The foldout engraving at the front of my tattered copy
I first wrote about "Skyring's Builders' - Prices corrected to 1833" in 2009 in connection with the publication of the Joiner and Cabinetmaker. However, a couple of readers of last week's post about the "The London Cabinet-Makers' Union Book of Prices" wrote to me asking about other prices and price guides. So I thought it might be interesting to take that old blog post, redo the pictures (which had issues) and replace it with something new and improved.
The frontispiece
Part of the fun of working on "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker" was that it gave me a chance to dip into lots of other interesting material. Probably the most important early nineteenth century price guide for London was "Skyring's Builders' Prices. W. H. Skyring was a surveyor who, starting in the early 19th century, compiled lists of joiner's, carpenter's, and other construction trades' operations, including prices for those operations: how much materials should cost, how much labor should be, etc. Skyring didn't invent the concept but in 19th century London his book was the most popular.
His lists were an accepted standard for wages. Many contractors, especially on the low end, paid much less. If you were in a rush you might have paid a premium, but overall the Skyring list was the leading accepted guide for construction work in the London market.
Price lists for most of the woodworking crafts exist. In larger cities like London, lists survive for cabinet making, carving, and chairmaking, to name a few. In many cases (albeit not in Skyring's), the prices were the result of negotiations between trade unions and masters. The lists were updated and reissued for various trades throughout the 19th century - until the trades either died or were heavily mechanized. Many industries also maintained price lists for all sorts of industrial trades that were heavy on hand work. Smaller cities would have their own guides. Price guides survive from the pre-industrial days of the United States.
This dogeared copy "Corrected to 1833" is one of two editions of the book that are in my collection. I have a third 18th Century price guide that is incomplete, but I am not sure of the publisher. This edition is in by far the worst condition of the three, but it is one I have that is closest to the publication of the "Joiner and Cabinet Maker." All the editions are fairly similar, just with different prices and a few varying or additional sections. I learned about these prices guides when reading Henry Mayhew's articles in the "Morning Chronicle" about work and life in London. He compiled his material from about 1840-1850. Mayhew's work culminated in his four volume opus. "London Labor and the London Poor." Mayhew refers to both Skyring and "The London Cabinet-Makers' Union Book of Prices" as the standard pricing guides for the entire period, leading at least up to the 1900. I located my copies of Skyring while I was researching "Joiner and Cabinet Maker" in order to quantify some of the conclusions in the book.
For the "Joiner and Cabinet Maker,"(J&C) Skyring helps put everything in a historic framework with real numbers. However, what relevance, if any, does it have today? Obviously in the past 175 years wages have changed; materials have changed; and the way the work is done has changed. But what you have in Skyring is an exhaustive dissection of the parts of a project - and this kind of analysis still resonates today. And this is still important. The best way to figure out how to bid out a new job is to look at prior, similar jobs. Anyone who is a successful builder, contractor, or cabinetmaker has their own informal price guide tucked away somewhere. With new multipliers for labor and materials, the book might directly correlate to the costs of doing a traditional or restoration job. For everyone else, seeing how mundane operations were broken down into atomic units of costs might give understanding on how to address the pricing breakdown of a modern job.
As for the book, in the days before copyright, piracy was a major problem and all the early editions of Skyring are hand signed by Mr. Skyring himself and numbered as proof of having and authentic copy. I don't know when this practice was stopped.
Signed to guarantee authenticity
A few observations: Skyring makes a clear distinction between "Carpenters' Work" and "Joiners' Work" (and a few other trades). Carpenters did rough work and basic construction. Joiners did finish carpentry and (while not in the context of building) plain furniture. Cabinetmakers, as we saw in last week's blog, made veneered furniture with decorations and complications. Some of this separation reflects skill, but most of the separation is because of different tools. Also, as Mayhew quotes from various craftsmen, if a craftsman didn't specialize, he would not be able to get fast enough in order to make a living.
A small observation. For me a "Holdfast" is a fairy large steel rod bent into shape and used for clamping things down on a workbench. In Skyring, "holdfasts" and Wallhooks were sold at six pence a hundred. I am guessing that a holdfast in this context was a type of wallhook.
Carpenter's Work - nail, screw, and holdfast pricing
Below are some more pages from Skyring 1833. If you read through them, the material commonly referred to is "Deal" refers to a softer wood like Poplar or Pine. (It also became known as a unit of wood measure 12 feet long, 11 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. ) Here is a link to the 1825 edition on google. The images are from my 1833 edition, which is in poor, well used, and unfortunately over-trimmed condition.
Carpenters' Work Joiners' Work Joiners' Work Joiners' Work One of the many tables in the book - this one showing the value of one foot of timber Plastering Prices
Join the conversation
11/10/2009 tico vogt
I'm enjoying your book. I own a little volume about the trades of London in the 18th century that indicates joinery work lead to the earliest demise of all workers. By the time an apprentice got done with all that demanding jack planing, I imagine his life fource was severely compromised.
What are the chances that there were books similar to Moxon and Roubo written in Scandinavian countries, Germany, or Asia?
In the early 19th c. most bound books had the edges cut when originally bound, and often again later if the book was rebound. Often books that have the edges cut super close to images or text are a sign of the latter. The tool used to do this is a bookbinder's plough, although the guillotine was adapted for cutting paper sometime in the 1830s-40s.
01/11/2023 Rick Nofsinger
Joel,
I just wanted to thank you for your hard work every week and I appreciate the effort you put into your research.
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What are the chances that there were books similar to Moxon and Roubo written in Scandinavian countries, Germany, or Asia?
I just wanted to thank you for your hard work every week and I appreciate the effort you put into your research.