author

F. (Frederick) Maire

A practical early-20th-century writing voice from the world of painting and decorative finishing, known for clear, workshop-minded guides. His books focus on the craft itself, from wood finishing and pigments to graining, marbling, and interior and exterior painting.

1 Audiobook

Graining and Marbling A Series of Practical Treatises on Material, Tools and Appliances Used; General Operations; Preparing Oil Graining Colors; Mixing; Rubbing; Applying Distemper Colors; Wiping Out; Penciling; The Use of Crayons; Review of Woods; The Graining of Oak, Ash, Cherry, Satinwood, Mahogany, Maple, Bird's Eye Maple, Sycamore, Walnut, Etc.; Marbling in All Shades.

Graining and Marbling A Series of Practical Treatises on Material, Tools and Appliances Used; General Operations; Preparing Oil Graining Colors; Mixing; Rubbing; Applying Distemper Colors; Wiping Out; Penciling; The Use of Crayons; Review of Woods; The Graining of Oak, Ash, Cherry, Satinwood, Mahogany, Maple, Bird's Eye Maple, Sycamore, Walnut, Etc.; Marbling in All Shades.

by F. (Frederick) Maire

About the author

Frederick Maire is known today through a group of trade manuals on painting and finishing, including The Modern Wood Finisher (1901), Modern Pigments and Their Vehicles (1908), Interior Painting (1910), Exterior Painting (1910), Graining and Marbling (1910), and Modern Painter's Cyclopedia (1918). These books were published in Chicago by firms such as the Press of The Western Painter and F. J. Drake & Co., and they were written for working painters, finishers, and students of the trade.

Available catalog records suggest he worked closely with the practical side of the painting industry rather than the fine-art world. One surviving description of The Modern Wood Finisher identifies him as a former editor of Painting and Decorating, which fits the hands-on, instructional style of his books.

Very little clear biographical information about his personal life seems to be readily documented in major public sources. What does stand out is the usefulness and range of his work: Maire wrote plainspoken manuals meant to teach real techniques, helping preserve the everyday knowledge of decorative painting and finishing in the early 1900s.