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THE BRUSHMAKER

AND THE SECRETS OF HIS CRAFT:
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Frontispiece

OLD BRUSH SHOP, KENT STREET, LONDON,
1877

PITMAN'S COMMON COMMODITIES
AND INDUSTRIES

THE BRUSHMAKER

AND THE SECRETS OF HIS CRAFT :
HIS ROMANCE

WILLIAM KIDDIER

AUTHOR OF "THE PROFANITY OF PAINT," "THE ORACLE OF
COLOUR," AND "THE PAINTER'S VOICE"

LONDON
SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD.
PARKER STREET, KINGSWAY. \V.( .2

BATH, MELBOURNE, TORONTO. NEW YORK

PRINTED IN BATH, ENGLAND
BY SIR ISAAC PITMAN AND SONS. LTD.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. AFTER CENTURIES OF SILENCE

II. BRISTLES ....

III. A BRUSHMAKER IX POLAND

IV. THE HAIRHAXD
V. THE PAXHAXD

VI. THE PAIXT BRUSH MAKER

VII. THE EXGLISH SASH-TOOL .

VIII. THE WHITEWASH BRUSH .

IX. THE DRAWIXGHAXD

X. THE BONE-BRUSH MAKER

XI. HORSEHAIR ....

XII. PIASSAVA ....

XIII. THE ROMAXCE OF MEXICAN- FIBRE

XIV. KITOOL AND OTHER FIBRES
XV. MACHINE-MADE BRUSHES

XVI. BRUSHMAKERS' SOCIETIES

XVII. THE BRUSHMAKERS OF OLD BRISTOL

XVIII. TRAMPING ....

XIX. THE OUTSIDERS

INDEX ....

104

107

119

128

134

139

ILLUSTRATIONS

PACE

OLD BRUSH SHOP IX KENT STREET, LONDON, LOOKING
FROM BLACK-HORSE COURT : 1877

Frontispiece

LEEDS

BRUSH MAKERS
1791

CERTIFICATE

DATED

AUTOGRAPHS OF LONDON
ABOUT 1870

STAVELEY BRUSHMAKERS'

BRUSH MANUFACTURERS

DATED 1815
DATED

INDENTURE OF BRUSHMAKER S APPRENTICE
1799

PITCH PAN AND CHARCOAL STOVE : ABOUT 1825

ARTISTS' BRUSHES : SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

ENGLISH SASH-TOOL : MODERN

KENT STREET, LONDON, IN 1877 '. LOOKING TOWARDS
ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR'S CHURCH

BRUSH IN BRITISH MUSEUM : GREEK AND ROMAN
SECTION. TOILET ....

LYNN BRUSHMAKERS' ARMS : DATED 1786

BRISTOL BRUSHMAKERS' ARMS : DATED 1782

BRUSHMAKER'S CERTIFICATE : DATED 1830

INDEPENDENT BRUSHMAKERS* ARMS

SHAVING BRUSH '. AN OLD TYPE, KNOWN IN-
PAST AS " LEATHER-HEADS "

MARY-LE-PORT STREET, BRISTOL, IN 1877

CHART SHOWING TRAMPING ROUTE : ISSUED BY
LONDON SOCIETY OF JOURNEYMEN BRUSH-
MAKERS IN 1829 .....

BRUSH MATERIALS DEALER'S SHOP, CORNER OF KENT
STREET AND WESTON STREET, LONDON : 1877

30
31

105

111

115
125

131
135

THE BRUSHMAKER

CHAPTER I

AFTER CENTURIES OF SILENCE

There are secrets known to the brushmaker that have
never been told. Indeed, so little is known about the
man and his craft that he may be looked upon as a
magician — a man descended from some ancient race
like the gipsy. The mystery has remained because
no book has been written ; of a truth the libraries
throw no light upon the brushmaker at all. The books
of centuries, lodged in the British Museum, show but
centuries of silence in this respect.

To begin to write in this profound silence, with the
feeling of going forth alone, is an experience worth
while. It is fascinating !

To have all the secrets at command, and the oppor-
tunity given to bring them first to light, are circumstances
that make this book unique.

To tell the world about what one knows as a brush-
maker, whose associations with the craft go back to
babyhood, as is the case here, is to feel a thrill in the veins.

The craft by which a man gets his living should always
have his respect. It happens that brushmaking is
more than that to the author of these pages : it is
substantially his life. An odd sentiment goes with
it hard to make intelligible to others ; he loves the
smell of the pitch pan !

As an old craft, brushmaking has a small vocabulary
of its own, and time has not altered a word. The

2 THE BRUSHMAKER

phrases are short but perfectly expressive to the man
that does the work. Without having anything to do
with literature they breathe the spirit of the past to a
few. Their familiar sound inspires this book.

That the old craft has no history is a matter for which
the brushmaker deserves respect. To escape the
chroniclers of men and things is a sign of common sense.
The brushmaker is an ordinary man. In a world of
clever people there is, perhaps, originality in being
a plain man : more than that, there may be virtue !

Such a position is that of the man who goes on making
brushes, the last thing man ever thought of doing.

In the light of the past the brushmaker is a legendary
person, which means that whilst nothing is known
about him a few things are said.

All his life the writer has listened to old men ; talked
with them ; talked their talk, their dialect, and heard
them at their best.

Men with hard hands will give you glimpses of the
past. What is gathered of them of olden time is all
true, because they themselves are part of it. Tradition
is kept pure in their habits ; they belong to it as a link
in an endless chain. The sympathetic listener may be
transported back a hundred years in a word they let
drop. In their unalterable lives they are the oracle
of a human current that runs deeper than the depth of
all new discovery. They know nothing ; that is to say,
nothing new. So when they talk they confess themselves
as children of an unrecorded past. They talk of them-
selves and their craft— things that history may pass
by as of no account. Here enters the romanticist.

What is said by word of mouth, as handing down
things of the past, is good to write, so long as there is
reverence for the words, love for the things themselves.
Otherwise the charm is lost, the memory destroyed.

(_jl5J&- 'yjcaitrnetce/—.

(D,

C*?n4t*&riSjvt/6- 0Ui.O/i!u/p tJut**ta-Ku ^UwiUrtee •*n> L EED S. a/ *ucA/

yUszrnrruttt/ fam fyJCw&srtprtl/*7(>cufc^

PtdwrfigC

LEEDS BRUSHMAKERS' CERTIFICATE '. DATED 1791

4 THE BRUSHMAKER

Legend belongs to the heart, fact to the brain. The
first needs the sense of truth, the other proportion.

Inspired with these feelings this book is a rare mixture.
On the one hand, it is technical, geographical, practical ;
on the other, romantic ! The first three are as the body ;
the other is the spirit.

The technicalities are sure : the rest is pleasant.
The result is a marriage of hard facts and the joy of
imagination ; and, withal, a contribution to knowledge.

CHAPTER II

BRISTLES

To the man in the street a brush is a thing made of
bristles and nothing more. He has a right to think so,
because bristles and brushes sound so much alike and
have the same root in most languages.

The brushmaker, however, may use innumerable
things without bothering with the dictionary. But
all told bristles are the most important ; and, since
they are the costliest of all things that come into his
hands, they are his chief anxiety.

To know their different qualities, allowing always
for the variable nature of an animal product, is to have
had experience in handling them. There is no other
way. Unless the hand is familiar with the touch, no
theory7 will ever make an expert in bristles.

The longest and stiffest bristles are those of the wild
boar of the northern provinces of Russia and Siberia
and of the swine of the same districts.

Among brushmakers it is generally understood that,
though good kinds may come from India and China,
Russian bristles are the best.

As each of these countries has its own type of wild
boar so arise different types of bristles.

When they reach the merchant bristles are known
by the names of their places of origin, as " Russian,"
" Indian," " China." It would appear that the last
name should have been " Chinese," but " China "
happens to be the trade term.

As to the bristles themselves each type is as distinct
to the brushmaker as the human races of these countries
are to the ethnologists.

b THE BRUSHMAKER

In the cold regions of Russia and Siberia good pro-
portions of white and yellow bristles are got, whilst
dark grey and black predominate in India and China.
So we are reminded that animals with black skins may
endure heat, whilst the white coated are happy among
the snows.

To the British brushmaker Russian bristles are like
old friends : he grew familiar with them long before
" China " and " Indian " were imported. How long
ago it is impossible to say. Perhaps ever since the end
of the English wild boar or, at least, before the passing
of the native semi-wild pig.

The pigs called semi-wild, for the purpose of this book,
are such as feed in the woods in charge of a swineherd,
and, also, those that live in places where custom permits
them to roam at large.

To picture swine running loose in the woods in England
is to go back to the time of the Stuarts at least. That
these pigs were once numerous we may be sure ; as
in every district there was the hog-reeve — an official
who adjudicated on the damage done by pigs in
trespassing.

With regard to the bristles of these lawless creatures
little is known. To the brushmaker, however, this
much is clear ; that the wilder the pig the stiffer the
bristles. So that the change 4n the life of the English
pig must needs have been the cause of the poor native
bristles of the eighteenth century ; and in the nineteenth
their disuse. Foreign bristles, however, were in favour
before those days. To talk of foreign bristles is to think
of Russia always.

In 1553 the Russia Company was chartered for
direct trade ; so the natural products of that vast
country began to arrive at the port of London in great
ships. Among the things of importance were large

BRISTLES /

quantities of furs of various animals from the sable to
the bear : the valuable coat of the wild boar, we may be
sure, would not be left out.

In the year 1640, in the second charter of Charles I,
items of bristles arise in London dock duties. The
scavage table of rates inward shows —

Bristles the dozen pounds . . \d.

In 1652 commerce between England and Russia
was suspended ; whilst the world watched the naval
operations of Van Tromp. Gracious heavens ! when,
with appalling oaths against his enemies, the brusque
Dutchman fixed a broom to his mast he must have made
bristles scarce in the " accursed Isles of Britain ! "

Russian bristles, in those days, were imported in
the rough state in barrels of enormous size. It was not
until about 1740 that an attempt was made to classify
the qualities and do them up in bundles.

About the year 1755 considerable sales of Russian
bristles took place in Hull. There is a tradition that
the Russians sent these tied in bundles so large that only
eight or nine were required to make a hundredweight.
The modern hairhand, who knows how hard it would be
to do this, might say " those were the days of miracles."
The large bundles came packed in barrels of about
9 cwt. each. As these were too large for the brushmakers,
most of whom were in a small way, they were bought
by a few outsiders, known as capitalists. These moneyed
men became bristle merchants.

In 1800 the fame of Russian bristles was complete ;
whilst English and Irish had grown so poor as to be
regarded as " seconds " always.

About this time Russian came to hand in bundles
of about 3h lbs., dressed to suit the requirements of
the brushmakers. The sorts were described as " Russia

2— (1468e)

8 THE BRUSHMAKER

best," " Russia middle," " Russia riflings." The names
" Okatka " and "Siberia" also occur.

It appears that the bristles dressers in St. Petersburg
had certain tuition from a few English hairhands.
But, as time went on, the matter of teaching the Russians
was regarded as against the interests of the hairhand
at home. A little of this feeling is suggested in the
minutes of the London Society of Journeyman Brush-
makers ; under date 26th August, 1829, the conduct at
St. Petersburg of one of the members is questioned.

But the influence of the English hairhand could have
been but small, as the Russian method is still different
from that of any other country; of a surety there is
nothing in the world like a bundle of Russian !

For a time all the imported kinds were called
" Russia " as the alternative of home bristles. But,
in a few years, when small lots of other bristles were
brought by migrating Jews from Dantzic, the name of
Russian sorts was changed to " Petersburg," as
indicating the port from which they were shipped. The
bristles themselves, the products of the vast forests
beginning at Finland and ending with Kamschatka,
were altogether superior to those from Dantzic, whose
area of collection was Poland.

For many years, however, Polish bristles were not
taken seriously by the brushmakers : indeed, as late
as 1850, one might almost say, " Russian " was first
and the rest nowhere.

But in 1872, in the trade boom, American buyers
came along, and the price of " Russian " went up
rapidly. This gave " Polish " a chance, and other
kinds called " German dressed " soon came in the
trail.

Close upon the heels of these came " Chinas " fol-
lowed by " Indian." Among these Asian sorts is a

fat^A

AUTOGRAPHS OF LONDON BRUSHMAKERS
C. 1870

10 THE BRUSHMAKER

stiff bristle called " wild pig," little known on account
•of the small quantities produced, but remembered by
the author with a sense of humour.

It happened one day he had to telegraph for two
sorts of bristles to be included in the same consignment.
He handed the telegram in at a village post office,
where a woman was in attendance. Opening her eyes
with great amazement she exclaimed : " Are they
•coming here ? " The telegram read : " Send Indians
with wild pig."

It was Christian missionaries that first taught the
Chinese to dress bristles for exportation. It all happened
through the attitude of the Chinese guilds toward the
Christian convert. When any Chinese joined the
Christians he was treated as an outcast by his own
people : nobody would employ him. Therefore another
responsibility, outside that of doctrine, fell upon the
missionaries. They must find the convert food and
shelter. To this end Christian colonies were formed in
which employment was given to the poor Chinese.
Among the occupations was that of dressing bristles.
At first the work was done badly, and, therefore,
"" China " bristles had a poor reception by the brush-
makers. Indeed, it took a couple of generations to
bring the quality of dressed " China " to the standard
required for high grade brushes.

Meanwhile a number of merchant dressers came into
existence in various parts of China. Until then the
Chinese brushmakers dressed bristles for themselves
alone. The craft guilds of old China were exclusive
bodies, hence the craftsmen pursued their trades with
due secrecy. The Chinese brushmakers, we may be
sure, knew how to use the bristles of the native hog.
The Chinese have, for many centuries, known a good
•deal. The pride of the Chinese craftsman is that of an

BRISTLES II

old race of ingenious people with gifted fingers. They
had their craft guilds long before such institutions were
formed in Europe.

As the names of countries apply to different types
of bristles, so the names of towns and districts mark
the various sorts in each type. In " Chinas " the
best known are " Chungking," " Tsingtau," " Tient-
sin," " Hankow," " Shanghai," " Hongkong," and
" Newschwang." " Calcutta," of course, is another
name for " Indian."

Among Russian sorts are " Kamschatka," " Siberia,"
" Petersburg," and " Moscow " ; and, also, a number
named after their respective dressers, as : " Yerschoff,"
" Xovikoff," H Rutin," " Schwedoff," " Grebinikoff,"
and " Gusseff."

Polish and German-dressed include such names as
" Tictina," " Courland," " Bessarabia," " Moldavia,"
" Memel," and "Bucharest"; and also descriptive
names like " Schlager," " Auszug," " Spitz,"
" Abfall," and others, with " Leek " for the long, stiff.
And there is a sort that Englishmen call " Dower."

The author remembers " Dower " of the old days
when it was a select thing : now, alas, it has outlived
its good name. It is a Polish bristle with romantic
associations. The Germans call it " Hochzeit."
Originally it was tied up in bundles of about ^ lb., each
containing a number of small bundles, called " fingers."
These small knots show the way it was accumulated ;
they throw light on a charming little matter belonging
to the folk. It happens that the daughter of Polish
and Russian folk, however poor, must have a dower.
For this the parents begin early in the girl's life to save
something. The savings may not be money but a
product of value ; it may be choice bristles : they are
easily stored away. The "finger" quantity represents

12 THE BRUSHMAKER

the modest portion niched from each lot as it passed
into the hands of the merchant. Washed and tied-up
with string these " fingers " of nice bristles would be
put into a box and kept until the time the dower was
made. The precious box would, perhaps, be hidden
under the girl's bed.

At that time " Dower " was as scarce as it was good ;
but now, as imitated and prepared by the merchant
dresser, the quantity is unlimited, the quality poor.

The longest and stiffest Russian bristles are called
" Okatka " ; these are from the neck or crest of the
animal. Another sort of less value, bearing the name
" Suchoy," grows upon the breast, just behind the fore
legs, in great length ; seeming to begin as from the
armpits. Hence it is soft. Suchoy in Russian means
dry. This suggests the process of straightening by means
of heat, but the bristles do not betray it like the German-
dressed " Gekochte." Another Russian bristle is
called " Viligaluki," an excellent sort, as the name
suggests. The word is Russian for " the very best."
The general colour of the bristle is light amber. But
the cream of Russian, and best of all bristles, is
" Otborni." The word means " picked out."

By the way, some dainty bleached bristles of moderate
stiffness are prepared in France. These are tied with
white string and cased with blue paper. A small label
gives the length in millimetres, and the quality, or grade,
is defined as " Beaublanc," " Blanc," or " Demiblanc."

But whilst the names of all the various kinds may be
of use, as indicating place of origin, the true value of a
bristle is in its elasticity or stiffness. A matter for the
expert. Light colour, with stiffness, commands a
high price always. " Lily," the most expensive of all,
is very scarce in the stiffer sorts. Indeed, there seems no
limit to the price of what is known as " Lily, stiff."

BRISTLES 13

Russian bristles have certain qualities of their own
highly esteemed by the brushmaker. Whether of the
wild boar, the semi-wild, or of the domestic pig,
" Russian " is more even in thickness from end to end
than any imported from India and China. This may
be seen in single bristles. But it is better to take a
quantity in the hand and hold them tightly together,
grasping first one end and then the other. In applying
this test all round it will be seen that " Russian " has
the smallest roots, and is least taper to the " flag."

These peculiarities give each a different appearance
as an imported article. Russian bristles may be tied
up in large bundles, but the marked taperness of the other
two calls for different treatment. Hence " Indians "
and "Chinas" are imported in small bundles with
dainty ties, the latter having also a paper wrapper.

Though all these leave their native land as dressed
bristles the brushmaker may give them further attention
before they are made up into brushes.

The coat of the wild boar is a combination of stiff
and fine hairs ; in other words, bristles mixed with an
undergrowth of fur. This soft undergrowth occurs
in " Russian " always in plenty, whilst in " Indian "
there is almost none at all. In any case the soft has to
be combed out. The Russian dresser may do this
partially, leaving the rest to the brushmaker, the
" hairhand." What is combed out is called " riflings."
To talk as a brushmaker is to say " Russian produces
riflings, Indian does not."

The fur undergrowth may account for another differ-
ence in these two bristles, which is a matter of importance
touching the lasting quality, the wear of the brush.
As the better bristle Russian is very transparent, oily,
rich in colour, even in substance from end to end,
and tipped with a beautiful " flag." On the other hand,

14 THE BRUSHMAKER

Indian, having no fur undergrowth, is inclined to be
" limey " to the touch and opaque in appearance ;
it may be coarser without being stronger ; may have
a thick root without the corresponding amount of
vitality in the body. Lacking the sparkle and oil of
the other, Indian the sooner goes soft in use, and more
so when used in water.

The coat of the Russian boar is very thick, the blending
of bristles and fur gives him a comfortable appearance.
He is by nature a creature of the north ; Providence
has given him a good garment well-oiled to withstand
the snows.

In " China " bristles the moderate fur undergrowth
may account for the modification of the Asiatic weakness
ascribed here to Indian.

In each country the native pig resembles the native
wild boar, and grows the same type of bristles but
varying in strength, the wild boar having the stiff er
and longer.

The Chinese wild boar is a big animal ; hunters give
the weight as 500 lb. as representing a fine specimen.
The naturalists have Latinized him Sus leucomystax.

The fabulists have given him a prominent place in
their list of demons. He is sometimes white whiskered,
has dark bristles upon the body, and his tusks may be
6 ins. long. His appearance, therefore, is of a kind to
feed the imagination with. A Chinese fable makes him
responsible for missing children.

The Indian wild boar, Sus cristatus, though a smaller
animal than his Chinese and Russian brethren has the
largest tusks. Often weighing under 300 lb. himself
he may have tusks over 12 ins. long.

The Russian wild boar, like the Chinese, is a giant.
His enormous head is about a third of the whole pig.

Many years ago the author imported a stuffed

BRISTLES 15

specimen of the Russian type, Sus scrofa, from Siberia.
This comprises the head, shoulders, and fore legs.
Mounted upon a board it hangs in the museum in
Nottingham. The head measures 20 in. The tusks
are 5 J in. long. This may be one of the best specimens
of the kind in the country. As showing a considerable
portion of the neck it has an interest for the brushmaker,
as upon the crest of the wild boar are found the longest
and stiffest bristles.

