I’ve never found any reference to a sector that has an increment for the golden mean inscribed on it. The unabridged version of Sheraton’s book contains a long chapter dealing with the use of the sector. There’s a good image of one at:Īnd an article on the history of the sector is at: The sector was a calculating rule commonly used from the 1500’s through the mid 1800’s to solve proportional and other mathematical problems. Politicians and used car salesmen would love such a flexible tool.įor those that insist 17th and 18th Century woodworkers or designers used the golden ratio, there’s always the sector. Nobody, not even an editor, will check it. In an effort to sound knowledgeable, academic or even profound a designer, author or who ever can take almost any rectangle and claim it to be a golden rectangle. Its usefulness lies in the fact that its so difficult to use. Even though ideas like the Parthenon’s design being based on the golden ratio have been thoroughly debunked the myth of the usefulness of the golden ratio lives on. Heresy! The golden mean has been so ingrained into contemporary woodworkers, I hope Chris is prepared to be burned at the stake. That’s for France though, things may have been different in Colonial America or England or even Germany at the time. Most craftsmen had trouble selling quality pieces so they made cheap stuff and followed the trends in taste of their clients. Everything from bad taste to work of arts were done here.įunnily enough, Roubo laments about fashion trends and bad taste in furniture making and the often poor quality of the work being produced. The number of drawers, their disposition was accomplished in the same way. An armoire had to be between 6 to 8 feet tall, 18 to 24 inches deep and the rest was accomplished through ornementation. Roubo had the king’s architect as a teacher! Most furniture makers in Paris at the end of the 18th century used approximations of known proportions for typical pieces. Proportions were established according to a set of flexible proportions for known forms and Roubo often indicated that one had to follow a good architects’ instructions and basic elements of geometry. If we refer to Roubo, Phi was not part of the rules of the art in the consideration of the proportions of furniture. It is an irrational mathematical property. The Renaissance saw hosts of mystics and architects get all crazy over this ratio and gave it almost divine and magical properties. Its other name is Phi and it fascinated ancient Greeks because of its often occurrence in geometric constructions. Then I decided to explore the piece using the column orders. Its elevation turned out to be a perfect, repeat perfect, 2:3 ratio. So I took a pair of dividers to the piece using Walker’s techniques. The piece (which we’ll show here next week) is perfect to my eye. There is no modern interpretation of the piece’s form. The cover project for the Autumn 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine is a schoolbox built using a plan from an 1839 text. And this afternoon, I decided to put his concepts to a quick test. Instead, he focused on whole-number ratios. So after watching George Walker’s new DVD ( “Unlocking the Secrets of Traditional Design”), I was intrigued that he didn’t once bring up the Golden Section, which usually at least rates a footnote in any discussion of design. Perhaps I’m not looking in the right place. Now I’m not saying the Golden Section doesn’t exist, any more than the Trilateral Commission doesn’t exist or that a metal colander isn’t handy for blocking the transmissions from the mother ship.īut it just hasn’t worked for me and the pieces I like to design and the pieces I like to look at. Finding the Golden Section in great works is possible, if you looked in the right places, included parts of mouldings or excluded stiles or otherwise stretched the rules. My efforts at designing furniture using the Golden Section or exploring furniture using the ratio as a guide always proved frustrating. It also is supposed to turn up in great furniture and buildings. The Golden Section is a ratio (approx 1:1.618) that crops up in nature (such as the shell of a nautilus), Audrey Hepburn’s face and anywhere Elvis is sighted. I was in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., in 1996 and just discovering that some of the geometry I learned in junior high actually had a use. When I first learned about the so-called Golden Mean or Golden Section I was enthralled by the concept.