Turnery is the craft of shaping material on a lathe, in which a piece of wood, ivory, metal or stone is rotated against a cutting tool to create circular forms. It also refers collectively to the objects produced, from furniture legs and spindles to bowls, boxes, candlesticks and small domestic wares.
Turning is among the oldest woodworking techniques, and in England the turners were organised as a separate guild from the joiners and carpenters, with the Worshipful Company of Turners in London receiving its charter in the seventeenth century. Early lathes were driven by a treadle or springy pole, giving a reciprocating motion, while later great wheel and powered lathes allowed continuous rotation and faster, more regular work. Turners produced chair parts, balusters, newel posts and table legs, as well as the many small wooden household objects now collected as treen, including bowls, goblets, spice containers and snuff boxes. Ornamental turning, using complex lathes to cut intricate geometric patterns, was a fashionable pastime for wealthy amateurs in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Collectors admire turnery for its tactile quality, good colour, crisp detail and the patina built up through long use.
