British Planemakers from 1700 (3rd Edition)

W.L. Goodman (Revised by Jane and Mark Rees)

Reviewed by:

Bob Nelson

This book is the British equivalent of the Pollak book on American planemakers. First compiled by W.L. Goodman in 1968, the 1993 edition has been enlarged and revised by Mark and Jane Rees. The book starts out with 148 pages about the history of planemaking in the U.K. and the types of planes made before getting to the listing of makers and their marks. It also follows up the list with nine appendixes covering a variety of related subjects. Although the maker list is the part of primary interest to most buyers, this additional information provides an informative and interesting bonus.

The marks provided in the maker list segment are smoke prints which have had little or no retouching. Accordingly, some are blurrier and harder to distinguish details in than the extensively retouched marks in the Pollak book. Where a maker used multiple marks over a long span of years, the marks are presented in what is thought to be chronological order, but with no specific dating. Since some maker names were marked for over 100 years, this can make the dating of one particular mark very uncertain.

Most U.S. tool users or collectors with minimal exposure to or interest in U.K. Planes can probably not justify buying this book. But it is a must have for any more advanced collectors with such exposure and interest.