1772 Philadelphia Furniture Price Book: A Facsimile

In 1772, a group of Philadelphia craftsmen published Prices of Cabinet and Chair Work, a thirty-six-page book listing the furniture forms they made along with suggested retail prices and the rates master furniture makers should pay journeymen for particular items. While some standardisation of prices within the craft had occurred in both Europe and America prior to 1772, the Philadelphia publication is the first furniture price book known to have been printed. This single surviving copy, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, contains fifty-six headings for furniture forms, including desks, bookcases, high chests, chairs, sofas, beds, clothes presses, and numerous tables for specialized uses. Listed below each heading are choices for variations in the design and styling, with three columns to the right giving, respectively, the price to be charged for each option in mahogany or walnut as the primary wood and the amount that should be paid to the journeymen who produced the compo