Jost Amman], Frankfurt, 1568. (Library of Congress.)]

The divergence from European to an Anglo-American hand-tool design and
the approximate date that it occurred can be suggested by a comparison
of contemporary illustrations. The change in the wooden bench plane can
be followed from the early 17th century through its standardization at
the end of the 18th century. Examine first the planes as drawn in the
1630's by the Dutchman Jan Van Vliet (fig. 28), an etcher of Rembrandt's
school at Leiden, and also the examples illustrated by Porzelius (fig.
29) and by Jost Amman (fig. 30). Compare them to Moxon's plate (fig. 31)
from the _Mechanick Exercises_ (3rd ed., 1703) and to the splendid
drawing of the bench plane from Andre-Jacob Roubo's _L'Art du
menuisier_, published in 1769 (fig. 32). In all of them, the rounded
handle, or tote, and the fore-horn appear, characteristics of both
European and English planes of the period before 1750. The similarity
ends with the mass production of hand tools from the shops of the
English toolmaking centers, principally Sheffield. An illustration from
a pattern and design book of the Castle Hill Works, Sheffield, dating
from the last quarter of the 18th century (fig. 33), shows the achieved,
familiar form of the bench planes, as well as other tools. The use of
this form in America is readily documented in Lewis Miller's
self-portrait while working at his trade in York, Pennsylvania, in 1810
(fig. 34) and by the shop sign carved by Isaac Fowle in 1820 for John
Bradford (fig. 35). In each example, the bench plane clearly follows the
English prototype.

[Illustration: Figure 31.--1703: DETAIL OF THE BENCH PLANES from Moxon's
_Mechanick Exercises_.]

[Illustration: Figure 32.--1769: ANDRE-JACOB ROUBO'S PRECISE RENDERING
of the bench plane retains the essential features shown by Moxon--the
rounded tote or handle and the curved fore-horn. (Andre-Jacob Roubo,
_L'Art du menuisier_, 1769.)]

[Illustration: Figure 33.--EARLY 19TH CENTURY: The bench plane
illustrated in Roubo or Moxon is seldom seen in American tool
collections. The bench planes, smoothing planes, rabbets, and plows
universally resemble those shown in this illustration from the pattern
book of the Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. (Book 87, Cutler and Company,
Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. _Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert
Museum._)]

[Illustration: Figure 34.--ABOUT 1810: LEWIS MILLER WORKING AT HIS BENCH
in York, Pa. In a p