Joinery (historical)

Historically, joinery was the medieval development of frame and panel construction, as a means of coping with timber's movement owing to moisture changes. Framed panel construction was utilized in furniture making. The development of joinery gave rise to joyners, a group of woodworkers distinct from the carpenters and arkwrights (arks were an intermediate stage between a carpenter's boarded chest and a framed chest).

The original sense of joinery is only distantly related to woodworking joints, which are the work of carpenters. This new technique developed for several centuries and joiners started making more complex furniture and also paneled rooms. Cabinetmaking became its own distinct furniture-making trade too, so joiners (under that name) became more associated with the room paneling trade.

By the height of craft woodworking (late 18th century), carpenters, joiners and cabinetmakers were all distinct and would serve different apprenticeships.

External links

• The art of joinery: 17th-century case furniture in the American Wing, a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art