CHAPTER III

A BRUSHMAKER IN POLAND

When the author was a young man of twenty he made
a journey and went into Poland and Russia. His
desire was to see how bristles were handled at the source.
It was in 1879. Foreign travel was not so easy then as
now. There were places in Poland where no one knew
a word of English. In the matter of bristles it was
necessary to go into the villages where dialect was
spoken, so that the dictionary was of no use. The only
thing to be done was to live among the folk and look
around. Among those who had bristles to sell were
small farmers and cottagers. Their habits were so
simple they did not feel the need of a railway ; indeed,
many had never seen a train in their lives. To reach
these people the traveller had to employ nothing better
than a horse and cart.

Everything was slow. Men took their time, and horses
and oxen took theirs. Whether at work or at the meal
there was no cause to hurry. To gulp food down, like
people in great cities, would be wrong here. Hardly
any had a watch. The hour might be tolled by a bell.
That was enough. Minutes did not matter. Work
was not measured by the clock. Always in the open
men went on till dusk.

Leisure seemed of no account : no time was set apart
for play. But in their hearts these folk were playful.
They had their fits of laughter and nonsense. If some
strolling players came into the village everybody would
leave work and go and stand around ; even the black-
smith might be seen looking on with the hammer in

A BRUSHMAKER IN POLAND 17

his hand. Perhaps on another occasion one of them-
selves, who had drunk spirits freely, would amuse the
rest. Vodka always made a man eloquent. The way-
side inn was a halting place for man and horse ; it was
a house of fun and gossip as well as refreshment. As
some drank too much there was sometimes a fight.
But thev would not hurt one another unless a stick was
used, and even then the evil effects would soon wear off.

But all told these simple folk were good and kind,
and healthy and pure ; and, as far as buying and selling
mav admit honesty, they were honest.

When a man had something to sell the matter took
a long time, because he would ask more than he expected
to get. Everybody knew this because everybody did
it. Hence these folk were not less honest than men in
other countries where all assume dignity in keeping
the price firm.

Among other things the folk had bristles to sell.
One day the author, having paid a man exactly what he
asked, was looked upon as a philanthropist throughout
the village. But even in these exceptional circumstances
the price was small. The little transaction took place
in a village in the province of Kovno. The price, paid
in roubles, was equal to lid. a pound.

But bristles were no exception to the rule, everything
was cheap. On another occasion the author paid the
equivalent of 8d. for a roast chicken. This was to take
with him on a journey ; it proved a good meal for him
and his companion, the owner of the cart.

It was winter with snow hard upon the ground. The
journey was a day long. On the way, here and there,
was a convenient inn near which the horse would stop
on his own account. A sack would be thrown upon him,
his head-gear removed, and an armful of fodder from
the cart would be thrown down upon the snow. The

18 THE BRUSHMAKER

cart was almost full of this loose hay. The stuff served
to keep the two men warm. But now they would go and
sit near a big stove in the inn, and each would have a
tiny measure of spirit the size of a thimble. Perhaps
the men in the room numbered a dozen. Sitting among
these the owner of the cart looked quite at home, but
the author with his Melton coat was an unmistakable
foreigner. All the others were clothed with skins.
Each garment showed a number of odd furs all sewn
together and made into a coat. Without any cloth
to cover the innumerable seams these coats were stiff,
greasy looking things. They were made with the
hair inside. As none removed his coat in the presence
of the hot stove the atmosphere was like that of a
menagerie.

It was easy to make friendship. Without many words
these folk soon knew you. They read you in your look ;
they saw from your eyes the trend of your heart. They
could trust you ; which meant they trusted themselves
and had no doubt.

The peasantry in remote parts of east Prussia, known
there as Litaus, belong to the same stock. The author,
desiring to see these folk and hear them talk, travelled
fourth class on the railways. This means that he sat
upon his bag in a crowded truck where no seats were
provided. It was made plain in large letters on the
outside how many horses and how many people the
truck was intended to carry. Of course the fares were
cheap ; the speed correspondingly slow. Many sat
upon the floor ; and others would lie down if there
happened to be room enough.

The luggage was as interesting as the folk. A person's
belongings may be as a key to his character. The vari-
ous things the folk had with them were an index to their
lives.

JJS15.

STAVELEY BRUSHMAKERS' ARMS I DATED 1815

20 THE BRUSHMAKER

In one of these trucks one day there was enough
material to weave a romance with, if poverty and
simplicity could be the ideals of the one who wove it.

One man had a basket containing live ducks ; another
had a rake in his hand. And there was a spinning-wheel
close beside a woman.

The stopping places were mostly villages. At one of
these a man boarded the truck with a pig in a bag.
Here was a thing of interest to the brushmaker. Al-
though the pig was small he had a good crop of bristles
on his back, as could be seen through the coarse mesh
of the sack. That it was a pig all knew by the noise
he made when first brought in.

On being shown a small knot of bristles, which the
author had with him, the man gave his name and
address. He lived on the Russian side of the frontier.
He was a swineherd.

It should be stated here that Russian swine produce
bristles next in value to those of the native wild boar.
The pigs, kept in herds, are quite different from the
English animal that lives in a sty. The herded swine
are narrow in body, they have legs that give them speed,
and their large heads show their likeness to the wild
boar. It could be said that whilst the Russian pig
takes a pride in growing bristles his English cousin is
content to grow bacon.

To hear folk talk about pigs is interesting. A butcher
in Memel said that a certain man, with a view to im-
proving his stock, once fetched some pigs from England.
It seemed the man wanted meat-producing animals and,
therefore, selected English pigs for their fatness. But
in the end came disappointment. In course of time
the imported stock lost almost all its English character.
The change in climate and mode of life were the chief
causes. Had the pigs remained in their native land they

A BRUSHMAKER IN POLAND 21

would have been kept in a sty, but in Poland they were
in the charge of the swineherd. In England the pig
has all his food poured into a trough, whilst his cousin
in foreign lands may feed on the roots of trees. The
one is kept in his little house with only enough room to
turn himself round : the other has the liberty of the
forest.

Climate has all to do with the growth of bristles.
The stiffer and longer belong to the colder regions
always. In the Baltic provinces, with the severe winter,
the pig must needs have a good coat. The same applies
to the wild boar ; the farther north the hunter goes the
better bristles he gets.

When the author first saw a herd of swine in the charge
of the swineherd he felt what a touching picture it
would make with " The Prodigal Son " as title. The
man, quite harmless in his heart, had a wild exterior.
He was armed with a stick as thick as his leg. Nothing
flexible would command the respect of the pigs. They
were a thick-skinned bristly lot, with long snouts.
The mouth of a pig is his means of attack, he would tear
a walking stick to pieces and probably eat it.

In this respect the Russian pig is very aggressive.
The swineherd would shout and tell you to keep away.
But on your own initiative you would not go near,
because the swine themselves are not inviting, as when
they look at you they seem to set their bristles up.

On the necks of these pigs the bristles were long and
stiff. In the same district — the province of Kovno—
a bristle dresser had some on his bench that showed
a good proportion of stiff, A\ to 6 in. long.

When properly washed and combed all the various
lengths would be tied up in small bundles, known as
" Polish knots." The quantity of bristles in each
would be a small handful, and the " knot " would be

"22 THE BRUSHMAKER

conspicuous for its string. Beginning at the roots of the
bristles the man would wind the string round a dozen
or more times and then, perhaps, make a loop at the end.
As bristles are always sold by weight and the tie is
included there was method in the use of string.

We will return to the swineherd. The man's task
was not a simple one like that of the shepherd. Pigs
do not keep together like sheep. No, the pig has a
personality, he may go forth on his own account. In
his wild state he will face the hunter by himself ; indeed,
the wild boar, sure of his strength, will attack anything.

Whilst a sheep will never leave his flock the pig may
get bored by his friends and run away. But two dogs
would go after him ; he would have no peace till he
returned. Though he may go off at a good speed he
does not keep it up. The pig soon gets out of breath,
he is only a sprinter ; dogs beat him in the end.

The two dogs that went with the swineherd had a
wolfish appearance. Indeed, it would be easy to en-
courage the illusion and believe they were actually
wolves themselves save for one touch of good nature, as
when they came near you they wagged their tails,
bent their ears down, and looked up at you with be-
seeching eyes. They were well trained, too ; they ran
to their master the moment he blew his horn. The
swineherd's horn, made of the horn of an animal, was
by no means a musical instrument. Since it required
a good volume of wind to make a sound it resulted in an
odd blast.

In all this, one might say, here was a remnant out
of the Middle Ages. In England in those times the
pigs may have been just like these, and the swineherd
just like this.

It occurs to the author that the pigsty in ancient
times was used only for the sow with a young family,

A BRUSHMAKER IX POLAND 23

as in those days pig was the name of the young. The
full grown animals were called hogs or swine. These
would have free run in the villages and the towns, and
would also be taken in herds to feed in the woods.

In the reign of Edward I swine wandered about in
the streets of London.

We may get a little light on this from the Liber
Albus, compiled a.d. 1419. The matter is that of a
statute made in the year of Our Lord, 1273 —

That no swine shall be found about the streets or about
the lanes in the City. Or in the suburbs or in the fosses
of the said City (London) from this time forward. And
if swine shall be found in the places aforesaid they shall
be killed by those by whom they shall be found. And
those who kill them shall have them freely and clearly
without any challenge thereof. Or else the swine shall
be bought back, by him who owns it, at the price of
four pence. And he who shall wish to feed a pig must
feed it in his own house. That such pigstyes as are
in the streets shall be removed. And if any swine
shall be found in the streets they shall be forfeited.
And four men are elected and sworn in to take and
kill such swine as shall be found wandering within the
city : to whomsoever they shall belong. The swine
belonging to the Prion,' and Hospital of Saint Anthony
in Threadneedle Street, however, are specially exempted
from this law : and they shall have free run at all
times.

This statute referred only to the City of London.
In the provinces all the swine had free run like those of
" Saint Anthony."

In Russia there appears to be no law at all against
the liberty of the pig : no, the pig is a social institution ;
he figures so much in the peasant's life that Russia
could not be Russia without him.

Where there are no railways folk do not live in crowded
streets, they must needs spread themselves upon the

3— (1468e)

24 THE BRUSHMAKER

land. In Russia every man has room for a pig and he
keeps one.

In some districts the pigs in charge of the swineherd
may be a community ; that is to say, the herd may be
composed of pigs belonging to different persons. Indeed,
a herd of sixty swine may have twenty or more individual
owners.

The swineherd collects the pigs as he goes along in
the morning and, on his return in the evening, he dis-
tributes them. In the morning the herd increases by
slow degrees like a rolling snowball : in the evening it
melts away. At the beginning of the day the man blows
his horn and the pig leaves his home and runs and joins
the herd. He may come out of a field, or a stable, or a
back-yard, or a poor man's hut ; it matters not, he
will join the herd with equal right. His owner may be
too poor to find food : the pig must go with the herd
into the forest and feed on nuts and all sorts of things
down to moist roots.

The pig is not only a scavenger but an excavator as
well. At the end of his snout is a muscular disc to root
things up with. This moves about like a button, and
having two holes it looks like a button. The pig's
keen sense of smell enables him to know what is hidden
in the earth, he discovers the contents of the subsoil
better than the geologists.

In Russia, as the author knew it, one might buy
bristles of the town authorities. Some of the pigs that
ran about the streets belonged to the council ; they
were kept as scavengers as well as food providers, and
their bristles afforded a revenue. These pigs, like those
of the herd, may be called semi-wild.

The English and Irish pigs once belonged to the same
stock. But scientific breeding, as well as restricted area,
has changed their character. In no other part of the

A BRUSHMAKER IN POLAND 25

world has the hog become so thoroughly civilized
as in England and Ireland. In some way, we might
imagine, the pig and the owner have certain interests
in common.

One day a man was observed by a great landowner
to be looking over a wall into the park. " Do you know
who I am ? " shouted the rich man indignantly.

" No," replied the other. " I am Lord ." " Wait

a minute," said the poor man, " while I lift up my pig
and let him look at you."

In 1850 the bristles of English and Irish pigs had
almost ceased to be of use to the brushmaker, and long
before that time the quality had grown poor. In 1805
the brushmakers regarded them as inferior to Russian
" seconds." A list of that date, agreed upon by the
masters and journeymen, shows how poor the native
bristles were from the high price the men got for dressing
them. The matter proves also that Russia was the
great unchallenged source of foreign bristles. So it
remained, in some respects, fifty or more years.

In passing it may be of interest to make another
comparison.

As the three bristle countries have different religious
beliefs, as well as unlike surroundings, they must needs
view the pig differently. In Russia the hog is respected
by all classes, like he is in other Christian countries.
In India the pig's friends are the poor, known as low
caste. They cultivate him, sell his bristles, and eat
his bacon. The rest of India holds aloof from the
" devil " ; save the highest in the land, the aristocracy,
who go " pig sticking " so they may eat him as game.

The difference between Russia and China, in the life
of the pig, is largely due to the national economic
conditions of the people. The reason for the swineherd
in Russia is the vast forests ; whilst in China, with

26 THE BRUSHMAKER

its over-population and no wildernesses, the swineherd
is hardly known. With so many people everywhere
in all the land there is no reason for the poor Chinese
pig to leave his own street. So he lies about in the
gutter and in the narrow ways, and the public tolerate
him. He may sleep in the footpath and everybody will
stride over his black, bristly body rather than wake
him up.

CHAPTER IV

THE HAIRHAXD

Bristles need considerable preparation before they
are made into a brush. The man who does all this is
called a hairhand. His work is interesting because it
is clothed with mystery. As an old craft it requires
skilled fingers, intuition, and a little care.

Here is a picture of the man's primitive surroundings.
His bench is a firm structure. The front, upon which he
manipulates the hairs, has to be dead solid. This may
be a well-seasoned beech plank 6 ft. or more in length,
3 in. thick, and as wide as is possible to get from the
tree. The rest may be thin boards. But the whole
should be joined so as to make a level surface and smooth.
The bench may be supported with trestles that have
their ends fixed into the bricks.

With constant use the bench becomes nut brown,
the oily nature of the hairs enriches it, the continuous
friction gives it polish. The spot near the comb is the
colour of an old violin. Just below the comb is a smooth
board, less than a square foot, screwed to the bench ;
this is to press the roots of the hairs against to keep the
handful level in the process of combing.

Fixed with its long steel points erect the comb sparkles
as the danger spot upon the bench. But when not in
use the points may be covered with a case. The size
stick and the tying-up box show the simplicity of the
hairhand's equipment. The first is about 6 in. high,
marked like a rule with quarter inches, it has a base of
sufficient weight to keep it upright ; the other is to hold
a few handfuls of hair in making a bundle. Besides these

28 THE BRUSHMAKER

are a pair of trimming shears, a small comb, and a bat,
and there may be a knife made from an old razor.

The man wears two aprons, a small one over a large
one. The first made of stiff leather, is about the size
of his waistcoat, the other of leather soft and thin
may reach down to his knees. There is no change in
these things, and the habit of hanging the leather apron
upon the comb at the end of the day is still the same.

The bench has to be rather high, so as to allow the
man to stand up while at work at the comb. He will
have other things to do in which he may be seated on a
high stool. In the course of a few days the man may
turn from " sorting " to " dragging," and then to
"" mixing."

For the moment we will assume that the man has a
dressing of " high first " in hand.

To begin with we may hear him call bristles " hairs."
In the case of Russian he describes them as " firsts "
and " seconds " ; the classification adopted by his union
a hundred years ago as a means of fixing the rate of pay-
ment. Where various colours appear as rings in the
bundle he calls it " bull's eye."

First of all he will open the bundle by pushing off
the " bark," which he throws as a ring upon a peg
on the wall for further use. Steadying the hair with both
hands, with the thumbs pressed in toward the middle,
he makes the bundle unfold itself before him. If the
sort happens to be " bull's eye firsts " the layers of
black and grey and white and yellow will almost fall
asunder in the original handfuls of the Russian dresser.
Some parts will be " spotty." The whole, however,
has to be sorted.

Sorting means separating the colours. This has
almost only to do with Russian hairs, as those of India
and of China are imported in separate colours. Sorting,

THE HAIRHAXD 29

however, may not be a difficult matter, but considerable
skill is required in " dragging," and the work is
important.

Dragging has to do with sizes. In their nature
bristles vary in length always. On the crest of the wild
boar they may be 6 in. long and more, whilst in other
parts of the same animal they may grow short and
shorter, to 3 in. and less.

For the present we will keep to " bull's eye firsts " :
a very satisfactory sort, yielding all the several colours
and a good range of sizes. This leaves the hands of
the Russian dresser in bundles of about 3J lbs. neatly
tied with bark, the inner bark of the limetree torn into
ribbons and twisted.

The bundle is a compact thing. Bound at the bottom
with three or four rings of bark the roots compose a
hard mass, whilst a slender ring of bark tied a little above
the other completes the security of the bundle. From
the outside appearance it might pass, to the uninitiated,
as containing bristles of equal length throughout.
The carefully trimmed top with its rings of white and
black and grey, together with the fine " capping,"
are touches that show the art of the Russian hairhand.
But when the bundle is opened on the bench of the
brushmaker and dragged, it may produce eight different
sizes. The man will lay all these various lengths in
order upon his bench, each being a ^ in. less than the
other, from, say, 5^ down to 3i in.

We will look and see how he does it. First he stands
at the comb manipulating a handful. The handful, so
called, is really the quantity of hair held with both
hands in the process of combing. It looks a dangerous
business. The man's fingers dance fearfully near the
sharp points as he bangs the handful into them and draws
it out again. The points disappear and flash again in

- * ~ " ^

°^ 3 ■si * r l*

♦* -0 to a C > "Mv.
c g 8 ffco 3 *; ^.= 73

i ^ J <f a

DOG

"S 3

ilfflfl

4**51*4

32 THE BRUSHMAKER

rapid succession, and the comb rings mornfully like a
muffled harp.

Now and then the man takes a brief moment and turns
the handful right about and greases his comb, and the
muffled harp begins again. Again he may break off
and sweep his hand to the back of the comb and clear
away the " riflings." These disappear under the bench
with one stroke ; he may grease his comb the same
moment.

Grease has a twofold use : it assists the comb and
feeds the hair. Bristles become stiffer, freer, livelier
with a little friction and a drop of oil. In like degree
the small finger sample taken from a bundle and freely
handled may become better than the bulk. The moisture
of the hand, as in testing the stiffness, will do this in
a little while. The hairhand makes his grease of
Russian tallow and train oil, these are soon amalgamated
in a tin over a stove. The smell of it belongs to the
hair bench, as from the beginning of the craft.

When the man has combed a few handfuls he will
sit down and " drag." There are two ways in dragging,
one is with the knife, the other with the fingers alone.
The knife is held in the right hand. The blade, pro-
jecting from between the first and second fingers, is
pressed against the thumb. With the left hand the man
holds the bristles against his leather apron with their
"" flag " uppermost, the roots resting upon the bench.
The hand moves from the wrist only : it turns sharply
as the " flag " is caught between the knife and the
thumb. So many of the bristles as may be held with
the edge of the blade are drawn up at a time. They
rise in a little row of numbers thick, and row after row
springs up at the turn of the hand and the knife.

When the whole surface has been gone over the raised
hairs are taken out with the hand and laid upon the

THE HAIRHAND 33

bench, in the place allotted to the size, and then the
next size — a J in. down — is " dragged "off in like
manner, and so on until none above 3\ in. is left.
This " 3 J " is called " bottoms," it is classed as
" taper," whilst all the other sizes are called " solid."

" Dragging " with the fingers alone differs from that
with the knife in minor points. Instead of the roots
of the hairs being held upon the bench the handful
is pressed sideways against the man's breast — against
his hard apron, and the tips of thumb and forefinger
do the work of the knife. This is the older method and,
in some respects, the better. The movements of the
hand are different, more rhythmic, more dexterous, and,
what is more important, the fingers are kinder to the
" flag " than is the knife.

