plit sleeve, and a tightening ring
(fig. 44). In three centuries, three distinct design changes occurred in
the carpenter's brace. First, about 1750, the so-called English or
Sheffield bitstock appeared. This was followed in the very early 19th
century by the reinforced English type whose sides were splinted by
brass strips. Not only had the medieval form largely disappeared by the
end of the 18th century, but so had the ancient lever-wedge method of
fastening the bit in the stock, a device replaced by the pressure-spring
button on the side of the chuck. Finally, in this evolution, came the
metallic stock, not widely used in America until after the Civil War,
that embodied in its design the influence of mass manufacture and in its
several early versions all of the features of the modern brace and bit.

[Illustration: Figure 47.--18TH CENTURY: The visually pleasing qualities
of walnut and brass provide a level of response to this joiner's bevel
quite apart from its technical significance. (Private collection.
Smithsonian photo 49793-B.)]

[Illustration: Figure 48.--18TH CENTURY: THE HANDLE OF THE COMPASS SAW,
characteristically Dutch in shape, is an outstanding example of a
recurring functional design, one which varied according to the hand of
the sawer. (Smithsonian photo 49789-C.)]

Henry Ward Beecher, impressed by the growing sophistication of the
toolmakers, described the hand tool in a most realistic and objective
manner as an "extension of a man's hand." The antiquarian, attuned to
more subjective and romantic appraisals, will find this hardly
sufficient. Look at the upholsterer's hammer (accession 61.35) seen in
figure 45: there is no question that it is a response to a demanding
task that required an efficient and not too forceful extension of the
workman's hand. But there is another response to this implement: namely,
the admiration for an unknown toolmaker who combined in an elementary
striking tool a hammerhead of well-weighted proportion to be wielded
gently through the medium of an extremely delicate handle. In short,
here is an object about whose provenance one need know very little in
order to enjoy it aesthetically. In a like manner, the 18th-century
bitstock of Flemish origin (fig. 46), the English cabinetmaker's bevel
of the same century (fig. 47), and the compass saw (accession 61.52,
fig. 48) capture in their basic design something beyond the functional
extension of the craftsman's hand. The slow cu