The Arts of Life; and Lessons from Them

The Gardener, the Builder, the Architect, the Stone-mason, the Brickmaker, the Bricklayer and Plasterer, the Carpenter and Joiner, the Plumber, Painter and Glazier, the Shoemaker, the Tailor, the Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer, the Hatter, the Paper-maker, the Printer, the Type-founder, the Book-binder, the Blacksmith, the Rope-maker, the Tallow-Chandler, the Basket- maker, the Watch-maker.
Cloth-backed marbled boards, 16mo, 180pp. Copyright 1849; the 1122 Chestnut St address indicates this copy was printed 1857 or later. 30 woodcut vignettes including title page. Very Good with slight chipping around the edges of the marbled boards; fraying with slight loss to cloth at spine ends. Stray green mark across a butterfly on p.83, else clean.

A guide to trades incorporating specific information about how things work (like wetting paper for printing), digressing into pleasing detail (the kinds and characters of wood, etc), historical notices (tapestry as women's work, basket making as an occupation for the blind) and a few math problems thrown in. The writing suggests a privileged audience, with the information provided less as a survey of possible trades to take up and more as an appreciation for what those trades involve—culminating with the lesson, "never look with scorn upon those who earn their bread by daily labor.” Partially written as a dialogue between father and son, "Now get your hat, and let us examine it...To furnish this one article, how many parts of the globe have been ransacked?" Liberally quotes the Bible and Cowper's The Task.