Hand tools are often neglected in the search for the pleasing objects of the past. Considered too utilitarian, their decorative appeal--the mellow patina of the wood plane or the delicately tapered legs of a pair of dividers--often goes unnoticed. Surprisingly modern in design, the ancient carpenter's or cabinetmaker's tool has a vitality of line that can, without reference to technical significance, make it an object of considerable grace and beauty. The hand tool is frequently a lively and decorative symbol of a society at a given time--a symbol, which, according to the judges at London's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851, gives "indications of the peculiar condition and habits of the people whence they come, of their social and industrial wants and aims, as well as their natural or acquired advantages."[8] The hand tool, therefore, should be considered both as an object of appealing shape and a document illustrative of society and its progress. [Illustration: Figure 15.--18TH CENTURY: Cabinetmaker's dividers of English origin. (Private collection. Smithsonian photo 49789-B.)] [Illustration: Figure 16.--1783: CABINETMAKER'S dividers of English manufacture, dated, and marked T. Pearmain. See detail, figure 17. (Smithsonian photo 49792-C.)] [Illustration: Figure 17.--1783: DETAIL OF CABINETMAKER'S DIVIDERS showing name and date.] [Illustration: Figure 18.--18TH CENTURY: Carpenter's dividers of English origin, undated. (Smithsonian photo 49792-B.)] On first sight, it is the conformation rather than any facet of its technical or social significance that strikes the eye; perhaps the most decorative of tools are early dividers and calipers which, prior to their standardization, existed in seemingly endless variety. The great dividers used by the shipbuilder and architect for scribing and measuring timbers not only indicate building techniques (accession 61.548) but also document 17th-and early 18th-century decorative metalwork, as seen in figure 13. Well before the 17th century, artists and engravers recognized them as intriguing shapes to include in any potpourri of instruments, either in cartouches or the frontispieces of books (fig. 14). [Illustration: Figure 19.--1855: THE FRONTISPIECE FROM EDWARD SHAW, _The Modern Architect_ (Boston, 1855), shows the carpenter's dividers in the foreground unchanged in form from those illustrated in figure 18. Of further interest in Shaw's plate is the dress of the workmen and the balloon frame of the house under construction. (Smithsonian photo 49792-A.)]