TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

293

mineral origin and for use on paper. This, as judged by the context, might be
graphite. It was not until the XVIII century, however, that anything like the
graphite pencil as that is now known had come into regular use as a drawing
instrument.

FIGURE 10. Painters* easels as used in the past: (a) an Egyptian easel represented in a
tomb relief of the Old Kingdom (from a reconstruction by Prentice Duell [VIII, 181,
fig. 4]); (b) an easel in a Roman tomb relief (from Berger, I and II, 175, fig. 33); (<:) an
easel in a Pompeian wall painting of a pygmy's studio (from Berger, I and II, 174, fig.
31); (/) an easel of the XVII century, shown in a painting by Rembrandt, 'The Painter's
Studio/ in the Art Gallery, Glasgow; (*) an easel in a French miniature painting of the
XV century (from Berger, III, 231, fig. 16).

Grinding Slab, a flat piece, usually of glass or stone, on which color is ground
from a coarse to a finely divided state, frequently with the medium that is to bind
it as paint (figure 13). Materials for this purpose available on the market today
are usually of glass and are small in size. They are used little, except by tempera
painters or by illuminators who are working with colors not previously prepared.
Many catalogues of artists* materials do not even list these small slabs amongst
their supplies. Machine grinding and preparation of artists' paint, a development
which has taken place largely since 1825, have slowly removed from the studio
the grinding equipment which was invariable in its furnishing before that.