As each colour in turn is dragged the sizes are tied up
in bundles of a few handfuls. But before this is done
each size may have to be " mixed." This is called
" mixing dragged hairs," a process by which the hair
is made even in colour and soliditv.

In " dragging " quarter-inch sizes all above one size
must needs go into the next, so that when the hair is
tied up without " mixing," as is sometimes required,
the top appears uneven, or like stepping stones, and the
general colour " spotty." But, at the moment, we will
take the alternate case : the hair is to be mixed.

First the man will " row down," keeping, of course,
all the sizes and colours separate. " Rowing down " is
to place the hair in thin layers, one upon the other, along
the bench. This is done to equalize differences that
happen in quality and colour, and to break up the
stepping stones we have pictured just now.

When mixing at the comb begins the man takes his
handfuls from the end of the row. If he happens
to have a large mixing in hand, and the row appears

34 THE BRUSHMAKER

as a wall of hair, he will need a couple of skewers. With
these he pierces the row in sections, one by one. pro-
gressively towards the left, moving the skewers as the
handfuls are wanted. So the hair is held up at short
stages to the last handful.

The method of layers, seen in " rowing down," is
continued with the handful at the comb. With a few
brisk strokes the hair is first made free and adaptable.
Now the man will turn it about, " cut " it, and lay one
half upon the other, comb it again, " fan " it, or perhaps
" row " it thinly upon the bench and fold it like a
fairy garment and the next second put it through the
comb again. Where the " bend " is important the
man may keep to one method and only " cut."

The various movements are almost magical. In
combing first the " flag " and then the " root " the
handful will turn a somersault or go quickly right about.
In all this the hard leather apron, the smooth board
below the comb, and the solid bench take their parts.
Against the first two the " roots " are alternately
pressed, upon the other they are banged. We have
compared the comb to a muffled harp, the sound of the
bench is like the muffled drum, it is heard at short
intervals as in a funeral march. It is called " knocking
up." It is to knock up the roots to the level mass
from which they seem determined to escape. Indeed,
it takes all the man's genius to master their slippery
nature. But herein lies the charm ! for, whilst high-
class bristles may baffle the apprentice by their smooth-
ness, this rare quality enables the master to work
miracles almost. In his hands how thinly they may be
spread ! The gossamer would seem not more wonderful :
the wing of a bird not more quick.

In a minute or so, when the handful may have become
evenly mixed, the man will glance at the " flag." He

THE HAIRHAXD 35

holds it a second with the roots down upon the bench
and scans the top. The man may be satisfied it is well
mixed and the top will look like velvet.

Now he will lav the hair across a piece of bark in the
tying-up box. With a few handfuls he will make a
bundle, so even, so solid, so uniform, as to be very
pleasant to look upon. He will stroke the side with a
comb so that not a hair shall be out of place. Of a
truth a bundle of dressed Russian " firsts " has a real
charm for the brushmaker. Wherever he may come
upon it he will be drawn as by a magnet. He will
take the bundle carefully up in his hands and, with
thumb upon the roots and finger a little above, he will
make the bristles chatter !

For certain kinds of brushes such as high-class hair-
brushes, the white and the yellow bristles have to be
" engined." That is to say, graded according to their
stifmess or stoutness.

" Engining " is done by drawing the bristles in three
or more combs or " engines " of various grades. These
are fixed upon a bench side by side. In the process the
hairhand begins with the coarsest. The bristles have
already been well combed with the ordinary comb.
Now the man takes a quantity and holds it in a thin
layer between two brushes. These are placed so as to
allow the roots of the bristles to project out at the front
in a layer. The brushes are pressed together with both
hands so tightly as to admit only the few bristles that
have thickest roots to be drawn out. In other words,
the teeth of the " engine " hold these by their roots
whilst all the rest are drawn away.

As will be seen, the process is possible only because
bristles happen to have roots in the shape of knobs
and that the stouter bristles have the larger roots.

The bristles retained in the first " engine " may be

36 THE BRUSHMAKER

called extra stiff, those in the second medium stiff,
and those in the third stiff. When they are all tied up
in bundles they may, perhaps, be labelled XXX, XX, X,
respectively. All the others, whose small roots escaped
the teeth of the third " engine," are set aside for less
costly brushes.

Another ingenious thing for the hairhand to do is to
deal with " turned hairs." In most bristles dressed
abroad there is an occasional bundle that has a few
bristles turned the wrong way. These rebel hairs cannot
be allowed to remain with their roots uppermost.
They are, fortunately, only a small minority like men
who sit with their feet upon the chimney-piece.

The hairhand has two methods. One is to draw all the
" turned hairs " out with an " engine " of extra fine
gauge, the other is a secret handed down through many
generations of the craft.

As is the case of most secrets this is perfectly simple.
The portion containing the turned hairs is placed in a
thin layer upon a smooth surface and rubbed with a
stick. The stick, which may be beech, should be about
a foot in length, and well-planed on four sides so that the
corners shall be straight and sharp. The stick held
with both hands at a right angle to the bristles is pressed
upon them and rubbed up and down. The friction causes
the bristles to separate and go in two opposite directions,
roots foremost. To the uninitiate the thing looks like
magic, he is at loss to know why every bristle should go
from under the stick root first, and having all got free,
they should form two different groups, one having all
roots down, the other all roots up.

To find out how this is done we must take up some of
the bristles and look at them. To the normal eye a
bristle appears as a slender, horny thing with a tiny
bulb at one end and a few feathery points at the other.

THE HAIRHAXD 37

The first is simply the root, the other is known as the
flag. The rest, smooth and transparent, tapers upward
toward the flag.

Smoothness is one of the chief qualities. A bristle
may be drawn between the fingers either way with
equal freedom almost. The difference is so slight and
subtle as to need the sensitive fingers of the hairhand
to detect it.

For your amusement the man may take up an odd
bristle and hold it between his finger and thumb and,
with a slight chafing movement, make the bristle
run through his fingers like a thing alive. This happens
because there are minute scales or hairs upon the bristle
that grow towards the flag. From the friction of the
fingers, as from under the stick, the bristle simply
takes the course of least resistance, which is root first.
Add to this the fact that a bristle always tapers to the
flag and you have the secret.

CHAPTER V

THE PANHAND

The panhand is one who at his best sets bristles with
pitch into a broom stock, and on other occasions various
fibres and mixtures. There are many grades in bristle
brooms, endless different qualities in others mixed with
horsehair, and again where fibres enter.

The bundle by his side may be a mixture : the
panhand does not mind so long as it is well mixed, clean,
solid, and straight. In choice of materials he is a crea-
ture of circumstances. But he may be setting pure
bristles, so the matter, for the moment, is simple.

His name is panhand because he sits at work at
the pitch pan. He may be one of four as the pan-frame
has four sides, with the pan exactly in the middle.
So the four men have equal positions, each with a
narrow plane before him just enough to hold his materials
and his broom, and each the same distance to reach
to dip his " knot." A knot of bristles is the precise
quantity set in each hole in the stock.

The pan is made of copper, it is round, and has four
equal spaces formed of necessity by the four " strikers."
These are pieces of copper set on edge in position a
little higher than the rest of the pan ; they are to strike
the knot upon to relieve it of superfluous pitch before
it is tied. Each man has his own striker.

The pan rests upon a stove. The pitch, though
never allowed to boil, is kept hot — hot enough to scald
the apprentice's finger when he has not measured his
" dip."

Dipping is an art. When the precise knot is chosen

THE PAXHAND 39

it is held between the thumb and finger in a special
way. With slight thumb-pressure the " roots " are
spread like a fan. As bristles are always set by their
roots we are reminded they grow that way. Dipped
fan-like all the roots take the pitch quickly. Speed
is everything in a craft that requires little bodily strength.
But the skilled workman is unconscious of speed.
His speed is his habit, that is all.

The moment the knot is dipped it is tied with a
" thrum." Thrums are yarn cut in short lengths.
Each man has a bundle in his apron strings in front of
him. The knot is dipped a second time and promptly
set. The manner of setting is to push the knot to the
bottom of the hole and turn the stock. It is a quick
movement in which the stock turns a somersault and
returns to the i( horse " again. The horse is really a
wooden saddle to rest the stock in. All this may call
to mind the acrobat who turns in the air and falls into
the saddle again. The horse upon the pan-frame,
old as he is, may have got his name from the circus.

While the stock is in motion the knot is held firm,
it is not liberated from the thumb and finger till the
broom is back in its place. In this movement two
things of importance have happened. The pitch has
been spread inside the hole in all the grain of the wood,
and the knot has been given a bushy look in the sudden
twist it received. If the knot does not behave in this
way the man will spread it from the middle with the
tip of the finger.

The panhand's fingers have a keen sense of quantity.
The finished workman knows to a hair the size of his
knot. His method is to hold a handful with his left
hand with the roots uppermost and take the small
quantity with his right thumb and finger. Though this
is all done in a second the quantity shall be so exact

4— (1468e)

40 THE BRUSHMAKER

that, when dipped and tied and dipped again, the knot
shall fit the hole as nicely as a pencil fits the holder.

The panhand's method is so perfect that he may
make a dozen brooms within an ounce of a given weight
of hair. In all this two important things have to be
considered. One is the size of the " bit" with which
the holes are bored, the other the evenness with which
they are filled. If in the first dozen brooms the man
happens to use a few ounces above the proper weight he
may take the " bit " in hand and reduce it by an almost
imperceptible difference. All this is done by hand
without the means of a gauge.

The panhand has nothing to do with mathematics.
Size is relative, that is all. He may have in mind a
difference of only two ounces in a whole dozen brooms,
and he may stroke the bit with a file so skilfully as
to put the matter right.

Besides all this the nature of the hair has to be under-
stood. The bend in bristles is a graceful way of their
own that cannot be permanently altered. They may
be got straight by a process of tying-up in moist con-
dition and baking, but they soon fall again into their
natural state.

In some sorts the bend is very marked, in others
slight and beautiful. The latter is a characteristic
of the best. For the moment good bristles shall be
considered, the man we are talking about shall be making
best brooms.

Slight as the bend may be the good workman will
detect it immediately, the hairhand will have turned
all the bends one way and the panhand will fashion his
broom in accordance. That is to say, that, in skilful
setting, the arrangement of the bends may give
symmetrical shape to the broom.

But the interest of the panhand in the perfect form

THE PAXHAND 41

of his broom begins before this. In the first place, he
is found at the lathe boring. The brushmaker uses
a spoon bit. This requires skill and care to get it into
condition and keep it fit. First the bit has to be set
into a wood chuck by means of hot lead. He does all
this himself.

In " putting up " the bit the experienced workman
will have it " dead true." A hair's breadth out of
centre will not do for him. In his hands the bit is a
wonderful instrument. To get it to perfection he
cutters it from the inside and uses the oil stone from
without. In this way the nose and the cutting side
of the bit are given a razor-like edge.

The cutter may be made out of an old file. This is
ground at the end to a sharp angle. Two of these are
required, one made of a round file, the other a triangular
one.

In the lathe the bit in motion shines like crystal,
and there is magic in the way it enters the stock and
scoops out the borings. The holes are bored at certain
angles with a view to the " spread " of the broom.
The man takes up the stock without any previous
" marking out." It is all a matter of memory and sense
of proportion. He stands at the lathe and simply
begins.

The holes are made in rapid succession, all in their
right places without the aid of any gauge, and every
hole almost at slightly different angle. The man em-
ploys the same faculty here as in setting, all with a view
to a well-shaped broom. He is an artist because he
holds the stock in his hands and proceeds with free
will — an artist because he controls all the variable
angles, every fractional difference that goes to the shaping
of the broom !

The lathe may be driven by a motor. A few years

42 THE BRUSHMAKER

ago the man would have treadled it himself. The
treadle would have been two strips of wood forming
a right angle, one having an iron eye affixed to it would
be linked to the crank in the wheel by a long hook.

In starting his lathe the man would treadle a moment
or two and get the wheel going a good speed before
proceeding to bore. The wheel might weigh a hundred
pounds. With this at full speed the man would have
to keep his foot in touch with the treadle, otherwise
the hook would jump and leave the crank. Though
all this belongs to the old days the author may be allowed
to dwell upon the quaint details, as during many years
he worked in the same way himself. The recollection
is pleasant. Few things, however, have changed.
The atmosphere of the pitch is still the same and men
sit around the pan.

We will return to the man at the lathe. With a
dozen or more bored stocks he comes back to the pan.
He has been away an hour perhaps. He will now sit
down a good portion of the day. He has joined his
friends again : he is again one of the four. Having
picked up his bundle of thrums he will set " knots "
in perfect order, everyone showing a little bead of pitch
around the base of it. The bead is one of the subtle
things that prove him master of his craft.

The work at the pan is of a quiet nature. This is
important to the men. No rumbling machinery clashes
with their conversation. They have not to shout
as men do in a steam factory, where words are cut short
as though every one was a deaf person. The quiet
sense of the pan-frame is favourable to intellectual
discourse, hence the panhand may be better informed
than men who live half their lives in a foundry amid
the noise of thunderous hammers. Machinery may
be wonderful to construct, it may be a means of

THE PANHAND 43

producing luxurious things for many, but it has an evil
effect upon the man who is compelled to put up with
its never ending noise.

The men around the pan use no other means than
their own skilled fingers, they have nothing in the
nature of tools near them. They are as primitive men.
God gave them hands, they are satisfied in using
them.

Panwork must needs be an old branch in brushmaking.
Indeed, it may be the original tree. The secrets of the old
brushmakers began with their use of bristles and hairs,
of this we may be sure. The masters of the type that
formed the guilds would have interests in better things
than reeds and rushes and fibres. The panhand, it
would follow, would be employed solely with the
mysteries of hairs ; he would make brooms and
other brushes in which the hair would needs be
" set."

To the author the pan-frame suggests tradition.
Without any record to go upon the thing itself is enough
to feed the imagination. The simplicity of the structure,
together with its unalterable limitations, stamp it at
once as being ancient and enduring. A relic of the past,
a necessity of the present, the pan-frame is so simple
that no genius may change its character. The little
square structure, held together with bolts like an old
bedstead, simply defies time.

The same old tradition finds sympathy in the men who
sit around it. As well-trained workmen their method
is exactly the same as their forbears : they have had
the secrets handed down to them.

The duties of the apprentice belong to the old days,
too. The pan-frame has to be given a coat of whiting
even- day : the apprentice does all this, so that the men
may have a white board to begin the day with. So,

THE BRUSHMAKER

~~ <&

^Sl.'-.

l^£L

too, the boy breaks the pitch in the barrel and fills a
whitened tray with it, so that the men may have pitch
always near at hand to feed the pan with.

To be true in detail we
must not forget the change
in the fuel. In the old days,
before the pan was heated
with gas, a charcoal stove was
used. The old pan and stove
combined was a thing of
charming simplicity : like the
pan-frame it was made for use
and nothing more.

Things made solely for use
are mostly symmetrical. The
pitch-pan with its charcoal
stove was exactly so : indeed,
its simplicity had a sense of
dignity. Standing upon three
legs, in the middle of the frame,
without any superfluous detail
for " ornament " the thing was
above criticism. With feet rest-
ing upon the floor, head rising
out of the " frame," it had long
legs of necessity. The propor-
tion of the legs to the body was
spider-like. It stood alone with-
out any support from the frame,
so that it could be lifted bodily
out to be cleaned.

In those days the apprentice,
having a small box of charcoal by his side, would feed
the stove piecemeal keeping the heat as even as possible.
And the two small doors, one at the fire hole, the other

PITCH PAN AND

CHARCOAL STOVE,

1825

THE PANHAXD 45

to use as ventilator, would be opened and closed
alternately many times during the day.

In the morning the charcoal was put into the stove
together with a quantity of tinder, and the fire was
lighted with the aid of steel and flint. So there was
often a good deal of blowing from the mouth of the
apprentice whose duty it was to keep the fire going all
day. When his wind failed he used the bellows.

The pan, however, like the frame, is unchanged.
Save for the passing of the charcoal stove all the tech-
nicalities of the pan, as we know them now, have been
handed down from master to apprentice, through many
generations. As trade secrets they were never published,
but given only to those admitted to the craft.

In the times of the guild the number of apprentices
was severely restricted. In any trade the master
would have to attend his guild, not only to purchase
his freedom as a master-craftsman but to enrol his
apprentice. The restrictions extended to the number of
men he should have. Indeed, the chief business of
the guild was to prevent overcrowding. With this in
mind the guild brethren would meet in secret and discuss
their interests within closed doors. Every brother
craftsman was expected to be an upright person ; if
he owed money to another of the guild the wardens
would enforce payment. He was not permitted to
engage another's servant before the end of the servitude.
The guild would also regulate wages and make other
conditions of employment. But no delegate from the
employed was allowed to attend the guild. In those
days there was no recognized working-class interest.
Any organization of workmen was looked upon as
conspiracy to be put down by force.

In Germany, in the fourteenth century, the master
brushmakers had a guild that operated in all the various

46 THE BRUSHMAKER

provinces and a good portion of Poland. The head of
the system was in the old city of Nuremberg.

In England the brushmakers had no charter and,
consequently, no hall of guild. They met, however,
all the same, and conducted their affairs in secret like
the rest. It is quite reasonable to believe that many
master brushmakers belonged to the guild of carpenters,
with whom they were associated through the common
interest of the brush stock.

As touching the merits of brushmaking no craft
brotherhood could have admitted the besommaker
or any such person as was engaged in converting
a fibrous shrub into a broom. No, the brethren
put all their faith in brushes made of bristles and hairs !
There are no secrets in the shrub. The besom stands
confessed to everybody, whilst the mysteries connected
with the hairs of wild animals are enough to dazzle
a schoolmaster.

And these would be among the mysteries into which
the apprentice panhand in those days would be initiated.
Now we may be sure the panhand was a person to be
respected : he is still ! His broom, made of all hair,
with all its mysteries, is an honest thing !

CHAPTER VI

THE PAINT BRUSH MAKER

The old masters, we may be sure, made their own paint
brushes. A little light upon this may be got in the art
galleries. In many a painter's portrait of himself
the paint brush appears as a charming detail, and though
slightly drawn as a rule, the make of it may be traced.
In certain cases the brush shows the hand of the painter :
of a surety he himself bound it with string.

All this is more than interesting : it is illuminating !
The paint brush may be a key to the painter's character.
This thing may open, perhaps, some secret of his art.

The hair of the brush may be short and firm, or long
and pliant. The brush may have a point, or it may be
dumpy. It may be round, or, perhaps, pressed flat.
All these variable differences have meanings, that is
to say for those that move upon the plane of the painter.

In present days of mass production the paint brush
has become standardized : the modern painter buys
his brush at a shop. Perfect as it is the thing has no
special interest because its individual character is gone.
Many may paint with the same sort of brush with similar
effect. So we grow more alike : move all together and
get good or bad results on a grand scale. Collectively
we have become mighty ; individually weak.

In the old days before the painter was supplied with
brushes with bright nickel ferrules and polished handles
and bristles carefully bleached, he made his own with
string and a stock, and bristles the natural colour of
the hog.

The hog's-hair brush is an ancient thing : it was
47

48 THE BRUSHMAKER

greatly prized by painters in the Middle Ages. Giotto,
who was born in 1266, tells us this in a moment of good
humour. One day he and a few friends met a herd
of swine. One of the herd ran against the painter and
knocked him down. Giotto sprang up with a light
heart and, saluting the pig with a graceful bow,
exclaimed : " Well done ! I have made many a florin
out of your bristles and yet have never offered you a boul
of soup ! "

We will think of this Florentine in his studio : imagine
him, with all his fame as painter, making a brush for
himself.

Having first selected some hog-bristles he would
tie them round the middle with string, taking care that
their natural bends shall all be turned toward the centre,
and so form the dome-like brush he required. He would
be careful, also, to allow only the " flag," or soft ends
of the bristles to compose the point ; on the other hand,
all the roots would be set into the stock. In this state
the thing is called a " knot." As to the stock the
painter would, perhaps, cut it from a tree in his walks.

When the stick was pared down to the thickness of
the knot it would have strips of thin leather or parch-
ment bound upon the end to form a tube. Into this
cavity the knot would be set with warm shellac and
bound while in a malleable state.

