectors who recognized the cultural value of various pieces...[E]specially commended to the attention of folk art collectors, as well as students of Canadian history, art, and culture." -- Reviewer's & Internet Bookwatch(es), The Midwest Book Review, December 2004. "In the end, there is nothing effete or contrived about any of this furniture. It is as honest, straightforward and workmanlike as the women and men who built it. It is also really quite stunning." -- Marc Horton, The Edmonton Journal. "Folk Furniture has several strengths. It introduces the reader to early Canadian artifacts and explains their cultural significance. More importantly it gives a clear face to each distinct immigrant group...for history buffs, antique hunters and anyone interested in furniture, this book delivers the goods." -- Anna Borowiecki, St. Albert Gazette. "Through...the sensitive, artistic attention given to the photographs, we are able to see the cultural differences as expressed through their outward expression of an inward belief....Descendants and folk art enthusiasts will find this book a treasure." -- Barbara Sutton-Smith, Antique & Collectibles Showcase Magazine, March/April 2005. “[T]he text and the pictures here are of a piece, and the artlessness and simplicity of the tools of daily living are presented with a harsh wonder that is astonishing. Simple decoration includes colors that are understated and a modesty that bespeaks a world of piety....As we leaf through this, is it possible that there can be a luxury in such simplicity? If so, it is reflected in this delicious volume.” Louis Armour, RALPH Magazine (http://ralphmag.org/DL/folk-arts.html), July 7, 2005