Figure 50. — 19TH century: 'I'he screwdriver, whicli began to appear regularly on the woodworker's bench 

 after 1800, did not share the long evolution and tradition of other Anglo-American tool designs. The 

 screwdriver in its early versions frequently had a scalloped blade for no other purpose than decoration. 

 (Smithsonian photo 49794.) 



Figure 51. — 1870: The use of a new 

 material prompted a departure from 

 the traditional in shape and en- 

 couraged surface elaboration. The 

 tendency, however, was short lived 

 and the mass-produced metallic plane 

 rapidly achieved a purity of design as 

 pleasing as its wooden predecessors. 

 (Private collection. Smithsonian 

 photo 49789.) 



book of the Castle Hill \\'orks. The bracket feet, 

 brass pulls, and inlaid keyholes imitate the style of 

 the domestic chest of drawers of the period 1 790 to 

 1 810 — undoubtedly, features included by the manu- 

 facturer to appeal to a gentleman of refined taste. 

 In contrast to this Sheffield product is the plate from 

 Shaw's The Modern Architect. The concept of the 

 builder-carpenter as a gentleman still prevails, al- 

 though the idea in this American scene is conveyed 

 in the mid-1 9th century through fashionable dress. 

 The tools and in particular the tool chest reflect 

 only the severest of functional lines (fig. 19, p. 196). 



In deference to ruling taste, some tools lost for a 

 time the clean lines that had long distinguished them. 

 The screwdriver, simple in shape (accession 61.46) 

 but in little demand until the 1840's, occasionally 

 became most elaborate in its factory-made form (fig. 

 50) and departed noticeably from the unadorned 

 style of traditional English and American tools. 

 The scalloped blade, influenced by the rival styles 

 rather than a technical need, seemed little related to 



the purpose of the tool.'" No less archaic in decora- 

 tion was the iron-bodied version of the plow plane 

 (fig. 51). The Anglo-American tradition seems com- 

 pletely put aside. In its place is a most functional 

 object, but one elaborately covered with a shell and 

 vine motif! Patented in 1870 by Charles Miller and 

 manufactured by the Stanley Rule and Level Coin- 

 pany, this tool in its unadorned version is of a type 

 that was much admired by the British experts at 

 Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition in 1876. What 

 prompted such superfluous decoration on the plow 

 plane? Perhaps it was to appeal to the flood of 

 newly arrived American craftsmen who might find 

 in the rococo something reminiscent of the older 

 tools they had known in Europe. Perhaps it was 

 simply the transference to the tool itself of the decora- 

 tive work then demanded of the wood craftsmen. 



'c In 1865 George Parr in his application for an improved 

 screwdriver stated categorically that the scalloped blade served 

 no purpose other than decoration. See U.S. patent 45,854, 

 dated January 10, 1865. 



PAPER 51: WOODWORKING TOOLS, 1600-1900 



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