TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT 279
make the bole adhesive, A simple instrument of this kind may have had long use
in the past, but it was not much referred to before the time of modern writing
on methods (see Johnston, p. 154).
Bristle, the material, usually hog hair, made into heavier brushes.
Brush. Some kind of fibrous tuft used for holding and spreading paint seems
to be quite as old as the art itself. The brushes chiefly used in the West by the
artists of the present are of two general types: the bristle of hog hair and the sable
or other fine hair. Many different materials are actually used. For auxiliary work
in painting, that is, for blenders, for the so-called 'fan,' for stencilling, or for
varnishing, badger, horsehair, camel hair, and others are added to the two prin-
cipal types (figure i). The East has known a still greater variety of materials for
brush making (figure 2). Ancient Egypt held largely to one tool of this kind—plant
fibres as they occurred in a reed which was macerated at the end to separate them
and produce a suitable tuft. China and Japan have had brushes made regularly of
deer, fox, and numerous hairs of wild animals,- and for certain purposes have had
brushes made of feathers or of human hair.
During the past 200 years or more the craft of brush making has been carried
on as a special activity outside of the artist's studio. Whether the brushes are of
bristle or of a fine hair, the mounting is much the same for those used directly in
the practice of painting. The hairs are cut and sorted, and thorough cleaning with
sterilization is usually part of this preliminary process. The hair itself has to be
kept aligned because it is important in brush making that the tip of the brush be
made up of the natural tips of the hairs that are in it. These are the outer ends,
called the 'flag* or 'split* ends, whereas the root end of the hair, called the butt, is
usually cut off. Brushes which do not have the flag ends as their tips are brittle
and can not be controlled for fine work. During manufacture the hairs are straight-
ened, sorted, and cut according to the length and size the brush is to have. They
are then shaken together in small metal cylinders called f cannons/ and shaped by
hand to the form desired. The tufts so made are tied. After this, they are mounted,
usually in metal ferrules, with a cement such as rubber, pitch, or synthetic
composition. Quills also are used still to a very large extent for the mounting of
smaller brushes such as the sable or the so-called 'camel hair.*
It seems commonly agreed that the best of the fine, soft brushes are those made
from what is called 'red* sable. This is the hair of the kolinsky, an animal which
may be any of several species of Asiatic minks, and the name is from the Russian
for Kola> a district in northeastern Russia where these animals are found. The pelt
is reddish yellow in color, and the tail supplies the hair used for brush making. The
so-called c camel hair/ also used for small, soft brushes, is, in the modern production
of these tools, actually the hair from a squirrel. The best of this comes from Siberia
and Russia, and the color ranges from red through gray to black. Fitch brushes
have also been used as a fair substitute for sable. Probably the fine brush described
by Cennino Cennini (C. LXIIII) was rather rare, even in his day. This was made