tools and equipment	317
century equipment of the water color painter, they were accompanied actually
by very small saucers or independent dishes of porcelain. Containers of this kind,
that is, divided dishes, are well known in the Far East and, as a kind of painting
slab, were familiar articles of equipment in the ancient world. The British Museum
has a number of such divided dishes that are Egyptian in origin, one of alabaster
with a pedestal, and another with divisions on radii and inner circles in its gen-
erally circular shape, is of terra-cotta. A pan, circular in outline and rather flat,
with a partition across the center, is occasionally seen in representations of
studios in the XVII and XVIII centuries.
c
figure 25. Three shapes of stylus or metal point (from Meder, p. 77, fig. 29): (a) the
silver point of Hans Kranach; (£) the silver point of Hans Baldung; (c) the silver point
of Jan Mabuse. These are instruments shown in paintings by those masters.
Tip, a gilder's instrument used for lifting the leaf from the cushion and laying
it upon the bole (figure 12, c). It is made of camel hair, usually set between paper
cards, and varying in length. The thickness of the brush is hardly more than that
of two or three hairs. The tip is placed over the leaf that is to be taken up, having
first been made very slightly adherent by being rubbed on something that is a
little oily. Most gilders rub it across their heads. The technical literature of the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance makes no reference to such an instrument as the
gilder's tip, but does speak of other means for lifting and handling gold leaf. The
necessity for a tip came in with the much thinner gold that is used now.
Tool. This word is here applied miscellaneously to any implements used by the
painter. During the XIX century and somewhat earlier, it was given to the brush
alone. Brushes are frequently listed in old catalogues as painting tools.
Tortilloa (see Stump and figure 22, d).
Tracing Apparatus. It appears that this was first described in any adequate
detail by Leonardo da Vinci, and the descriptions are found in his Notebooks
(II, 253-254; M-6^1., 2038, Bib. Nat._t 24r). The machine was later described and
illustrated by Diirer (see Meder, p. 466, and figs 204 and 206). The principle of
such a device lies in tracing the visual image as this is intercepted on a pane of
glass (figure 27). It shows on such a glass only when it is described by some
instrument like a wax crayon, piece of soap, or a similar soft and fatty marking
material. When highly developed, this tracing machine was so made that squared