314 PAINTING MATERIALS

shop type of interior, frequently barn-like, often in disrepair, and sometimes
shown as having only an earthen floor. In the XV and XVI centuries, a normal
kind of room interior seems to have been the working place of the painter.

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FIGURE 22. Stumps or soft instruments to be used with chalks or powders: (a) an
elaborate one, shown in the catalogue of Winsor and Newton for 1870, with a curved
handle and a whalebone foot that carried a leather cover; ($) a French stump of chamois,
of about 1740 (from Meder, p. 185, fig. 65); (c) a modern leather stump; (d) a small
instrument of the same type as the stump but made of paper only and called a 'tortillon.'
Stump and Tortillon. This is a piece of leather, felt, or paper, tightly rolled
into the shape of a small stick and tapered at one or both ends (figure 22).
It is used for softening edges and smoothing tones in drawings that are made with
chalk, pencil, charcoal, crayon, or any material that can be moved about by
light abrasion after it is applied. The tortillon is made only of paper, according
to the usage of the word by artists' colormen, and is relatively small, 3 to 5 inches
long. The paper may be gray or white. The stump may also be of paper, usually
gray, and somewhat softer than the tortillon. It is also made and sold in yellow
leather and, occasionally, has been made of cork. The stump is usually pointed
at both ends and comes in a variety of sizes which run according to number, the
largest being somewhat less than an inch in diameter. Felt stumps are still softer
and have about the same sizes as the leather ones. The simple cylindrical stick
shape with the conical-pointed ends is the only one offered by modern manu-
facturers. In the catalogue of Winsor and Newton for 1870, there was shown,
however, a more elaborate shape, a kind of fine trowel-like instrument with a
handle of whalebone and an elastic foot. This was covered with leather and
allowed for a fine line to be drawn with its edge. Cork stumps were also listed at