handicraft

plural handicrafts

1. countableuncountableA trade requiring skill of hand; manual occupation; handcraft.

   I regard the Grand Seignior , who is obliged , by an express command in the Alcoran , to learn and practise some handicraft trade

   1712 April 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “MONDAY, April 15, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 354; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

2. countableuncountableAn artifact produced by handicraft.
3. countableobsoleterareuncountableA man who earns his living by handicraft; a handicraftsman.

   the Handicrafts-Shops begin to open

   1672, John Dryden, The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery

   3 more examples

   his men were all baſe handie craftes, as coblers, and curriers, and tinkers, whereof ſome had barres of yron[…]

   1596, Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traueller: or, The Life of Jacke Wilton

   The M[e]chanicks, and handy-crafts were Induſtrious, Thrifty, and the main ſupporters of the Trade of France.

   1691, Sam Norris, The English Spy; Or, the Intrigues, Pollicies, and Stratagems of the French King with His Secret Contrivances, for Undermining the Princes of Christendom, Discovered

   "Why, thou knowest, father," he said, smiling, "that we handicrafts best love the folks we live by;[…]

   1828 (reprinted 1842), Sir Walter Scott, The Fair Maid of Perth, Schlesinger