Sometimes quills were used instead of leather. These
would be dipped into hot water to soften. In their
pliant state they would be cut open and placed with
their hollow sides next the bristles and bound in the way
described just now.

The length of the stock was a matter of importance to
the painter. In laying in his picture in broad masses
he may have painted, as from the shoulder, with a
brush with long handle. This would enable him to

<~rK

ARTISTS BRUSHES — 17TH CENTURY

50 THE BRUSHMAKER

stand a few feet from his work and see the general effect
at every stroke.

The pictures of several masters suggest this method of
free handling. It is no secret that a paint brush with
a stick 3 ft. long was used on occasion by Velasquez ;
and that Gainsborough would sometimes paint a portrait
standing 5 ft. away from the canvas.

The old Italian painters used, sometimes, pieces of
cane for the handles of their brushes. The tube-like
structure of certain canes makes them easily adaptable.
In making the smaller brushes the hair was set in a
quill and the quill inserted in the hollow of the cane.
In the large ones the hair was set in the cane itself.
Sometimes, as in the case of the big brush with handle
20 in. or more in length, the hog's hair would be set
in a cane with a slit in the end. This would be sprung
open to receive the hair and, when all had been carefully
placed, the cane was bound with string.

The method is Oriental : the Chinese made paint
brushes with cane handles a thousand years ago ; and
they make them now.

So we are reminded that in the art of painting there
is no new thing !

The tradition of the long-handled brush is upheld by the
scene painters : they have the bristles a good length, too.

The needs of the house painter or decorator are
different ; he may buy a short handled-brush and cut
a piece off and make it shorter still. He has to get an
even surface ; the paint must be perfectly smooth ;
no brush marks are permissible on a door.

In Egypt, where the ancient artist painted on stone,
the brush used was made of a palm leaf stalk. In most
palms the stalks are composed of a bunch of fibres
encased with a stiff husk. In certain species the fibres
are pliant and fine.

THE PAINT BRUSH MAKER 51

In making his paint brush the Egyptian would cut
a stalk about a foot in length and peal off a small portion
of the husk at one end to the depth of the hog's hair
in the modern brush. With this he rubbed his colours
into the stone, using pigments that became embodied
in the surface.

The art of stone illuminating was once pursued by
the memorial artists in the English villages. On
occasion one may see specimens now. But as the English
climate is not favourable to their lasting qualities
most have become effaced. A few remain, however,
of which it might be said they have defied time.

Three comparatively modern examples, dated about
1740, may be seen in the county of Leicestershire.
In the quiet little village of Woodhouse these stones
occupy a sheltered corner by the tower of the church :
they are the tombstones of a family named Heanes.
Perhaps it would be correct to say slates from the old
quarry of Swithland, three miles away. The illuminated
parts are the family crest at the head of each stone.
They are all by the same artist : the colour, toned and
mellowed by time, is inexpressibly charming.

In most languages paint brush and pencil are one and
the same thing, but in English, whose words are rich
with shades of meaning, the two things have distinctive
names.

When we look at what is known as a camelhair pencil
we have a thing as ancient as it is simple. We may
imagine this in the hand of the illuminator of the
twelfth century. He would make the tiny brush in
the manner it is made to-day. The many centuries
that he between the monk at work upon a holy book
and the modern lithographic artist have not changed the
quill pencil in the least. It is so simple that no improve-
ment has been possible : so easy to make that nobody

52 THE BRUSHMAKER

has any reason to alter the method. All the difference
permissible would be in the nature of the thread with
which the hair is bound : the hair and the quill remain
forever the same. In the best modern pencils the hair
is bound with silk, but even so, silk may have been used
in olden time.

Brushes made with tin ferrules were not in favour
with the old masters : all metals were regarded as more
or less chemically antagonistic to the brilliance of the
pigments.

In other days the feather itself was employed as
paint brush. The use of this, beginning in prehistoric
times, lasted to the days of our own grandfathers.
The pinion from the wing of the woodcock makes a
perfect little water-colour brush. It is the small
speckled feather that the sportsman wears in the band
of his hat. As there is but one in the wing the feather
is prized.

If we were better informed about the ancient art of
China we might find that the feather played a more
important part still. All Chinese art suggests the use
of a delicately soft brush or feather.

The Chinese painter has such feeling for subtle outline
and tone as enables him to paint with primary colours
and make them soothing to the eye. With a few strokes,
as with a feather, he gives the sense of movement to
a bird and a reed ; he paints a flower that trembles in
the air and he paints his lady as a spirit with perfect face
and hands, and the creaseless robe of a saint for her
body. Ah ! there is nothing carnal here : he makes
no likeness of anything !

So sensitive are the Chinese to the beauty of this
softness that they write with a reed or with a brush :
the steel pen finds no favour with them.

As a western invention the hard pen may indicate

THE PAINT BRUSH MAKER 53

the trend of civilization. We may do well to think the
matter over. Sharp and rigid line may be the stumbling
block of Western art !

To look at the work of the artist-scribe of ancient
China is to feel he must have used the hair pencil long
before the Western had anything to write about. Of
a surety nothing in the painter's outfit looks so ancient
and eastern as the camelhair pencil in quill.

To-day camelhair is the general name given to a
variety of hairs. The hair-pencil maker may produce
his best M camelhair " brushes from the tail of the
squirrel and the cheapest from the hair of a Japanese
pony ; goat hair is among the rest. All this may appear
strange to the uninitiated, but to the trade it is regarded
as a technical matter. And to meet the situation the
Brushmakers' Trade Board has adopted the term
"' camelhair " in the general sense.

The tail is the only part of the squirrel that matters
to the brushmaker. Tail-hair is usually darker than
that of the body, and longer and more elastic. The
dark grey hair of the Siberian squirrel makes very
desirable pencils and small varnish brushes.

The perfect pencil is, of course, a sable one. The animal
is a species of marten, Mustela zibellina. The hair is
dark brown, sometimes almost black, as the name
implies. It is a Slavonic word ; the Russians pronounce
it sobol. The hair is known to artists as brown sable
as distinguished from another hair called red sable.

" Red sable " pencils are made from the tail of the
kolinski, an animal a little less than the sable. The
hair is bright goldy-red, and is valued by artists for its
resilience. The kolinski, like the sable, belongs to
the marten tribe. Both are found in Siberia.

The polecat and the skunk are other members of the
marten family. The coat of the former is composed

54 THE BRUSHMAKER

of soft underfur of brown, out of which rise sparkling
black hairs known to the trade as fitch hair. The
other has the darkest hair of all his tribe, hence he is
called the black marten. The hairs of either are of use
in making small varnish brushes and the like.

We may be sure the wild animals of Russia and the
brushmaker's craft are inseparable. To begin with
the coat of the sturdy wild boar and end with that of
the agile kolinski, we have a range of hairs as complete
as it is interesting.

The Siberian ox and the Russian bear are included.
The former has long hairs in his tail of which fine lining
pencils are made, the other's hair adds to the variety
of quill brushes in general.

It should be borne in mind that the word fitch, apart
from the polecat, is the common name of the small
hog-hair brush.

The modern hog's-hair fitches are composed of tin
or albata ferrules, set with the white hair of the Russian
hog, and mounted upon a longish stick, smooth and
polished. The ferrule tapers slightly to one end.
The knot of hair is dipped into resinous cement, pushed
through, point foremost, to the taper end, and set the
required length out. It is all done with thumb and
finger.

The making of paint brushes has long been divided
in two main branches ; strictly speaking, two separate
trades, that of the hair-pencil maker and that of the
painting brush maker. The former is closely associated
with France, the other is a craft in which the British
workman excels. His chief occupations are the making
of the English sash-tool and the one-knot, copper-bound
paint brush, and also certain varnish brushes.

CHAPTER VII

THE ENGLISH SASH-TOOL

Perhaps nothing in bristles requires more skill than the
making of the English sash-tool. " Laying the knot,"
which is the chief thing, baffles description, and to
watch the workman and see him do it is to be but little
less puzzled.

The English sash-tool is made in two different ways,
known as " socket " and " fork." In the former the
hair is set in a hole in the handle, in the other it is set
between two pointed projections. The latter is the more
general.

First of all the man fixes up six to nine handles in a
clamp and saws out the fork to a depth marked with a
compass. The first sawing is two downward cuts in
each handle, which is done with a tenon-saw. Then
with a bow-saw, making a curved under-cut, the cavity
is made. When a considerable number of handles
have been sawn the man takes each one and finishes
the " fork " with a chisel. The blade of the chisel
is usually 2 in. wide. The man may now take all the
handles to another bench. Here we see the cement
pan, the hot-plate, a comb like the hairhand uses, and
a pair of scales.

In weighing the portions for the knots the bend of
the hair is kept intact. The scale upon which the hair
rests is a square piece of tin made hollow so as to keep
the "bend" up. When the man takes the hair
from the scale he " puts it through the comb,"
" knocks it up on the flag," and then " lays the knot."

Laying the knot is done with three distinct movements
55

5— (1468e)

56 THE BRUSHMAKER

of the fingers, in which the roots of the hair are first
held upward. The thumbs play an important part ;
they press into the hollow formed by the " bend " and
take their turn in folding the hair in toward the centre.
For a brief second the knot resembles the form of an
open lily, and the next moment that of the bud. In-
stinctively we count one, two, three, and the thing is
done ! A poet might exclaim : " Wonderful ! " His
fascination would arise in the strange relation of rhythm
and the man's hard hands, the sensitive manipulation
of the white hair with strong brown fingers. Or, in
the case of the small " sash," a giant folding the wing
of a small bird.

In the next movement the knot is " tied up." This
is done tightly with three rings of string about two-thirds
up toward the flag, so as to leave the roots free to take
the cement in " dipping." Before the knots are dipped
the roots are trimmed flat.

With rhythm we have dexterity : the knots accumu-
late. Whilst still dry they go upon the " hot-plate,"
and stand upon their roots to be thoroughly warmed to
the middle. This is important as in their hot state the
bristles take up the cement freely ; the oil, in conjunc-
tion with the resin, rises in sympathy with the natural
oil in the hair and penetrates the knot right above
the roots.

The " hot-plate " is a flat piece of iron with a gas
ring under it. The cement pan is like the ordinary
pitch pan ; save it has but one " striker."

In days gone by, before the hot plate was in common
use, the knots were placed upon a board in front of a
fire. And in the process of dipping the roots were
rubbed upon a piece of iron, such as an old flat file ;
this was the old way of distributing the cement.

As the man dips the knot he holds it straight up so

ul^

MODERN' ENGLISH SASH-TOOL

58 THE BRUSHMAKER

as to get an even depth of cement all round. As more
cement will cling to it than is required he must rub the
knot against the " striker."

Presently a group of dipped knots may be seen upon
the hot-plate ; standing upon their moist roots they send
forth an aroma of resin and linseed oil. In a moment
or two, when the heat has spread the cement high
above the roots in the heart of the bristles, the knot
will be set in the handle.

Now the man holding the handle in the left hand and
the knot in the right, presses the hot thing into the
" fork." He does this with such force as makes the
cement ooze a little. Here he wets his fingers and puts
the whole into shape like the sculptor handles a piece
of clay, but quicker, for in a moment the thing is tied
with hemp. Speed counts. The sash-tool must be
made while the cement is warm and malleable. The
hemp is a temporary tie to be cut away in the trimming
process which precedes the binding.

The keen observer will see a small screw in the bench
with head an inch high : insignificant but indispensable.
In the cut of this the man lays the string and winds
it once round. He is going to bind. The screw is to
pull against so that the string shall be tight.

The binding begins about three-eights of an inch
below the points of the fork. After the first two laps a
few bristles are bent down over the string, and the thumb
is pressed upon them. Now the string is taken off
from the screw, and after a few more rounds a loop is
formed and laid down upon the side of the brush.
Over this loop, as over the odd bristles, the string is
tightly bound. No schoolboy could wind his top with
half the speed the man does this.

The moment the binding is finished the twine is cut
from the rest and the new end is put through the eye

hyj^^

KENT STREET, LONDON, AND ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR'S
CHURCH, 1877

60 THE BRUSHMAKER

of the loop. For a moment the screw comes into use
again. Upon this the end of the string forming the
loop is held, while the man pulls the brush with a force
that draws the other end right under the binding.

Now that the thing has become a paint brush its
general appearance must needs be considered. The
brush has to be " ground." In this process the " flag "
is softened, the hair washed, and the " turned " hairs
are removed. When the brush is dry it is trimmed.
It is important to know how to trim, which could be
said " how not to trim ! "

Trimming a well-made brush is a delicate operation ;
on the other hand, the bad workman will use the shears
a good deal.

The more. skilful the knot has been " layed " the
more " flag " will be saved : the more velvet-like will
be the top. In a word, whilst the inefficient in the end
flies to the shears, the genius will have made a dome-
shaped knot at the beginning entirely with his fingers !

In a measure these comments apply also to the copper-
wire bound paint brush, known as one-knot distemper.
The method of binding, however, is different, for whilst
the sash-tool is bound in the hand the " one-knot "
is " tied on " in the vice.

This brush derives its name by association with
certain whitewash brushes, made with a series of similar
knots, and known as two-knot, three-knot, and four-
knot distemper brushes. We are now dealing with
the one-knot.

Here the cement should be more malleable than that
for the " sash-tool," as instead of the knot being set
in a " fork " it is divided at the root with a greased
knife, and set astride the handle. For this reason the
handle resembles a chisel, indeed, the broad end is called
the " blade."

THE ENGLISH SASH-TOOL 61

On either corner of the " blade " is a small shoulder.
These may be shaped in the wood or otherwise supplied
as additional bits of copper, tacked on.

The workman wears a hand leather around which
the wire is passed. This is upon the right hand. The
handle in the vice is fixed straight up. As soon as the
wire is attached and the " knot " placed, the man
begins to tie it on. The movement of his hand is in
circles : the speed is rapid. He may not stop till
the finish, but all the while the other hand is ready to
save the knot from behaving badly. The actual
" tying on " is the work of but a few moments. Strange
to say, in paint brush making, high speed mostly goes
with good craftsmanship. This is more than interesting :
'tis a side-light upon genius !

CHAPTER VIII

THE WHITEWASH BRUSH

To casual observers the making of a whitewash brush
looks quite easy. Indeed, its simplicity may suggest
to them that they might sit down and do it at once.
Such pleasant conceit, however, only makes the
craftsman smile.

There would be pitfalls from the beginning. To pick
up a handful of hair the right way the first time would
be a miracle. It is almost as difficult to handle a bundle.
In strange hands bristles have a way of slipping out of
their string and spreading themselves upon the floor.
The best bristles slip the soonest : a loose bundle of
" Kamschatka " would baffle a doctor of science.

But with the brushmaker bristles seem to adapt
themselves at every turn of his hand. In the process
of dressing it is necessary to turn all the " bends "
the same way. In the hands of the whitewash brush
maker the bends, however slight, are turned towards
the middle of the brush. His materials are simple.
An elm handle, a narrow strip of " card " leather,
a number of nails with flat heads and thin shanks, and,
of course, Russian bristles.

Card leather is a disused thing from the cotton-
spinning trade. To the brushmaker it is better than
new, easier to manipulate, more compact in the
brush.

The man's tools are as simple as his materials. They
consist of a hammer, a flat iron, a " claw " with which
to take out a crooked nail, a bradawl, a small comb,
a sharp knife, and a knocking-up stick. He may have
also a leather-cutting gauge or, instead, perhaps he will

THE WHITEWASH BRUSH

drive his knife into the bench, and with a few nails
driven on either side as a guide, cut the leather just
as well. The card leather to begin with may be 2 or
3 in. wide, and he must needs reduce it to narrow strips
of f in. and less, according to the size of the brush.
With all his leather cut to size and the bristles weighed
and placed in separate portions upon his bench the man
begins to " nail." " Nailed stock " is the trade name of
the brush he has in hand, it is also called a " limer."

TOILET BRUSH IX BRITISH MUSEUM
(GREEK AND ROMAN" SECTION")

These names may take us back a few centuries if we
have a mind to look a moment.

In 1677, Moxon, the author of a quaint book, speaks of
"Brishes of three sorts, a Stock Brisk, a Round Brisk,
and a Pencil. With these Brishes they wet old Kails
before they mend them . . . They finish the plastering
by brishing it over with fair water."

To interpret this in the light of brushmaking, " Pen-
cil " means paint brush ; the plasterer's pencil of the
seventeenth century would resemble the English sash-
tool of to-day ; the " Round Brish " would be a string
bound distemper brush ; and the " Stock Brish,"
assuredly, the limer or " nailed stock brush " of our
own time.

As all these brushes are still made by hand there can

64 THE BRUSHMAKER

have been little change in their character ; manual
labour remains true to old traditions.

To see the craftsman working without the aid of any
mechanical appliance, as in making a " nailed stock
brush," is to be linked with the long past.

Among the various sizes of whitewash brushes made
to-day the one used by the house painters is usually
8 in. wide. At the moment, we will say, the man is
making this.

To be plain we will call the brush-handle the stock,
the wide end of it the blade, and the knocking-up-stick
the stick.

The stock is placed across the iron and the stick,
the broad end upon the iron. The strip of leather
chamfered at the end with the knife, is laid upon the
blade of the stock about a sixteenth of an inch from
the top, and is held there a moment with the left hand
while, with the right, two tacks are driven in. These
fasten the chamfered end to the stock.

The bristles of an 8 in. brush may be 6 in. long.
Needless to say these have to be placed under the leather
in perfect order before " nailing " begins, one bristle
should not cross another; its "bend" must be in
sympathy with the rest or the man will remove it.

Though in bristles of the best quality the natural
bend is small it is soon found by the experienced hand.
In truth here we have one of the subtle things that
prove the craftsman. In manipulating the bend he
will make a very desirable brush with a chisel-like
top.

The man nails a portion of one side before any more
bristles are added. The first layer is about a third of
the total. When this is secured by a few nails he turns
the brush over, fixes all the rest which includes the two
ends, and completes the nailing.

THE WHITEWASH BRUSH 65

The finishing touches are " singeing " and trimming.
The latter concerns the " flag," the other the " roots."
As the man uses the hot iron one is reminded of the
aroma of a blacksmith's shop when the hot shoe touches
the hoof.

CHAPTER IX

THE DRAWINGHAND

" Drawing " is a process in which the knots are drawn
into the holes, from the back of the brush, with wire.
The uniform size of the knot is gauged by the thumb
and finger as in pan work, the rest is different. But
the two branches go well together.

" Pan " and " drawing " have always been closely
associated. Many workmen are proficient in both.
In the old days the apprentice would be taught drawing
before he went to " pan," and although this is not now
the rule, there are still a few shops in which the boy
begins at the drawing bench. The change came with the
introduction of women into the craft. This was done
by slow degrees, the matter took many years to settle.

Perhaps there is not another trade in which tradition
is more secure than in brushmaking.

In an old minute book of the London Society of
Journeymen Brushmakers there is an entry referring
to an employer, dated 8th May, 1829 : " After long
discussion it was proved beyond doubt that the principal
part of his drawn work was given to women to draw.
It was resolved that the men at his shop acquaint him
that his giving out his work to women is very injurious
to other masters."

On 24th April, 1833, another minute occurs : " That
all our members be withdrawn from each of the two shops
where women are employed at drawing."

Ten years later, under date 26th April, 1843, a further
minute suggests that the journeymen had met the
masters half-way in the matter ; briefly it says :

THE DRAWIXGHAXD 67

" That the society does not allow the members' wives to
draw any of the large hole work." We may gather from
this that women were now permitted to do ordinary-
drawing.

From that date, however, to a time that comes within
the author's memory the number of women employed
could not have been serious, as it was not until the
trade boom that began in 1870 that women drawing
hands were employed everywhere.

But though drawing is now mostly the work of
women, men still do the boring and the finishing.
The process is interesting from beginning to end.

Unlike the boring of a broom drawnwork is bored
from a pattern. The pattern may be a thin piece of
beech perforated with holes through which the brush
is bored. If, however, the face of the brush happens
to be round it is bored from a pattern made of pewter
or other soft metal beaten to shape. In " pinhole "
work this may be used like a stencil plate, in which case
a dabber — a small linen bag filled with powdered chalk —
is used. In a few seconds the face of the board will
show a mass of small white dots. The boring is done
upon this.

