I know it's in "flyover country" for most of you, but if you ever find yourself in Kansas City, the National Toy and Miniature Museum [0] has exhibit after exhibit of miniature woodworking (and miniature ceramics, and miniature metalworking and miniature textiles, etc) that is well worth the $5 entry fee.
One of my great grandfathers was a Compagnon (couvreur: slater). He made a table with a single piece of slate of 2m diameter and maybe 5cm thick, on top of a medieval column marquee (taken from a church that was being renovated). The table is in my garden, it's beautiful.
As for the society, there has never been anything "secret" about it --- maybe some specific rituals, I'm not sure, but the fact of being a member is very public: it's actually the whole point.
The definition of a secret society is that it keeps its initiation rites and other activities secret, not that it keeps its list of members secret. Membership in a secret society is often public information, and in this case, as you say, it's the whole point.
My brother is a companion stone carver. He's always there when there is an historical monuments to repair, as most insurance companies insists the work is done by them.
he's full of cool stories, and taught me quite a few cool tricks, like how to 'listen' to wood when taping it with the handle of a screwdriver to 'hear' if it's still green and/or has faults/cracks.
If you like this sort of thing and find yourself in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago has a room of 68 fully-furnished miniature rooms all in different period and architectural styles. They're pretty impressive and kids tend to love them also.
This reminds me a lot of the father in 'All the Light We Cannot See', building their neighbourhood in miniature for his blind daughter to learn from. As a novice woodworker and obsessive builder of all things small and useful, I find small scale construction like this fascinating. To have spent so much effort on something so devoid of practical use seems impossible for the era.
The American College of the Building Arts was founded with the Compagnon model in mind, and was mentioned in a linked article.
They offer four-year liberal art degrees in Architectural Carpentry, Architectural Stone, Classical Architecture, Forged Architectural Ironwork, General Education,
Masonry, Plasterwork, and Timber Framing.
I guess that is partly because of changes in architectural tastes. Large staircases in grand houses are more as likely to be concrete or steel today. I suspect most woodworkers would never be asked to create something like that today, so perhaps there is no way to learn it?
For those of you in Los Angeles you can see some of those tiny staircases in the wonderful weird museum of jurassic technology. The tiny staircases are displayed on the wall of one of the museums actual staircases.
Actually, the world have inherited something well known from compagnons : the word "chef d'oeuvre". It's translated as "masterwork" in this article, but it's something a bit more specific for compagnons : any compagnon is supposed, at the end of their "compagnonage" (companionhood) to realize their chef-d'oeuvre, the piece that should be the best thing they'll ever do in their live and that will be used as a rite to end their education. It's their thesis, on some sort.
I recommend to everyone tied of social networks and coding to try to build a wooden ship model. It takes about a man-month. This one is very detailed https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brigantine-Phoenix-1-72-wooden-kit-... and does not require any special skills.
For those of us who are a little lazier or less meticulous but want to experience something like this, I recommend the Lego Architecture series. I enjoyed this one and it makes a nice little display piece for my home:
I remember seeing full-scale versions of these in actual houses long ago.
Man technology has advanced for the better. These things are brittle, require regular maintenance, they are tiny in width (try getting a fridge up a few floors), ... This actually used to be a pluspoint: when maintenance is lacking, specific portions will deteriorate : so walking upon them there will be a circular fault, which your leg will sink into (as opposed to the whole staircase collapsing entirely). The thing is, this happened to someone I knew on a yearly basis. It can only be fixed by replacing the whole thing.
And of course, these were actually put into houses sometimes 5 floors high. Exercise !
I think you are confusing the regular spiral staircase with the properly made 'geometric' staircase which most of these models represent.
Spirals are a menace, but a spacer saver. In contrast geometric stairs were installed in the grandest homes, on huge scales and have often survived for a couple of centuries.
Which is part of why deliveries of large pieces of furniture in France and Belgium is still done through the windows, and a portable exterior temporary elevator. They are usually mounted on small pickup trucks or on trailers towed by trucks.
Absolutely terrifying — and fascinating — to watch being used. Nothing quite like a slightly hopped up version of a fireman’s ladder with hundreds or thousands of pounds of furniture one it. Or maybe just piled up with a bunch of random stuff that they don’t want to have to carry up or down stairs.
[+] [-] fotbr|8 years ago|reply
[0]http://www.toyandminiaturemuseum.org/
[+] [-] madcaptenor|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tumba|8 years ago|reply
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/thorne
[+] [-] bambax|8 years ago|reply
One of my great grandfathers was a Compagnon (couvreur: slater). He made a table with a single piece of slate of 2m diameter and maybe 5cm thick, on top of a medieval column marquee (taken from a church that was being renovated). The table is in my garden, it's beautiful.
As for the society, there has never been anything "secret" about it --- maybe some specific rituals, I'm not sure, but the fact of being a member is very public: it's actually the whole point.
[+] [-] cmpb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksenzee|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buserror|8 years ago|reply
he's full of cool stories, and taught me quite a few cool tricks, like how to 'listen' to wood when taping it with the handle of a screwdriver to 'hear' if it's still green and/or has faults/cracks.
[+] [-] ruricolist|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nkrisc|8 years ago|reply
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/thorne
[+] [-] mcmatterson|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chiph|8 years ago|reply
They offer four-year liberal art degrees in Architectural Carpentry, Architectural Stone, Classical Architecture, Forged Architectural Ironwork, General Education, Masonry, Plasterwork, and Timber Framing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNqqomuL-64
http://americancollegeofthebuildingarts.com/
[+] [-] eps|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mitchdoogle|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] outsideoflife|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eumenides1|8 years ago|reply
What a quote!
[+] [-] khana|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] TheMagicHorsey|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hristov|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oelmekki|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ranit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UweSchmidt|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eps|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dave84|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nshm|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klenwell|8 years ago|reply
https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Fallingwater-21005
[+] [-] bostonpete|8 years ago|reply
Every example shown in the article is 2.5-4 feet in height...
[+] [-] DanBC|8 years ago|reply
The Second is a bit more than 11 inches tall.
The fourth is less than 13 inches.
The sixth is 19 inches.
And the last is 17 inches.
I agree this isn't "only a few inches in height", but most of them are less than 2 foot tall.
[+] [-] lisper|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kwhitefoot|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jameshart|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benkarst|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonbrady12|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] candiodari|8 years ago|reply
Man technology has advanced for the better. These things are brittle, require regular maintenance, they are tiny in width (try getting a fridge up a few floors), ... This actually used to be a pluspoint: when maintenance is lacking, specific portions will deteriorate : so walking upon them there will be a circular fault, which your leg will sink into (as opposed to the whole staircase collapsing entirely). The thing is, this happened to someone I knew on a yearly basis. It can only be fixed by replacing the whole thing.
And of course, these were actually put into houses sometimes 5 floors high. Exercise !
[+] [-] jimnotgym|8 years ago|reply
Spirals are a menace, but a spacer saver. In contrast geometric stairs were installed in the grandest homes, on huge scales and have often survived for a couple of centuries.
[+] [-] bradknowles|8 years ago|reply
Absolutely terrifying — and fascinating — to watch being used. Nothing quite like a slightly hopped up version of a fireman’s ladder with hundreds or thousands of pounds of furniture one it. Or maybe just piled up with a bunch of random stuff that they don’t want to have to carry up or down stairs.
Been there, done that.
Examples: https://youtu.be/LQg8JCtNPtg and https://youtu.be/lnF0ETvdTXc
[+] [-] tenpies|8 years ago|reply
Sounds like our electronics these days. We made progress, then completely un-made it.