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Trade label. This W. Buttre trade card, circa 1813, shows chairmaking apprentices at work. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera.
A brief history of a not-so-romantic woodworking education system.
Ever since the renewal of interest in woodworking in the 1970s, especially among amateurs and small-shop professionals, there has been talk of reestablishing an apprenticeship program similar to what existed hundreds of years ago.