In most cases, however, the beech pattern is used,
which is fixed with two thumb screws.

As the brush has to be bored twice over the first
is called " entering." The second, called " boring
through," is done without the pattern. Two different
sized bits are used, the " bore-through " bit is the
lesser. In other words, the holes at the back of the
brush through which the wire enters are much smaller
than those into which the bristles are drawn.

The word " bristles " is used here in the general
sense, as the brush may also be made of one of the
various fibres or of a union. The things in hand may be

68 THE BRUSHMAKER

bristle clothes brushes, shoe brushes, or hair brushes,
or they may be fibre scrubbing brushes.

In the Midlands a scrubbing brush is called a dairy
brush, the maker would say simply " dairy." A
medium sized " dairy " board may be 9| x 2| x f in.
preferably beech. The first boring is that of the " body."
When this has been done the boards have to be " knifed "
at the end for the " wing."

The knife, known as the " bench-knife " is attached
to a block by means of a large hook and eye ; it has a
handle an arm's length with a wood stock at the end
for the hand to grasp.

The man holds the board upon the block with his
left hand, whilst with his right he controls the big knife
with his outstretched arm. Cutting off the corners
sideways he proceeds with a steady sweep to round
the end. It is all done with a free hand without any
marking-out. The eye of the craftsman sees the slight
inequality and another shaving is taken off, and the
thing is perfect ! With perhaps three more strokes
with the knife a crescent appears upon the face. This
is the narrow plane upon which the wing is to be bored.

When the knifing is at an end the man returns to his
lathe and bores the wings without any pattern at all.
Then he changes the bit for a smaller one and proceeds
to " bore through."

A number of different sized bits with their chucks
occupy a small rack upon the wall. That they are very
sharp may be seen from the clean-cut borings upon the
floor. These accumulate rapidly and sparkle in their
freshness. If a child had been there it would have
caught some as they fell and found joy in their roundness
and warmth.

In the old days the man would have been the drawing-
hand and his boring the first stage of his work. But

THE DRAWINGHAXD 69

now a woman may take up the work in its bored state
and do the drawing. In the morning she might be seen
carrying a pile of boards from the lathe to her own
bench, where she would begin her work.

In drawing " dairy " she would first " body "
them, and then do the " mouthing " and finally the
" wings." When the brush is complete the wing
spreads out from one end like a fan, whilst the " mouth "
at the other end is the portion that is cut, say, a ^ in.
higher than the " body." Half a century ago it was
called " cow mouth " from its resemblance when
looked at from the face of the brush.

The drawing bench is about the same height as a table.
The front portion upon which the vice and the shears
are fixed is usually 2 in. or more thick to ensure firmness.

The vice is attached to a board whose farther end is
screwed down upon the bench. This arrangement
brings the handle to the worker's right hand. As the
brush in the vice is fixed at a right angle the worker
may see both sides with a slight movement of the head.
The wire enters from the right, the knot is drawn in
from the left. It is all done so quickly that the casual
observer must needs be baffled.

First the loop is made long and narrow and passed
through the hole from the back. Caught on the other
side by the left thumb and finger the wire opens like
a lasso, and the " knot " is caught and doubled and
drawn into the hole in the twinkle of an eye. And
knot after knot appear so rapidly that they seem to
come from nowhere. In a few seconds the row is
complete. Then a gauge, a narrow strip of wood, is
laid at the side and the bristles cut evenly down with a
pair of shears. Then another row is drawn and the
cutting-off repeated and so on to the end.

The shears are fixed upon the bench at the right of

70 THE BRUSHMAKER

the worker. The top blade is rigid, the other — the
active one — has a stout wooden handle attached to it.
When not employed the blades remain wide open and
the handle is up in the air. The lower blade has a
gauge fixed upon it to correspond with the loose one
held upon the brush by the thumb.

In the cutting-off process the woman stands up a
moment. She holds the brush between the two gauges
with the left hand, and with the right one shears off
the ragged top with two or three cuts.

There are other details of relative importance. The
worker's right hand is protected with a leather band,
called a hand-leather. Around this the wire is wrapped
twice, that being sufficient to pull with. The bulk
is wound upon a board and lies upon the floor. Its
course may be through a small leather loop attached
to the bench, and then to the hand. Between the hand
and the brush the wire should always be long enough
to work with freedom. That is to say, the loop should
be made and the knot drawn without any winding or
unwinding around the hand leather. The badly
trained drawinghand, of a certainty, will make
unnecessary movements.

At the woman's left hand is a " drawing board,"
a smooth piece of wood about 10 X 6 in., lying flat
upon the bench. The under edge of the near end is
bevelled, whilst the farther end has a strip across,
forming a little wall against which the bundle of bristles
may stand. The rest of the board is kept " clean,"
as upon this the " roots " are " knocked up " in
order to get them even before the knot is made.

The " knocking up " is done smartly with the left
hand, it may be one knock, it may be two. The differ-
ence is one of those small things that may show the
drawinghand has a personality.

LYNN BRUSHMAKERS' ARMS : DATED 1786

6— (1468e)

72 THE BRUSHMAKER

The well-trained drawinghand places the " knot "
in the hole with the tips of the fingers, never with the
side of a curved finger.

The bristles are placed in the loop in a nicely calculated
position, so that the end to be cut off is mainly the
" flag." The root end, as the better part of the bristle,
should never be cut to waste. The sorts we have in
mind at the moment are brushes of good quality, in
a word, bristle brushes !

The appearance of the row before it is cut down may
be like two different sorts of bristles side by side, the
shorter having a solid mass of roots, the other a feathery
unevenness. This would be the work of a craftsman
or a well-taught drawinghand ; others would have
to be told to " draw the roots well down." Many of
the best brushes are drawn in this way. Persons
employed in making fibre scrubbing brushes and the
like may not be skilled enough to handle costly bristles.

As the chief purpose of this book is to set forth
brushmaking as a worthy craft, " drawing " must be
considered in the same light as " pan." So we will
look a moment how the craftsman, the one who has
served an apprenticeship, does his work.

Although " drawing " is looked upon as women's
work there is, fortunately, some of it that must be done
by men. This is mainly " machine work," in other
words brushes for technical use. Many of these have
to be accurately " set out," skilfully " cut off," and
securely made throughout. Among these may be in-
cluded various circular brushes, some of which are made
with one stock whilst others may be composed of a
number of strips.

The " setting out " is often very intricate, as in
certain brushes that have to be made spiral ; and when
these are composed of a number of pieces which shall

THE DRAWIXGHAXD 73

be screwed together upon an iron base and form a
large wheel, there must needs be the skilled workman
with constructive mind to deal with it section by section.

To watch the man when he is boring some special
brush of large dimensions is to see how he can improvise
and meet apparent difficulties as a matter of course.
A large stock, too heavy to hold in the hands, may be
made to swing from the ceiling. The various angles
it swings in will be regulated by a simple device of his
own ; it may be a cord and a strip of wood with two
holes in it. With this he will do wonderful tricks.
Having already " marked out " the stock he guides
it with skilled hands and experienced eyes. He is a
drawinghand in the true sense, a man of tradition, hence
he does the boring and all.

His method of "drawing" is equally interesting,
because he has been properly trained. He works with
apparent ease, hence his movements are rhythmic,
He does not pull from the shoulder when the forearm
is sufficient. In all manual work rhythm depends
upon the wrist largely. In brushmaking the true
craftsman works from the wrist intuitively.

As the skilled drawinghand presses the knot home with
the tips of left finger and thumb he may touch the bench
with his right thumb and draw the knot with a subtle
movement of the wrist.

With thumb and bench as lever the hand becomes
more sensitive. The outward movement of the wrist
tightens the wire without a jerk, and the knot is firmly
drawn. The sensitive hand with the wire feels all this
instantly !

To follow the movements of the man who loves his
work is to be more than interested ; his method is
fascinating. With long practice the craftsman grows
unconscious of his own way of doing things. So much

74 THE BRUSHMAKER

the better. Since his living depends upon his work
his sense of economy prevents any waste of energy
and time. Hence there is no affectation. No, he
will do his work with the natural ease that is the essence
of rhythm.

To study him closely is to find that his hands move
in circles rather than straight lines. He does this
naturally rather than with a purpose ; it is the way of
all manual work in course of time.

Let the painter who would study the human figure
for the sake of art see a man at work at his own job,
and he will paint intelligently.

Sometimes, where long bristles are used, the portion
cut off may be saved for other purposes, this is called
" tops." Here the cutting off is done carefully with a
view to saving as much " tops " as possible.

There is, however, a method in which the bristles
are " drawn penetrating." It is the way hair brushes
are made. The ends of the bristles are purposely made
uneven, so that the brush may penetrate the hair to
the scalp.

When we talk of hair brush making we touch upon
a special branch of " drawing." The board is " faced,"
in other words, shaped to something like the finished
state before it is " drawn." The " drawing " is done
by women.

Before the bristles enter the brush they are cut to a
given length and " shook up " so as to make them
uneven. In their disorderly state upon the bench
they look as rough as loose hay in a stable. A loose
quantity of bristles may be seen in the drawinghand's
leather apron. This hangs between the woman and
the bench like a small hammock.

In comparison with ordinary drawing the movements
of the fingers are slightly different. The open knot

THE DRAWIXGHAXD 75

re sts a second upon the sides of the left finger and thumb
while with the right the bristles are adjusted so that the
wire shall take the knot precisely midway between the
" penetrative " ends. To use a paradox, the experi-
enced hand will make the brush evenly uneven. The
rest part is like ordinary drawing.

With skilled fingers " drawing " is a beautiful
craft, the rhythmic movements of the hand and the
wonderful tricks performed by the tips of the fingers
are fascinating to look upon. The way the " knot "
is handled is very old. The rhythm of the hand
and magic of the finger tip are the same as at the
beginning.

Mechanism may have room for progress, equipment
goes on improving, but manual dexterity is implanted
in the race as a gift.

When the brushes leave the drawinghand they are
taken up by the " finisher." The finisher is a man
skilled in shaping the back of the brush, he is responsible
for the final touches that give perfection to its appearance.
He works with sharp tools.

No man may use a spokeshave better than the brush-
maker, even the wheelwrights, though they invented
the tool, cannot beat him.

The spokeshave he uses is a wonderful instrument ;
wonderful in the sense that the man does so many things
with it. He made it himself, having bought the blade
alone. This is set into the stock with the precision
of a hair's breadth, as is the flat piece of bone inlaid
in front of the cutting edge.

He is as careful in selecting his blade as in fixing it
into the handle. The man has his own idea as to what
shape his spokeshave shall be, so he is happy in being
able to make the thing himself. Hence the spokeshave
may reveal the personality of the owner. In many

76 THE BRUSHMAKER

ways, however, brushmakers are much alike ; for
one thing they are mostly poor men.

There is a French method of " drawing," known as
" trepanned work." In recent years this has been taken
up in England, Germany, and America.

In all ordinary drawn work the brush has a separate
piece of wood glued upon the back to conceal and
protect the wire. In trepanned work the brush is
made entirely of one piece of wood. The holes, instead
of being " bored through," are made a certain depth
and connected at the bottom with a " long hole "
which runs from one end of the brush to the other.
The brush is drawn with thread. The " long hole "
is the channel in which the thread is placed and made
secure at one end before " drawing " begins.

In the process of " drawing " a small hook is used.
This may be a sewing-needle with a piece filed but at
the side of the eye. The hook, which is fixed in a small
handle, is required to catch up the thread and draw it
out of the hole in a loop. When the knot is placed in
the loop it is drawn in from the end of the brush by
means of the " long hole." The process is an excellent
one in making ebony backed brushes, and it has long
been the one and only way of making the ivory-backed
brush.

CHAPTER X

THE BONE-BRUSH MAKER

The handle of a tooth brush is called the stock, the
man employed in shaping and drilling this and the woman
who fills it with bristles, are known as bone-brush
makers.

The stocks are made from the leg bones of the ox,
the bristles are hog's. To make such uncanny things
into dainty tooth brushes seems the work of a wizard.

To begin with, the bristles are washed and bleached
and the bones cured, so that both become dry and sweet
in the earliest stage.

The man at the circular saw will cut up each bone
into five or six stocks. Subsequently, " profiling "
and " fashioning " are done by machines that work
on the principle of the spindle moulder on a small scale.

When the stocks assume their proper shape they are
all put into the polishing tub with whiting and water.
The rest is done by friction. The hole having been
closed the barrel is set in motion. The thing goes
round and round upon an axle for many hours.

Inside the revolving tub each bone is made smooth
and perfect by contact with the rest. Hence the process
is that of mutual refinement. Here the barrel becomes
the symbol of a perfect order in which every unit is
benefited, a matter that society would do well to
contemplate.

Drilling the stock is like the process of boring described
in an earlier chapter. The difference being only a
matter of names. In a word, the brushmaker " bores
with a bit," the bone-brush maker " drills with a drill."

78 THE BRUSHMAKER

The character of these two expressions make it clear
that the two trades had separate origins. It is also
plain that, with us, the brushmaker is much older
than the bone-brushmaker, as boring and bit are Anglo-
Saxon words, whilst drill is Dutch.

The stock is drilled once over, that is to say there is
no boring through with smaller bit as in other drawn-
work. Instead of this lines are cut in the back. These
form channels in which to lay the wire. The number of
lines at the back of the tooth brush represents the
number of rows of bristles. As the lines are narrower
than the holes there is a shoulder up to which the knot
is drawn.

Though the lines are made with circular saws the
operation is called graving, which shows that once
upon a time the work was done with the graver. In
China the graver is used still.

As bone graving is a very old Chinese art the bone
brush may have originated there. Be it so. No
Oriental tooth brushes are so good as those made in
England.

When the brush has been drawn the lines at the back
are filled up with molten wax. But before this is done
the wire is carefully laid down with a knife.

Another matter of importance is that in drawing
tooth brushes it is highly necessary to fill the holes
carefully but not tightly, otherwise the bone may
split. This arises from the absorbent nature of the
bristles and their expansion in water.

CHAPTER XI

HORSEHAIR

In that part of brushmaking that concerns bristles —
which is the main part — there have been few changes.
The eighteenth century came in and went out without
disturbing old traditions. The same spirit remained
in the first quarter of the nineteenth century also.
During all this time bristles were used in the pure state
generally. In the same honest way horsehair was used
as horsehair. There was no mixing.

In course of time when the hairs of the horse and the
hog first became associated in the same brush, the
mixing was treated as an exceptional job and paid
for at the rate of 6d. extra on the dozen pounds. In
the same way 6d. extra was paid for whalebone, which
was used solely for its stiffness.

In the matter of mixing it could be said that in those
days whalebone was a necessity, horsehair a means of
profit.

As touching upon profit, be it known, none of the
cheap fibres had arrived. Until about 1840 the tropics
had contributed nothing. The palms, with their hidden
secrets, were as the tree of knowledge ; and the brush-
maker was innocent to begin with. His fall, however,
came in due course, as will be seen in the chapter dealing
with the discovery of Mexican fibre.

Horsehair, on the other hand, was known at the
beginning. Man and horse are associated in all antiquity.
If time were challenged it could not be said whether
man found the horse or the horse the man.

So it occurs that a bunch of horsehair, bound with

80 THE BRUSHMAKER

string and called a brush, happened long before brush
making became a craft.

With the brushmakers' use of horsehair is associated
the art of hair drawing or dressing. The chief sorts
that come into his hands are English, Australian,
South American, Siberian, and Chinese. The first
two reach the dresser in a very rough state, sometimes
as combings. The others arrive in the more acceptable
form of bundles. The most practical bundles are those
that are tied at the " head."

The head of a bundle of " raw " hair is the end
which is composed of all the roots, the " tail " is, of
course, the other end. Raw hair means that which is
undrawn.

The dressing of horsehair is altogether different from
that of bristles ; indeed, it is a trade apart.

As a dressed article horsehair is known as " drafts."
Under this name it comes to the brushmaker done up
in long sticks, tied with white twine in a number of
rings about 2 in. apart.

Bales of raw hair shipped at Buenos Aires weigh
about 9 cwf. each. When these arrive in London they
are sold by auction. The bidding is the price per pound ;
the buyer, however, must take the whole bale.

The shipment may consist of three grades : long,
medium, and short, all packed in separate bales. The
long fetches the highest price always.

To go into the workshop of the dresser or hair-drawer
is to hear terms known only to the trade, such as
" hackling," " carding," and " bunching."

First of all the hair is " sorted" and " selected."
Sorting is for colours, selecting for lengths and
strengths.

When all these different qualities are made, and the
hair has been tied in bundles, it is placed in tubs filled

82 THE BRUSHMAKER

with water and soda and left in soak for twenty-four
hours. Then the hair is " wet hackled."

The hackle is a multiple comb that stands erect
upon a bench. A dangerous looking thing. Imagine
sixty or more long steel pins 8 in. high, set in a stock,
and picture a man standing before it with a handful
of hair which he whirls like a whip into the sharp
points, and the same moment pulls it forth again.

After this drastic treatment the hair is washed in a
tub of hot water with a strong dose of soda and soft
soap, and then it is taken into the drying room to remain
there twenty-four or thirty-six hours.

The drying room is steam-heated. The hair, however,
is never allowed to touch the pipes, but rather hangs
free upon a rail suspended from the ceiling.

When all is perfectly dry the hair is " dry hackled "
and then placed in the " card." Here the " drawing"
actually begins.

Drawing is the method by which the various lengths
are taken out separately. The man does this with his
thumb and a knife. Beginning with the longest all is
drawn from out the " card."

The card is composed of smaller pins than the hackle
and is much wider as a whole. And whilst the hackle
is a single instrument, the card is double.

The hair is laid in the lower and the upper one is
pressed down upon it, so the points of one pierce in
between those of the other. In a word, the hair is
held as between wide jaws lined with steel teeth. All
this is arranged so that only a few hairs may be drawn
at a time whilst the rest remain intact. This is called
the single card, as in the second process two or three
cards may be used. To distinguish the two methods
the horsehair-drawers have a language of their own,
as " first way " and " second way."

HORSEHAIR 83

Between " first way " and " second way " the hair
is "back hackled" and "knocked up" with the
" bat." Back hackling enables the man to get all the
roots level in making the lock.

Now the locks are matched according to their lengths
and a number of the same length placed " second way"
and drawn with greater accuracy than before.

WTien all the hair is drawn the man proceeds to
" bunch," which is done with the aid of the hackle,
the bat, a peg, and a reel of twine. Here the work
is finished. Every stick of hair may be a shade different
in length and all this has been done with the thumb
and a knife, the latter made out of an old razor.

The Chinese method of drawing hair is quite primitive.
They use neither hackle nor card. A quantity of hair,
large enough to stand erect, is tied together with a
rope and placed " head " down upon the floor. The
Chinaman draws from the top. As the work proceeds
the rope is tightened by means of a slip knot.

Probably our Anglo-Saxon forbears employed the
same means.

CHAPTER XII

PIASSAVA

When piassava was first taken up by the brushmakers
a few called it vegetable whalebone, but the name
proved to be nonsense. Before the brushmaker knew
that the palms of distant lands were full of fibres of
use to him whalebone was almost his only diversion
from the business of bristles.

Qn occasion he mixed whalebone with bristles to
gain stiffness, but mostly he used the two things in the
pure state. Of whalebone he made chimney-sweeping
brushes, and also yard brooms for those who could
afford a better thing than a besom.

The naturalists tell us that, in the true sense, whale-
bone is not bone at all ; they call it baleen. The
brushmakers, however, stick to the old name.

Attached to the palate or nerves of the upper jaw
of the whale the baleen begins as a plate and terminates
with a fringe of fibres resembling coarse bristles.

Since the whale, Mysticetus, is without teeth he does
not bite his food ; he only strains off the water. The
whalebone is the strainer. Unlike the shark he does
not attack large fish and tear them in pieces, but waits
for a shoal of little things, as shell-fish and other mites
found near the surface. These swim into his huge
mouth as though it was their business, and when his
mouth is full he strains the water out through the
meshes of the whalebone and retains the rest. In the
end this is swallowed in small quantities, passing as
down a narrow tube.

