Swag Week No. 6: ‘Mechanic’s Companion’ & Chair Playing Cards

Chris is busy building a chair (shocking, I know), so you’re stuck with me for this Swag Week Giveaway – but that’s appropriate, because this time, we’re giving away a set of Frederick Parker Collection chair playing cards, courtesy of Derek Jones, and a blue-bound copy of Peter Nicholson’s “Mechanic’s Companion,” a 19th-century book on woodworking and allied traded that I scanned and painstakingly cleaned up in Photoshop just after my exit from Popular Woodworking. I then had 2,000 copies printed and mailed lots of them from my dining room…then made a book box tower of the remaining copies in my living room and front hallway. (My cat JJ loved climbing on that edifice.)

When I joined LAP full time, Chris and John bought the remainder of my copies and after they sold out, reprinted the book with a tan cover.

And the playing cards? Derek brought those with him last time he was visiting Covington to teach a Cricket Table class. The face cards feature chairs from the Frederick Parker Collection, 200 chairs from the 17th-century to the present, now managed by the U.K.’s Furniture Makers Company.

What is Swag Week?

As a thank you to our readers, the first week of every month, we’re going to give away something nice, unique or rare from our vast collection of books, tools and ephemera.

We’re going to select – at random – a paid subscriber from our three substacks. We’ll announce the recipient here. And then we’ll send the item out anywhere to them on planet earth.

If you’re a paid subscriber, you’re eligible. There’s nothing you need to do. If you subscribe to more than one substack, you will be even more eligible because your name will be in the pool of subscribers two or three times instead of once.

So if you’re a paid subscriber, do absolutely naught!

The winner will be announced on August 10.

– Fitz