As a useful article of commerce the whalebone

PI ASSAY A 85

" plate " may be easily cut into fibres of various
grades.

Before 1840 the bristles of the hog and the hairs of a
few other animals and whalebone were the only materials
that mattered in the trade ; native broom-weeds were
left to the outsiders. The gipsies, unrecognized as
craftsmen, made besoms and the like of various shrubs ;
it was the business also of poor Irishmen and their
families.

The gipsies and the Irish were sometimes called
" broom binders " to distinguish them from the brush-
maker craftsmen. The two trades went on apart always.
There was a marked difference not to be lost sight of.
The brushmaker had been taught by his master ; the
besom-maker, servile to no man, picked his trade up.
Brushmaking was a true craft ; besom-making a com-
mon habit. One commanded respect ; the other
aroused suspicion. The brushmaker was a citizen ;
the besom-maker a nomad with a business in his hands.

So the brushmaker, looking to the dignity of his
craft, did not descend, without dire need, to the business
of the weed broom. Brushes made of bristles were
not to be associated with the things made of the under-
growth found by the roadside. Bristles were articles
of commerce ; ling was to be had for the getting. In
a word, brushmaking was a privilege ; besom -making
a liberty.

The gipsies and the Irish hawkers made other brushes
besides besoms. They sometimes bought bored stocks
of the brushmakers and set these with anything almost,
from waste pig hair to the twigs of a birch.

In course of time the brushmakers refused to " bore "
for the hawkers. A minute upon this may be found in
the old books of the London Society of Journeymen
Brushmakers. The year is 1833. The entry runs :

86 THE BRUSHMAKER

" Men order' d not to bore common work for the hawkers
and if discharg'd through the same to make claim upon
the trade." So the hawkers had to go back to their
bit and brace whilst the brushmaker bored with a
treadle lathe. It was a few years later than this that
piassava was discovered.

As the stuff was to be had at a few shillings per
hundredweight the hawkers turned it to account at
once, while the brushmakers hesitated or moved in
the matter with caution.

Until now the brushmaker had not been called upon
to deal with fibres. In the year 1840 none of the
materials named below were known to him —

Bahia piassava.

Monkey bass.

Mexican fibre.

Kitool.

African piassava.

Madagascar fibre.

Bassine.
The discovery of Bahia piassava, or bass, about that
time, gave many an outsider a start as " brushmaker."
Under the trade name many began to make bass brooms
only. The brushmakers must needs bestir themselves
and adopt the bass broom as a branch of the trade.
So what at first was but the business of the gipsies
and the hawkers became an important part of the
craft.

From what has been said just now not many of the
fibres now in use date back beyond one's grandfather.
As an old brushmaker the author's father remembered
the first appearance of many brush materials, notably
piassava.

Doubtless his experiences were, more or less, like those
of other brushmakers at the time. Many might have

PIASSAVA 87

told the same story. Here is his with all its domestic
colour and primitive simplicity.

It was in 1843 or '44 in the small Midland town of
Loughborough that a man called to see a brushmaker
with something new. The man was a stranger ; the
material he had to sell was piassava. He had already
sold some in the North, and those who bought " made
money " : so the man said. The brushmaker was the
master to whom the author's father was apprenticed.
As the master was in a small way the apprentice worked
with him and saw and heard all things that belonged
to the business. So the boy saw the stranger and
heard what he said.

The piassava was in its rough state : the sample the
man brought was stuffed into his carpet bag ; he said
the bulk was in Liverpool. But he had to talk a good
deal to persuade the little master to take up the new
thing. The stuff was a mystery. It was called bass
because it had no name in particular. The name has
stuck to it to this day, and yard brushes, which are made
of it, perpetuate the absence of logic as bass brooms.
And strange as the fates would have it, the brushmaker
to whom the stuff was now offered was a Mr. Bass.
We have said the stuff was a mystery, but it was more
than that. To the little master, who had not seen it
before, its name looked like a plot !

As the stranger seemed not to know its real name,
how came he by it ? And what was the reason he
offered it at only a few pounds per ton, or would take a
few shillings for an odd hundredweight ? In those
days people did not allow a mystery like this to pass
without comment.

A few brushmakers talked among themselves. The
stuff was all right. They learned before long that the
man had sold all he had, which may have been many

7— (1468e)

©» THE BRUSHMAKER

tons. They said he must have got the stuff for an
" old song." Some said he begged it, others that he
had been paid to take it away.

What was said as rumour was mixed with certain
facts. The facts were these.

It happened that this piassava had come from Brazil
as dunnage, possibly as packing between cases of sugar,
and was lying at the wharf as a thing of no further use.
As refuse it had accumulated and become a nuisance.
So the wharf authorities told the shippers who brought
it to clear it away at once. As nobody seemed to want
it the shippers might be put to some trouble and expense.

Here was a chance for a man with imagination. It
happened there was such a person. The man that cleared
this " rubbish " away was surely a genuis. And who
would say that, having provided the brushmakers
with their first lot of piassava, he did not deserve the
profit he got ?

Though the brushmakers in those days were mostly
in a small way they were practical men ; many would
be experimenting in this matter at the time. But we
will return to the little brushmaker in Loughborough
and see what he did with his first lot of bass.

As the stuff was in a touselled state it required thought
and skill to deal with it. The master and his apprentice
applied their genius. The bass had to be cut in certain
lengths with a sharp tool, and straightened by means
of steam. This brought the bench knife into use
and also the kitchen copper. The brushmaker' s knife
is attached to a block exactly like the clog-makers ;
it has a long iron handle with a crutch at the end for
the hand to grip.

As the knife seemed of little use against so tough a
material they went to a neighbour, a butcher, and
borrowed his cleaver. The butcher, good man, came

PIASSAVA 89

himself and tried his hand. Whilst the two held a
portion of the bass upon a block he struck with all his
might and cut the stuff in the right way.

But the author does not wish to suggest that the
master or even the apprentice could not have cut it
with the same instrument as well. Doubtless it was
due to the butcher's aggressiveness that he triumphed
at the moment. Human nature was the same then as
now ; a man must make a hit some time.

In due course, as was done with certain other materials,
the bass was set with pitch into a stock. It became a
bass broom !

In the economical course of things the brushmakers,
who were quite human, asked for more, and merchants
came to their aid and began to import piassava in bundles
as an article of commerce. What had once been looked
upon as rubbish was now a product of importance.

Gathered by the natives in Brazilian forests piassava
is the fibre in the leaf stalk and trunk of the palm
Attalea funifera. The collectors tear off the leaf-beard
and brake the husk of the stem, and the fibres fall asunder.
The native knows how to cut notches for his feet and
climb the palm and hack out the fibrous stalks.

With care given by the exporters to the needs of
the brushmaker piassava soon came to hand in straight
and sound condition, the general appearance was very
like it is now. These remarks refer to piassava in the
rough state as imported ; the dressing is done in the
countries of destination.

Dressed piassava is now sold as a manufactured
thing, the brushmaker buys it of the bass dressers.
As a specialized detail in brushmaking bass dressing
is now a trade apart. The same change has taken
place in other materials, including horsehair and a
number of various fibres.

90 THE BRUSHMAKER

With the notable exception of bristles, the art and the
mysteries of which he keeps strictly to himself, the brush-
maker buys his materials in their dressed or drafted
state, all ready for use.

In the old days the brushmaker had to handle all things
in their raw state, struggle with them as best he could.
Hence his vocation was a mystery to the last degree ;
he produced a brush out of nothing. The author may
be forgiven his pride in belonging to such a race of men.

The production of things out of nothing is an art
known to the gipsies ; they made besoms and brushes
in this way. Their intuition was shared by the old-time
brushmaker, but he lacked their wisdom, for whilst
he with great pride paid with silver and gold for his
materials, they gathered theirs as they went on.

And the folk would buy a broom of the gipsy woman
and receive her blessing, which was a generous one,
as it included the well-being of their cow, their poultry,
and their pig.

Piassava has further interest. In course of time,
about the year 1885, a new sort came to hand from
another part of the world. Shipped at a port in West
Africa it became known as African piassava, and to
the brushmakers as simply " African," as the other
is " Bahia."

Like Bahia piassava, " African " is got out of the
leaf-stalks of a palm. The leaves are prised off and the
leaf-pulp torn away, and the rest is laid in water and
soaked until the fibre may be separated with east1.
All this is done by negroes, men, women and children.
They make their huts by the river, and use the river
bed for pulping the husk and the sunny bank for drying
the fibre.

Viewing the place from a distance a stranger might
imagine the ground was covered with rich red carpets,

PIASSAVA 91

as such is the effect of the wet fibre as it sparkles in the
tropical sun.

The negroes occupy their time as they please and
are paid by results. The mode of payment is in goods
or with coupons. Sometimes, however, these black
folk grow tired of the white man's methods and refuse
to go on with the work. Their oracle speaks to them
iri the moaning of the wind, or in the thunder, and they
listen and obey. So they may remain idle for days
and weeks ; in other words, live like their ancestors did,
in ages past, before the white man came. Their oracle
spoke to them once when there were big demands for
piassava which proves that the oracle is not in sympathy
with the trend of civilization ! It was a few years
after " African " had first become known. Many
tribes had heard the voice in the thunder and had left
their work, vowing they would never more return.
In that year African piassava rose to three times the
normal price. So the oracle on that notable occasion
must have cost the users of bass brooms a good many
thousand pounds.

In course of time the natives, with new inducements
from the settlers, became less romantic in their ways ;
more resigned to their fate as dependent people.

Familiar with the circumstances of the first arrival
of this fibre old brushmakers still think of " African "
as the new sort. The old piassava had had a successful
run for forty years when the new sort came. But the
time was right for the new thing, because " Bahia "
had fallen in quality and stiffness. In collecting it by
ruthless methods the natives of Brazil had destroyed
a vast number of trees, and the farther forests were
almost beyond the means of transport. So the brush-
makers were not only paying high prices for a scarce
article but a poor one also.

92 THE BRUSHMAKER

The author remembers how difficult the situation
was just before " African " first arrived. Piassava
had become an indispensable thing. The bass broom
could not be done without. Though our grandfathers
could put up with the besom we could not. So it is,
where the new article affords more comfort than the
old, a new need will grow. The new thing may be a
luxury to begin with, but directed by the dealer, luxuries
become necessities in the end. If the world but knew
the secret we would live by one-half of what we now
consume.

There is a difference between the two sorts of piassava
in several respects. " African " is the stiff er, coarser
fibre ; and therefore of use in making scavenging
brushes and in rotary street-sweeping machines.
Indeed, leaving the easier work to " Bahia," '* African "
will face anything from the snow on the pavement
to the cobbles in the coal yard. But stout as the fibre
is it does not remain straight in all circumstances like
"Bahia." In other words, "Bahia" springs back
into position whilst " African " betrays the way it
has been pushed. For this reason " Bahia " is used
by the sweeps ; being more elastic it adapts itself to
the quaint turnings in old chimneys. Though the
finer fibre " Bahia " is the more compact, it lies closer
in the bundle and weighs heavier than " African."

To those who remember " Bahia " at its best
" African " is a poor substitute. If the Brazilians
could again supply the old quality, as in the days
when it was gathered in the matured condition, the
brushmakers would rejoice.

The various sorts of African piassava are known to
the trade as " Grand Bassa," " Monrovia," " Cape
Palma," " Sherbro," " Old Calabar," " Congo,"
and " Gaboon." The port of arrival is Liverpool

PIASSAVA 93

mostly, and Manchester is the chief centre for
dressing.

The method of dressing is the same in principle as
that of the little brushmakers of long ago ; but, of
course, the appliances have changed.

About the time " Bahia " was discovered another
Brazilian fibre, known as " Para," came to light,
Leopoldinia piassaba. The brushmakers call it monkey
bass ; a name that suggests that the small agile creature
may find refuge in the palm.

Monkey bass has good properties of its own. Whilst
" Bahia " is essentially the bass for the panhand
"monkey" is used mostly in " drawn work." "Draw-
ing," it should be remembered, is the process in which
the fibre is doubled as it enters the holes in the brush.
As a tough fibre monkey-bass may be bent in this way
without breaking, whereas " Bahia " must be
" selected fine " to endure this ; and " African,"
with its stubbornness, left altogether to the panhand.

In colour " monkey " is reddish brown ; " Bahia "
simply brown : both are pleasant to look upon. But
the colour of dry " African " is almost annoying ; hence
it must needs be put into the dye tub.

CHAPTER XIII

THE ROMANCE OF MEXICAN FIBRE

The first appearance in Europe of Mexican fibre was in
1852 or thereabout. Small quantities were brought
to Liverpool by sailors from Tampico, where they got
it to stuff their mattresses with. Two of these seamen
took a portion to a brushmaker and got some brushes
made of it. These turned out so useful and cheap
that the brushmaker went and bought the fibre of the
other men.

They were the crew of a sailing ship ; they had
adopted the method of restuffing their mattresses at
both ports, here with straw and there with fibre. As
they cast the old straw upon a dust heap in Tampico
so they threw away their fibre in Liverpool. They
had done this many times and braved the wide Atlantic
over and over again ere they thought of a use for the
fibre.

As the brushmaker was in a small way there was not
much stir made in the matter at the time. But later,
when someone else laid claim to the discovery and
proceeded to patent it, the little man asserted himself.
When he had told his story the situation was saved,
not only for himself but all the rest of the brushmakers.

The publicity of the matter brought Mexican fibre
into the hands of the merchants, and in a few years
the product became a very important brush fibre, and
it remains so.

In Mexico, where it grows, it is called istle ; it is got
from the letuguellia plant, Bromelia sylvestris. Some-
times it is called Tampico ; but to British brushmakers

THE ROMANCE OF MEXICAN FIBRE 95

it is known as Mexican fibre, as it was to the sea-
men who brought it to light ; and to their friend, the
brushmaker, who turned it to good account.

Among the several sorts of " Mexican " handled
by the merchants are " Jaumave," " Tula," and
" Saltillo." The first two are best known in the British
market. " Jaumave," so named after Plain de
Jaumave, the marsh in which it grows, is noted for its
length ; sometimes this fibre reaches to 30 in. But
though " Tula " is the shorter fibre it is the stiff er, and
so a good material for the scrubbing brush.

Probably the reason the istle palm is called a plant
and not a tree is in its small height. Though it sweeps
outward on even,- side with big leaves it grows little
taller than a man. That climbing is not necessary is
a happy circumstance for the bare-footed natives, as
the leaves are prickly. For this reason a lasso, or loop
fixed to a stock, is used in pulling the leaves off the
tree.

The fibre is embodied in the leaf, as the nerve or
life of it. The flesh, or leaf-pulp, is scraped awav with
a knife with a rough edge. The man that does this
would count himself fortunate if he got a pound of
fibre out of half a dozen leaves.

The fibre is laid in the sun to be bleached. No time
is lost in this ; as the sooner the bleaching begins the
brighter, the creamier the fibre in the end. So the
collector is also the bleacher.

For the purpose of exportation the fibre is made into
bales by means of a press. In this state it is received
by the dressers in various countries as " rough "
fibre to be " drafted." That is to say, prepared for
the brushmaker.

Mexican fibre may be said to have changed brush-
making altogether. Its effect upon the craft was

96 THE BRUSHMAKER

different from that of piassava. For, whilst piassava
gave the brushmaker a new separate interest, Mexican
fibre changed the character of everything he had.
The two materials were received in different ways.
A use had to be found for piassava, which meant a new
sort of broom had to be made of it . Whereas ' ' Mexican' '
was taken up as a substitute for bristles. One was not
to be mistaken ; the other could be clothed with
mystery. To take up piassava the brushmakers had to
be pressed, whilst " Mexican " took the trade at sight.
The brushmakers saw many points in its favour. It
was easily bleached. It could be dyed any colour.
It could be made to look like bristles. The brushmakers
had honest intentions to begin with, but they grew
more and more interested !

The matter of technical deception is alluring.
To some it is intoxicating !

Bristles were dear and scarce, which meant they
would grow dearer still. Mexican fibre was plentiful
and cheap ; its arrival looked like the hand of Provi-
dence ! So the brushmakers used the fibre freely without
first learning its limitations ; in other words, they
experimented upon the public and pocketed the profit.
To say the least, it was a regrettable case of an honest
craft becoming suddenly demoralized. All the brush-
makers, without exception, caught the contagion ;
but most were unaware of the enormity of what they
did. Before the arrival of " Mexican " the public
could be sure of a hair broom being all hair, but now
and henceforth there must be the inevitable question :
7s it all bristles ?

Out of all this arose a new order in which quality has
become the hall-mark of certain brushmakers ; that is
to say, the name of the maker counts because there
are possibilities of deception in the goods. To put the

THE ROMANCE OF MEXICAN FIBRE 97

matter in a nutshell, a pure bristle broom may still
be had of the brushmaker with a name.

In course of time the brushmakers found the limita-
tions of Mexican fibre. In other words, they discovered
its possibilities and began to make scrubbing brushes
of it ; the right and proper thing to do. As the fibre
wears well in water and remains wholesome it has
become the standard material of most brushes that are
used in the wet state.

Fibre-drafting is a trade by itself like bass dressing.
But sometimes the same firm will do both. But as
far as the workmen are concerned they are different
occupations ; two distinct trades.

CHAPTER XIV

KITOOL AND OTHER FIBRES

Some of the botanists say that the order of the palm
comprises 600 species ; others make it a thousand.
The difference, however, does not matter here. The
smaller number would seem enough to set the brushmaker
dreaming of new fibres yet to come. Every palm almost
has fibre in the leaf, or in the stem, or matted around
the trunk. Yet the few fibres known to the brushmaker
may be counted almost with the fingers of one hand,
and the discovery of every one is mainly due to the
genius of some outsider. The whole matter suggests
that the brushmaker is not deeply interested in vegetable
substitutes for the hairs of animals. This is true, despite
the fact that he was once dazzled with the possibilities
of Mexican fibre.

What is meant by the term brushmaker, for the
purpose of this book, is the craftsman whose training
enables him to hand down the best traditions of his trade ;
he is more than a maker of bass brooms or producer
of fibre scrubs. He did not belong originally to the
binders of besoms.

In this light the brushmaker' s apathy at the first
arrival of " Kitool," about the middle of the nineteenth
century, may be understood.

Kitool is the Cingalese name for the Indian palm
Caryota urens. The brushmaker calls the fibre by
the Cingalese name. That it had poor reception is
quite plain, as sixteen tons were sold at a price that did not
pay the freight from Ceylon to London. The speculative
buyer thought it might do for the gardeners to " straw "

KITOOL AND OTHER FIBRES 99

their plants with, but the gardeners themselves were
not taken with it. In despair the man thought of
burning it, as the rent for storing so large a quantity
was running on apace.

To burn sixteen tons of stuff without annoying tiis
neighbours was no small problem. Besides it would look
like the act of a madman. For such a blaze as this the
man would have to give a reason, otherwise some
neighbour would be sure to invent one. The imagina-
tion of others has to be considered. Knowing all this
the poor man thought the 5th November would be a
good time for the conflagration. Nobody then would
be annoyed ; moreover, many might help him to do it.

But in the meantime matters changed ; the ghost
of Guy Fawkes suddenly disappeared, and fortune
smiled.

It was all due to an accident ; a small matter that
might have escaped the notice of any save this observant
man. It happened that a few fibres of Kitool came in
contact with some oil. In that moment the fibre turned
from a dull brown to a luminous black ; and, retaining
the oil in a remarkable way, it became bristle-like.

Straightway the man went and saw a friend, a drawer
of horsehair, and told him what had happened. The
two arranged matters, and the sixteen tons of Kitool were
turned to account. Samples were shown to the brush-
makers, and the bulk was sold at about a shilling a
pound.

In a few years oil-dyed Kitool became known as the
chief of all substitutes for stiff bristles.

Another Indian product of use to the brushmaker
is bassine. This is got from the Palmyra palm, Borassus
fiabelliformis. It is known to the natives as the wine
tree. They call the wine noonypoo ; Europeans know
it as toddy. Bassine, which is procured from the leaves,

100 THE BRUSHMAKER

became known to brushmakers about the same time as
African piassava. The two products, arriving from
two different continents, soon became serious substitutes
for the two long-known Brazilian piassavas, " Bahia "
and " monkey bass."

The commercial relation of bassine and monkey bass
is almost like that of " Bahia " and " African," given
in an earlier chapter. But in point of utility the case
is different. For whilst " African " is a poor substitute
for " Bahia," bassine is a good one for monkey bass.
Happily, with all its good qualities, bassine is plentiful ;
the Palmyra palm in India happens to be the most
common of all its tribe.

Bassine and Mexican fibre make an excellent union
for scrubbing brushes and the like, as in former days
monkey bass and " Mexican " were.

In the list of tropical substitutes for bristles cocoa
fibre may be the oldest of all. Even so, it could be but
a generation in advance of the rest of the palm fibres.

In the forepart of the eighteenth century the brush-
maker was content with his limited choice of animal
hairs, adding whalebone, on occasion, as a compliment ;
whilst the besom-makers and their class were employed
with the native rush, reed, and shrub.

In those days the same limitations may have applied
to the whole of Europe ; allowing, of course, for certain
variations in native products, as " whisk " in France,
and another material produced in Italy, called also
" whisk."

The cocoa-nut palm, Cocos nucifera, native of India,
grows also in the West Indies. The trees must needs
love water as the tallest are found by the sea or around
a lake, some reaching a 100 ft. high.

The fibre is extracted from the husk of the nut. In
England cocoa brooms, useful and cheap, are made in

KITOOL AND OTHER FIBRES 101

large quantities. The fibre appearing in its natural
colour is surely an honest thing ; and wherever one
goes bundles of dazzling cocoa brooms may be seen
by the doors of the dealers. Almost every shopman
shows them. Ironmonger and druggist, grocer and
draper are all under the spell of the red flame of this
stuff!

In India the natives make brushes of the husk itself
cut up in pieces. Fifty years ago cocoa-husk scrubbing
brushes were common in England ; they were to be had
at 2d. each ; their lasting properties were as good as
the price was small.

A comparatively new material is Madagascar fibre ;
from the island of that name S. E. of Africa. Since
the place is a French colon}' all the fibre gees preferably
to France. At the same time English brushmakers
are kept well supplied by the merchants of this friendly
nation.

" Madagascar " is a palm fibre of considerable length,
many times longer than " cocoa " and slightly darker
in colour, approaching chestnut.

The softness of " Madagascar " gives it a good place
among brush materials. Unlike Mexican fibre it may
be made into useful brooms.

Now we will leave all the various products of the
palms and take up the matter of " whisk." There
are three kinds known to brushmakers, each bearing
the name of country of origin, as French, Mexican,
Italian. The first two belong to the order of fibrous
roots, the other is a straw.

" Italian whisk " is known in America as millet,
in Europe as sorghum or sorgo-straw. The various
names may have shades of meaning for slightly differ-
ent straws, but collectively they are grouped by the
brushmaker under the head of Italian whisk.

102 THE BRUSHMAKER

But no relationship exists between this " Italian "
family of straws and the whisks of France and Mexico.
For whilst the first grows as waving corn the other two
are the roots of grass. As one thrives in the fragrant
sunshine the others are nurtured by the swamp. The
difference is as between night and day, yet whisk is
the trade name of all. The brushmakers of a century
ago were more definite and more simple in this matter ;
they named the two sorts, respectively, broom-corn
and broom-root.

To be precise, French and Mexican whisk are the
roots of a kind of quitch grass. Quitch, an enemy of
the gardener, would take possession of all his plot
if he did not expel him. So the gardener is careful to
uproot him with thoroughness, leaving none of the long,
rambling, wiry, roots in the soil.

In the countries where a similar grass grows as a
commercial product it is said to be cultivated. Perhaps
cultivation means letting it grow. As a matter of fact
the grass is allowed the liberty to do as it likes for two
or three successive seasons. The last stage is decom-
position of the skin on the roots, which is brought
about by the water in which it lies.

In the end the bare fibre is spread upon the ground to
bleach in the sun. In its nature it absorbs the light
so freely as to become bright and golden like the sun
itself.

Whisk is an old name for a brush that may be used
smartly. The fibre under our notice must have been
given that name for its smartness in cleaning the carpet
or in removing the dust from a man's coat, and imparting
freshness also to that of his horse. But these limitations
belong to the British Isles.

Sorghum has a wide and varied use in other coun-
tries. In very truth almost all the besoms in France

KITOOL AND OTHER FIERES 103

and Spain and Italy are made of sorghum, as may be
seen in the streets wherever one goes. Of a morning,
whether in Paris or in Rome or in Madrid, the man or
the maid goes forth with golden broom to sweep the
dust before the door.

S— (H68E)

CHAPTER XV

MACHINE-MADE BRUSHES

The trend of this book shows how largely brushmaking
is a craft rather than an industry ; how the work
requires personal attention rather than mechanical
agency.

Though certain machines are now well-established,
and brushes known as " machine-made scrubs " have
become a necessity, all the best brushes are still made
by hand.

Whether in the factory of the large employer or in
the small workshop in the back street, the method is
the same. As of old the hair broom is made at the
pitch-pan, and the skilled fingers of the drawinghand
are needed where the best bristles are used ; and the
painting-brush maker still binds the best sash-tool
and " ties on " the " one-knot."

Almost all the brushmaking machines are supple-
mentary rather than fundamental. Take the case
of the machine that " sets " with the staple. The
gain is that of mass production rather than efficiency ;
for no one who knew his business would think of using
the machine for making a XXX hair brush.

To the craftsman costly bristles seem to cry aloud
for the care of human hands ; indeed, none less sym-
pathetic than the panhand, or the paint brush
maker, or the drawinghand, will do. And in like degree
costly sable calls for human fingers, with their delicate
touch, to make the hair pencil.

Be it so. Within their limitations machine-made
brushes have come to stay. On the one hand, the

104

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106 THE BRUSHMAKER

associations of elegance and high-grade bristles do not
necessarily enter the scullery ; on the other, the scrubbing
of the floor and the scouring of the pans are matters of
such importance as to justify the mass production
of suitable brushes, and machinery is doing this.

Among the various machines employed in making
brushes the one that produces the scrubbing brush
is by far the most important. It may be fifty years
or more since this was first used, and though many
improvements have been made with a view to efficiency,
the principle of securing the " knots " with wire
staples remains.

The full intricacy of the machines is beyond the
purpose of this book ; the part that matters here is
the way the " knots " are set.

Generally the " knot " is doubled over a piece of
wire which the machine cuts off and bends into a small
staple. " Knot " and staple linked together are forced
through a tube of the same capacity as the hole in the
brush. The tube acts also as a pointer to find the
position of each hole.

In the process, the brush, fixed in a slide manipulated
by the hand, passes in front of the tube, and " knot "
by " knot " is discharged from it and " set " in
quick succession. As the " knot " is forced to the
bottom of the hole, and the staple is pressed down,
the points enter the wood crossways.

In another machine the staple, which is stamped
out of sheet steel, has minute teeth upon the outer
edges that bite into both sides of the hole.

Needless to say, there are many kinds of machines
employed, and not a few quite different in appearance ;
but, all told, the principle of setting the knot with the
staple is general.

CHAPTER XVI

BRUSHMAKERS' SOCIETIES

A society of plain men who, as journeymen brush-
makers, manage their affairs exclusively among them-
selves, must needs be interesting. Their short way
of doing things, their pointed rules, their direct speech,
their zeal, suggests character worth while to study.
To allow these plain men the charm of quaintness is
to go back a century and see how they did things then.
Happily, sometimes they had their articles of associa-
tion printed, and luckily one copy, at least, survives.
Here are a few paragraphs and the title —

ARTICLES

THE SOCIETY

JOURNEYMEN BRUSHMAKERS

HELD AT THE

SIGN OF THE CRAVEN HEAD
DRURY LANE
LONDON.

INSTITUTED IN THE YEAR 1806.

That this society shall meet the last Wednesdav in
every month, from the hours of eight to eleven in the
evening, at the Craven Head, Drury Lane ; and that no
person shall be admitted a member who is not well
affected to his present Majesty and the Protestant
Succession, and in good health and of respectable
character.

Any Brushmaker approved of by the society may be
admitted a member, if he applies within three months
after the expiration of his apprenticeship, on paying
Is. 3d. : if he do not apply till after three months, he

107

108 THE BRUSHMAKER

is to be admitted, if approved of, on paying a sum of
money at the discretion of the society.

That the list of the members shall be called over at
eight o'clock ....

That on every meeting night each member shall
receive a pot-ticket at eight o'clock, a pint at ten, and
no more.

That a secretary shall be chosen by the society, to
keep their accounts, who shall attend every meeting
night at eight o'clock, or pay a fine of Is. ; and if he be
absent the whole of the evening, without appointing a
deputy, he shall be fined 2s. 6d. The secretary to be
allowed 1£ Is. per quarter, and for extra attendance
Is. 6d. per night.

That a box, with three different locks and keys, shall
be provided : each steward to keep a key, and the land-
lord of the meeting house the other.

That every member shall pay 2s. 6d. per quarter till
the stock amounts to 30^ ; and after it amounts to that
sum, then 2s. per quarter. That when the stock of this
society shall amount to 80^, four members of this society
shall be appointed to purchase 50^ stock in the 5 per
cents ; and every succeeding 50-£ to have different
stockholders : any one of whom refusing to transfer,
when ordered by the society, shall pay a fine of 20£,
and be liable to be proceeded against in a legal way.

They were all skilled men ; every one knew several
branches of the craft. No half-trained man was admitted
to the society. Needless to say, it was the desire of
every young brushmaker to become a member.

According to the rules the applicant shall be well
taught as a craftsman and an honourable man. His
private character was examined as thoroughly as his
work. This was necessary, as the society made itself
responsible for his conduct toward his employer. In
particular the society made good to the master any loss
incurred by the man, as in the case of work left unfin-
ished. So that entrance was impossible for some, and
at times difficult for others.

BRUSHMAKERS' SOCIETIES 109

The applicant's letter must be written in his own hand.
He must also send his indenture.

In some cases the indentures were not in order,
in others the young man had not learnt his trade
thoroughly. To throw light upon cases of this nature
a circular was sent round to all the members.
This contained a printed copy of all the letters of
application.

The circular issued by the London brethren contained
the number of their votes for and against each candidate.
In due course the votes taken in the provinces were
published in the next issue.

In looking at all these printed letters we get two
pleasant impressions ; one is that the writers felt
there was great honour in being elected, the other that
every letter showed the hand of an intelligent person.
Here is a typical case —

London.
24th September, 1856.
Gentlemen. — I have taken the earliest opportunity
to endeavour to become a member of your honourable
society, hoping you will be favourable to my admission.
Should I be elected my attention shall be to fulfil the
rules and to become an honourable member (here
follows references to the character of the shop where
he was employed). Gentlemen, the business I profess
is pan and hairs ; and should you think proper to make
me a member of your society, by emancipation, I shall
always endeavour by my conduct to support the rules
and regulations connected with it.
I am, gentlemen,

Yours respectfully,

John Taylor.

Yet with all this technical exclusiveness the society
had a lively sense of fairness towards mankind in

110 THE BRUSHMAKER

general. Upon their arms they make it known to all
men that they are —

"United to Protect : Not Combined to Injure."

In the eighteenth century a number of societies
in the provinces had arms of their own. Their
mottoes were differently worded, but all showed the
same trend of thought. That of Bristol, dated 1782,
says —

" May Love and Unity Support our Trade
And Keep Those Out who Would our Rights
Invade."

The Leeds motto is —
" Small Things if Multiply'd will Flourish and
Increase
With Friendship, Unity, Concord, Love and
Peace."

The date is 1791. The arms of the Lynn society,
dated 1786, has a motto imitative of Bristol, but more
assertive —
" May our Trade in Love and Unity Ever Flourish

To Keep Those Out that Would our Rights
Demolish."

Another interest in these various arms are the details
engraved upon the shields. Here the primitive tools
of the craft have been drawn with equal care and
wisdom.

Remote and simple and, withal, subconsciously
familiar, these things must needs appeal to every
member of the craft ; for who could look upon the old
pitch-pan with its charcoal stove without a sense of
silent romance, picturing the four panhands who,
long ago, sat around it at their work. Probably they
would wear white smocks and paper caps. Assuredly

112 THE BRUSHMAKER

they would bite pitch off their fingers and talk about
Reform.

In those days political faith was so important as to
be recorded in the minute book. On 27th April, 1831,
the London brushmakers record with bold capitals ;
" Three Cheers Given for Reform and King
William."

On the 4th May following they met again at the club
house and gave proof of their sincerity —

Resolved That in order to shew our attachment to our
Sovereign and our Unanimous opinion on the all Impor-
tant Subject of reform we Immediately Commence a
Voluntary Subscription in aid of the Funds of the Loyal
and Patriotic Fund. And in order to make the Sub-
scription as easy as Possible we Propose that an Equal
Distribution of Is. 6d. each be Immediately made from
the Private Fund and that those Members who object
to giving to the Fund shall receive their Is. 6d. by
sending their Names to the Secretary, on the night the
voices are taken. Second that on a Calculation there
are 260 Members belonging to the Fund we therefore
Propose that 20 Pounds be taken out of the Fund and
that those Members who are not eligible to receive from
the Fund may send up their names for what Sum they
Please which shall be advanced for them and repaid
the Same way as a Petition. 3. That the voices be sent
tomorrow Night and if Carried the President and Secre-
tary take it to the Committee at the Crown and Anchor
and Pay it in as the Voluntary Subscription of the London
Society of Journeymen Brush Makers held at the Hope,
Clare Market, as a Testimony of their attachment to
the cause of Reform. Trusting it will be a Stimulus
to their Brethren in the Country and other Trade
Societies to do Likewise.

Another matter of interest belonging to these men is
that in 1846 they opened a " bass factory." So it
appears that in the nature of co-operation they were
abreast with the " Rochdale Pioneers." They may

BRUSHMAKERS' SOCIETIES 113

not have been identified with the general movement
and its political advocacy. Their minutes suggest
they were not, as the word co-operative does not occur.
And, as none of the numerous histories of co-operation
mention these men, their independence appears quite
clear.

When we consider how much has been written in
books, magazines and newspapers upon the co-opera-
tive movement, we have to admit how wonderful these
brushmakers were to have done what they did without
the aid of this limelight of publicity. Indeed, how
honest to have escaped history altogether !

To find these men and get glimpses of their character
one has to go upon records made solely by themselves
and for themselves. The bulk of these have little or
no meaning, save for those who belong to the craft.

There was, however, one solitary attempt to record
the dates of certain important events. This made
two interesting pages in the annual returns of the United
Society for the year 1892. The compiler, J. Huntington,
was then secretary of the Bristol Division. He says —

In 1734 the brush business of Bristol only contained
masters and men to the number of nine. From that
time to 1780 the workmen increased to fiftv-eight. This
increase being greater than the work the men graduallv
left Bristol to find pastures new in other towns. Bv
reference to the Polling-books of 1781 we find that at an
election thirteen brushmakers came from London to
vote, one Exeter, one Plymouth, two Dorset, one Walsall,
two Hereford, one Birmingham, and one Newington.
Brushmakers must have been high in the social scale
to become Burgesses of the city. We thus see how
these men carried their trade to various parts of England.
Those remaining in Bristol formed themselves into a
society in the year 1782. Societies soon sprang up in
other towns ; those in the Northern counties some time
afterwards. In those early days, as now, no great

114 THE BRUSHMAKER

object could be obtained without the banding together
of men for united action, for the benefit of those who
follow after them. This was the great idea of the Bristol
brushmakers. They have been the pioneers in some of
our greatest struggles in politics. As a Society they
were many years in front in the fight for reform for the
benefit of their fellow men.

As the number of men increased in the various towns
it was thought advisable to form one grand society.
A circular was issued to this effect and the resolution
carried ; and in 1810 all the societies were formed into
one with Bristol as the head. But each society retained
its independence so far as payments and benefits were
concerned, with the result that in some towns higher
contributions were paid than in others, and more relief
granted.

Great dissatisfaction prevailed at this state of things ;
but after considerable correspondence a good understand-
ing was arrived at, and a new code of rules established,
and London made the head society.

During the period from 1810 to 1825 another society
of brushmakers was formed, known as the " Second " ;
and in some respects this was opposed to the first. As
a considerable amount of friction was caused on both
sides a proposal was submitted from Sheffield for amal-
gamation. Of the 700 members who voted 381 were
" for " and 332 " against." The resolution being
carried the brushmakers once more became a " United
Society."

Until that time the society was exclusively a Trade
Society, giving no sick benefit. It was, however,
thought by a large number that by an increased contri-
bution a sick benefit could be given in addition to the
ordinary Relief : and that such would be a great boon
to those who were knocked up while on the road, beside
those who fell sick in the towns. A proposition was
carried in 1827 to establish a Sick Society, which was to
have its own officers and membership upon payment of
thirteen shillings per year : entrance being optional.
This continued under the name of the Benevolent till
the year 1874, when it was affiliated with the Trade
society.

From 1782 to 1836 there was no fixed Pension Benefit,

THE LEATHERHEAD SHAVING BRUSH
(OLD TYPE)

116 THE BRUSHMAKER

the members receiving a small sum per mile, and if they
reached a Head society, so much for Sunday. And so
it happened that the man who went round the trade in
the shortest time was the best off. Some old members
said that it cost them from four to five shillings per week
above contributions to relieve those on the road. The
fixed rate of pension benefit came into operation in 1837.

As a connected record this little history of the society
must needs be of great value to the members. There
is, however, a doubtful statement at the beginning,
referring to the number of masters and men in Bristol
in 1734. But all the rest is compiled with remarkable
accuracy. Should not Mr. Huntington's opening
statement read : "In 1734 the brushmaking business
in Bristol contained Burgesses, masters and men, to
the number of nine " ? The " second " society
referred to by Mr. Huntington may have been the
Independent Brushmakers, whose arms bore the added
motto : " In God is All our Trust."

It is very pleasant to find that the secretaries of the
Brushmakers' Society from the beginning have been
worthy men and true. This tradition is, assuredly,
being upheld to-day in the charming personality of Mr.
S. G. Porter and by the enthusiasm of his young friend,
the present secretary, Mr. G. F. Mayes. Not less
important is the gratitude of the members toward
these men. Among brushmakers, be it said, this
loyalty is not new. In very truth it has kept their
trade society going nearly two centuries. On occasion
this sense of brotherhood has found pleasant expressions,
as the old minute books show. Here is an extract.
It refers to an oil painting. The year is 1829.

This portrait of Mr. Wm. Hunt, who for 8 years
faithfully filled the office of Secretary of the London
Society of Journeymen Brushmakers, was unanimously

BRUSHMAKERS' SOCIETIES 117

voted to him, at a general meeting of the society held
19th March, 1829, as a token of the high esteem the
society entertains of the important service he has
rendered them, and for his counsel and persevering
endeavour to promote the welfare of the trade at large.

The portrait was painted by a Mr. Patten, who received
ten guineas in payment.

Now without regard for the order of dates, but rather
in the sense of appropriateness, as touching the inner-
most feelings of these men, we will read an old man's
letter. The man was a retired secretary ; his letter
was addressed to one who had been a few years in office —
Mr. Porter. The date is 5th June, 1899.

Dear Sir.— I have not been able to look over my old
books yet, but will do so this week ; and, if anv things
I have can be useful to you, I will forward them.

Your praise of me, to me, is very sweet. I often
have wondered how old people have felt when their
span of life was drawing to a close. I am old now,
memory is failing, and other symptoms of age are upon
me, but I am cheered by the knowledge that, wilfullv,
I never inflicted injury on any one.

When you took up the work of the Society I believed
in you. That belief is the same now, if possible stronger
than ever. And I hope that you will be able to devote
many more years to it as the greatest leader that I have
known.

Yours faithfully,

ROBT. J. COLEGATE.

To do justice to the character of these men is to turn
a moment from their brotherly love and look at them
when, on occasion, they encounter anything in the nature
of humbug. Without this the picture would not be
complete. To get truth is to touch two sides of the
same temperament.

Their old minute books conceal nothing. The words

118 THE BRUSHMAKER

may be brief, but each case is laid bare. Whilst at
one time they would set all their rules aside and allow
themselves to be guided solely by their sense of
humanity, at another time they would write down :
" John Key's case thrown under the table."

The National Society of Brushmakers, whose office
is at No. 15 Hackney Road, London, is the result of
the union of two societies — the United and the Amal-
gamated. The latter was sometimes referred to as
the " Second." But with this familiar name it should
not be confused with the "second" society that
existed prior to 1825.

The National came into existence as recent as 1917.
One of the chief things it has done is to admit women
as members, which occurred for the first time in May,
1918. All that now remains to complete the brother-
hood is for the painting-brush makers and the bone-
brush makers to throw in their lot and join the National.
In the case of the first it might be said that it would
be a gentlemanly act on the part of the " gentlemen
P. B. M's. ! "

CHAPTER XVII

THE BRUSHMAKERS OF OLD BRISTOL

The sense of the importance of brushmaking was
instilled in the author as a child. He got it first from
his father. The notion was further illuminated by an
old man with whom the boy worked. Next to the
father, the old man was perhaps the most wonderful
craftsman in the world ! So the boy thought.

The three together represented the ancient institution
of master, apprentice, and journeyman. The journey-
man could turn his hand and do anything. As panhand
he was great, and not less good at hairs. He worked
with equal ease at drawing, which he called a beautiful
art. Drawing in those days included boring and finishing
and all. Furthermore, he could make excellent army
shaving brushes and also a passable sash-tool.

The army shaving brushes were not for the armv.
The journeyman said this ; and when he spoke his
voice assumed the tone of authority, as one who had
an interest in the boy's education. No, they were
made simply as good poor man's brushes to be had cheap.

The work was simple. The stock, which was per-
fectly square, was covered with leather. The leather
extended an inch or more up the bristles, where it was
bound with string.

The cubes of wood, which may have been an inch
in size, were first placed in a row near the stove. Upon
each of these would be set the knot of bristles, which
had been dipped in cement and tied with thrum. So
far they would be kept warm. The leather was cut
in strips same width as the wood. Two pieces were

119

9— (1468e)

120 THE BRUSHMAKER

used. The bottom of the wood was placed in the
centre of each in turn. The four ends would be turned
up, pressed upon the moist knot with the fingers, and
bound. As the leather upon the wood remained to be
seen there was scope for colour, one piece might be
green and the other red.

In course of time, as these army shaving brushes
were discarded by the army, their name was changed
to " leather heads."

The old man came originally from Bristol ; it was his
dear old town : so the boy gathered a good deal about it.
Indeed, to his young mind Bristol and brushmaking
were inseparable, and the old man stood for both.

That the man had tramped all the way and come at
last to the little workshop in Nottingham, was to the
boy, a great adventure.

The real tramp in those days was a respectable person.
Within the meaning of tramp was included the brush-
maker walking from town to town in search of work.
Tramp was another name for journeyman.

When the man arrived he showed his " blank "
and thereby proved he was a " legal " workman.
The blank was a little book with blue paper covers,
issued by the United Society of Journeymen Brush-
makers. On the front page appeared the brushmakers'
arms embellished with various things connected with
the craft, as the square and compass, the foot lathe,
the steel comb, and a pair of shears. These matter-of-
fact oddments occupy the lower part of the shield,
whilst the other touches the sense of romance with
three bundles of bristles and three wild boars. Other
things support the shield. The spirit of adventure is
further enlarged. On the left side is a Russian with a
spear, on the other a bristly boar. The animal stands
upon his hind legs. High above the shield the Russian

THE BRUSHMAKERS OF OLD BRISTOL 121

eagle is perched upon a barrel of bristles. The two-
headed bird looks down upon the man and the pig
with equal scorn.

Needless to say all this fed the boy's imagination ;
and he found further food in the printed and written
matter that followed. Brief!}', this touched upon the
journeyman's character ; it said : " This is to certify
that John Murphy has behaved consistent uith the rules
of the trade, and as such is recommended by the Bristol
Society, this 23rd day of July, 1869." Here appeared
the signatures of steward and secretary ; and below
was written : ' ' The bearer can take a place of u ork at Pan ,
Hairs, and Drawing." Then followed the remote date
the man first entered the society, which coincided with
his emancipation. In other words, freedom after a
term of apprenticeship.

The little book contained twenty forms. The num-
ber filled up showed the various towns to which the man
had tramped, and also those in which he had obtained
work. In each case was recorded his tramping money,
which was paid him at the rate of \\d. per mile (zchich
includes the whole expense) to go to a place of -uork.
Another method of payment was Id. a mile and a
bed at the club house.

The club houses were inns ; the one in Nottingham,
at the time, was called *' Filo-da-puta."

As the tramp received his money at each town the
amount was entered, dated, and signed by the local
steward. Hence most towns had a society of brush-
makers, and each place a club house. Here the
" Hope and Anchor," there the " Craven's Head."

The landlord, as a man of importance, was the
society's banker. He who, in accordance with the
rules, supplied each committee man with a pot of beer,
figured also in the finances.

122 THE BRUSHMAKER

In 1829 the landlord of the " Bull's Head," Jewen
Court, London, addressed a note to the committee ;
a sort of ultimatum, in which he expressed himself as
the injured person. The letter, as will be seen, is
adorned with capitals. Officially it was addressed to
the secretary.

"Sir, In Consequence of your repeating Disappointing
me and Paying others in Preference You are aware of
My Sentiments last Night therefore it is left with you
to Divise means to Pay the Men out of Employ. I
Remain yours resply. — T. Hawkins."

The committee assembled a few nights later in full
force. The minute book records a resolution passed
upon Hawkins : " That he be had up in the room to Give
an explanation of his Conduct .... After a very noisy
and Clamorous Discussion (after Mr. Hawkins had
Promised to advance another 100 Pound to the Society
if Necessary) it was Resolved that the Votes be received
on Monday Night For and Against Removing the Club
House."

In other respects, also, this minute book teems with
interest, but we will limit our view to the personality
of the landlord. His name occurs again in the last
week in 1830.

" Motion made by R. Bonsey for Mr. Hawkins to be
had up to explain why the Usual Cheer at Christmas was
not Provided but Mr. Hawkins, not being in, the Business
of the Evening Proceeded ....

"At the Conclusion of the Business Mr. Hawkins
brought up Gin, Rum, and Brandy which seemed to
Satisfy all Present. Adjourned."

In this London Minute book there are occasional
references to Bristol. Brief as these are they show that
the brushmakers there were mostly " legal " craftsmen.

An old Bristol directory, dated 1793-4, contains

THE BRUSHMAKERS OF OLD BRISTOL 123

the names of eleven masters. One of these, a Mr.
Jones, had a business in Mary-le-port Street. The
name remains upon the sign in the dear old street to
this day. It is a brushshop still !

The number of workmen the eleven masters em-
ployed cannot now be known. One thing, however,
is almost certain. Each would have one or two appren-
tices. In every case the bond would be made on
parchment.

The content of an indenture made the latter part of
the eighteenth century is worth recording for its quaint-
ness. The first two words are embellished in a style
that would befit a royal charter. The matter reads —

THIS INDENTURE, made the second Day of Decem-
ber in the Year of Our Lord, One thousand seven hundred
and Ninety Nine Between John Wallis of The first Part
and Daniel Hodgkins of the Second Part Witnesseth,
That the said John Wallis Doth by these Presents, Put,
Place and Bind himself from the Day of the Date hereof,
during the Term of seven Years thence next ensuing, and
fully to be completed and ended. And the said John
Wallis Doth covenant, promise and agree, to and with
the said Daniel Hodgkins that he the said Apprentice
shall and will faithfully serve his said Master his secrets
keep, his lawful Commands gladly obey and do ; hurt
to his said Master he shall not do, nor suffer to be done
by others, when it is in his Power to prevent the same :
His Master's Goods he shall not waste or embezzle,
the same give or lend without Leave ; Day or Night
absent himself from his said Master's Service ; nor
do any other Act, Matter or thing whatsoever, to the
Prejudice of his said Master — but in all Things shall
demean and behave himself towards his Master and ail
his as a faithful Apprentice ought to do. And the
said Daniel Hodgkins In Consideration Hereof,
doth hereby for himself, his Executors, Administrators
and Assigns, covenant and agree to Teach, Inform and
Instruct, or cause and procure to be Taught, Informed
and Instructed, the said Apprentice, by the best Ways

124 THE BRUSHMAKER

and Means he can in the Art or Trade of a Brushmaker.
Agreed also That the said John Wallis Shall not Earn
more than Seven Shillings per Week for the First three
years and Eight Shillings and Six Pence For the Residue
of the said Term of Four Years For his said Master —
but Shall Receive All he Earns Above at the Prices
Given to Journeymen Brushmakers at this Date. In
Witness whereof the said Parties to these Presents
their Hands and Seals interchangeably, have put the
Day and Year first above written.

John Wallis.

Daniel H'odgkins.
Sealed and Delivered in

the Presence of Us, Henry Webster.

Nicholas Butler.

The Bristol directory for 1793-4 shows that brooms
were among the most important goods for sale in the
market in Leather-hall Back. In turning to the addresses
of the brushmakers it is interesting to note that they
lived near this marker in The Back. With their work-
shops in and about Nicholas and Mary-le-port Streets
they were conveniently near the spot in which they sold
their brushes.

The historians say that : " The inhabitants of Bristol
were very early addicted to Trade and Manufacture ....
By the Charter of Edward the third it appears that it
was so considerable, as to obtain the reputation of being
the second City in England for Trade and populousness."

Later, the enthusiastic compiler of Bristol's first
directory describes the port as : " The capital Key and
great Mart of this country."

In the eighteenth century, Bristol Back, with its
innumerable sheds and lively coasters, was perhaps the
busiest spot in the city.

The master brushmakers, on market days, were
installed in the sheds next the tanners and dealers in

MARY-LE-PORT STREET, BRISTOL, 1877

126 THE BRUSHMAKER

calf skins. The leather merchants, who were looked
upon as the richest men in the port, must have given
an air of importance to these sheds. On the other hand,
the brushmakers, though comparatively poor men,
were, perhaps, interesting as a diversion from the mono-
tony of leather. Their brushes were of use to the ship-
owners as well as the traders. The deck-scrub, the
long-handled paint brush, and the tar brush were
familiar things to the seafaring folk. Equally so the
folks at home had their " straight dairy " and their
" pickit " shoe-brushes, and also their Russian-bristle
brooms. The dairy brush in those days was made of
a good mixture of ' bristles and whalebone, and the
shoe-brush pure bristles. Mexican fibre, Kitool, and
the various kinds of bass were not yet known.

The importance of the craft at that period is reflected
in 1882, in a minute book of the Bristol Society of
Journeyman Brushmakers. Under date 15th March it
was proposed —

That as our National Federated Trades Union was
founded in this City by the formation of the Bristol
Society in 1782, and this being the hundredth Anniver-
sary, this Meeting is of opinion that such an event should
not be allowed to pass without some special effort being
made to celebrate in a manner befitting the occasion.

In the centenary celebrations a good number of
brushmakers, proud of their craft, walked in procession
behind their trade banner. The banner which, by the
way, was lent to them by their Manchester brethren,
had not been seen in public for many a year. Old men
in the procession were heard to say they had never
seen it before. The banner was dated 1747 ; an
earlier date than that claimed by Bristol. The date,
however, was adopted in London by the United Society.

If a picture could be made of the little pageant the

THE BRUSHMAKERS OF OLD BRISTOL 127

painter would do well to introduce old Mary-le-port
Street as the setting.

The ancient church of Mary-le-Port has all been
hidden from the street of that name three or four
hundred years, save only the little porch which peeps
from under the overhanging houses. The houses,
which are among the oldest in Bristol, have been
occupied by brushmakers of many generations. At
one time the sign of the brushmaker, a big brush,
hung high above the porch ; at another period a brush-
maker lived on either side and each showed the sign
of the brush. One of the men, a maker of hog's-hair
paint brushes, fixed an ingenious aphorism over his
door : " Nature's Rudest Brute Our Finest Art
Supplies."

CHAPTER XVIII

TRAMPING

In days gone by the tramp and the vagrant were dif-
ferent persons. The tramp was not a beggar but a
workman out of a job ; not a loafer but a skilled crafts-
man on his way between one town and another, seeking
work at his own trade.

The brushmaker who went on foot to a distant town
at the bidding of his society was a good type of tramp
a century ago.

The cash accounts of the societies of journeymen
brushmakers in those days contained some interesting
items. The quaint statement before us is that of the
brushmakers of Witham, in the county of Essex, for
the year 1829.

50 Tramps

12 Ditto, Resting on Sundays

1 Ditto, 4 days' Sickness

1 Blank Drawn

Monthly beer

Postage and Stationery .

Secretary's Salary

Balance in hand

12 18 -

1 10 -

6 8

1 -

2 3 9

5 101

10 6

4 16 10

£22 12 7*

So far the case of Witham is typical, the expenses
of other branch societies were likewise almost all
" tramping money."

In another way, however, Witham came in to promin-
ence. In 1829 the brushmakers there, with all the
philosophic tendencies inherent with the craft, addressed
a long letter to the London brethren. The letter was

128

TRAMPING 129

upon the all important matter of tramping. Here are
a few extracts —

We live in times when the struggles of intrigue, am-
bition, and tyranny are continually giving rise to some
political events, which if not of themselves sufficiently
important, thev are made so bv knaves and speculators
for the sake of gain ... It is true that brushmakers
may not so severely feel the consequences that arise
from such occurrences as many other trades, though
we ourselves have but latelv had a narrow escape,
but it is true that almost everv trade, whether of a foreign
or local relation, must sutler seriously from such unto-
ward events : and in our case, our suffering fiom such
events, will be either increased or decreased according
to the conduct we pursue. If we could indulge any
hope that the trade and manufactures of this country
were likely to return to their olden state, and that our
old friend Doctor Paine with all the circumstances of
trade that attended his early days would return it would
be a relief both to our anxiety and trouble. But we
might as well expect a retrograde of time, or that an old
man will again become young, as to expect ever to see
such a good state of things again . . .

This letter, we must remember, was written by
panhands. The occasion may be pictured now by any
member of the craft. A good penman would be chosen,
and all would collaborate in what was written. The
elegant prose was a collective effort ; its rhythm and
style arose from the united genius around the pitch-pan.
These panhands read the newspapers, a single copy of
which cost 6d. in those days. So one copy only would be
bought and the same used by the whole of the shop.
Their " old friend Doctor Paine " was Thomas Paine,
author of The Rights of Man. Though the letter runs
on to 1,200 words its interest does not in the least flag.
It deals with the whole system of tramping with a view
to recommending economy, and suggests that the trade
might benefit by suspending it for two months from

130 THE BRUSHMAKER

the 10th December to the 10th February ; whereby
a saving of £100 would be made.

No less a sum than £820 (in addition to what had
been paid off club house debts) had been expended
during the previous six months. There had been an
average of fifty -six tramps " round the trade " in that
space of time. Each tramp, in going once round,
cost £10 3s. 7d. Therefore the tramping account alone,
not including Sunday allowances, had probably cost
£570. The balance of £250, it is stated, was spent
on funerals, superannuations, club beer, postage,
secretaries, salaries, and defensive strikes. Touching
upon the other side of their accounts it was stated that
the weekly contributions from 800 to 850 members
had only been sufficient to cover the tramping expenses.
It was this dismal financial outlook that inspired those
panhands at Witham to write their letter to London.
As craftsmen they addressed their brother tramps as
gentlemen !

Gentlemen. — The complexed state of society in
this country, and the uncertainty of commerce, either
foreign or domestic, render it necessary that even every
artisan and mechanic should well consider how he is,
or may be situated with reference to such a state of things.
Of late we have often seen that, in some departments of
trade, one " short " month has substituted adversity
for prosperity, and brought ruin and privation on those
who before had never dreamt of such calamities. We
also see that almost every class of journeymen mechanics
in this country, through such misfortune, combined with
a want of care, forethought, and perseverance on their
part, have fallen before such consequences, and so far
fallen and been so disjointed as to render it impossible
ever again to recover their station and interest among
society.

Now the London brushmakers, having read and read
again the long epistle from Witham, replied as men of

THE TRAMPING ROUTC.

Giving an exact Account of the Relief, &c. at each place. —
No Tramp can become a Recciver.unless he lias been all round
within four months.

miles | money beer bed

43
87
26
29
28
11
1-2
16
18
8J

To receive at

London, to go toWitham

Witharu ..Ipswich.

Ipswich Bury

Bury Diss ....

Diss Norwich

Noiwicli .»..Lynn ..

Lynn Kettering

Kettering ....Leicester
Leicester . . . Derby

Derby Siavely

Slavely Sheffield

Sheffield ....Newark
Newark ...Lincoln..

Lincoln Gainsbro'

Gainsbro' ....Hull

Hull York .

York Leeds 24

Leeds Bradford 10

Bradford Rochdale ..21

Rochdale .•••Manchester II
Manchester ...Bolton .... 12
Bolton ... Blarkbonrn 12
Blackburn. .. .Preston .10
Pres-ton .... Lancaster . . 22
Lancaster ....Preston.,
Preston ....Liverpool
Liverpool ....Chester..
Chester ....Shrewsbury 40
Shrewsbury ....Wolverliamp. 30
Wolverhampton Litchfield.. 15
Litchfield ....Coventry ..."
Coventry ... .Birmingham IS
Birmingham ...Bewdley . 21
Bewdley ....Worcester 14

Worcester Tewkesbury 15

Tewkesbury ....Gloucester . II

Gloucester Bristol ... 34

Bristol Exeter. . . 82

Exeter Poole ... 70

Poole Salisbury . :J0

Salisbury . . . .Southampton 22
Southampton ..Reading . . 46
Reading ....London . . .40
Loudon

40 4
32 j 3
38 2
22 I 2
22

A
7
o

3
■2
1
4
1
•2
4
39 4
2
1

2
1
1
I
1
2
•t
3

..22
.32
..18

0 10
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0

0
0
0
0

I
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0 10

6
6
6
6
6
6
8

0
G
G
6
6
6
6
6
6
G
6
I
G
0
G
G
6
0
6
G
6
6
8
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
10

total
3 7
5 2
4
3
3
G
B

4
3
G
3
3
.--.
5
4
2
3
3
3
3
2
3
3

10
10
1
7
2
6
4
0
0
4
6
7
9
0
10
9
0
u
0
10
10
10
5 4
3 6
5 10
5 0

9 10
9 7

5 0
3 10

6 4

5 10

6 10

CHART ISSUED BY THE LONDON SOCIETY OF
JOURNEYMAN BRUSHMAKERS, 1829

132 THE BRUSHMAKER

equal erudition. They did not agree with Witham's
desire to have the tramping money cut down. In
the first few lines they make this clear.

This proposition for stopping the tramping we are
utterly averse to as an experiment : the trial of which
would have a direct tendency to dissolve and render
nugatory almost the whole of the labour and expense
employed to bring our present system, of Tramping and
Receiving, to that enviable state of perfection to which
it has arrived. The experience we gained in 1826 has
taught us to value the present system as one pre-
eminently calculated to meet the exigencies of the trade
at large. Upon a general scale it is at once a preservative
against the torpor and supineness produced by the receiv-
ing system, and also an effectual guard and check against
the overwhelming expense of continual tramping. The
present plan has operated so well, during the short time
it has been in operation, that it would argue the preval-
ence of monstrous folly among us, as a body, to accede
to any proposition any way calculated to impair and
overthrow it. It is our decided opinion that no cir-
cumstances can ever justify a stoppage of tramping,
except a recurrence of the appalling deathlike state of
trade experienced in 1819 .. . In fact it would be a
violent remedy similar to the amputation of a valuable
limb, which ought never to take place until all other
remedies are found to be inefficient to preserve the
patient's life. As respecting the saving to be accom-
plished our friends have entirely miscalculated it.

In order to set forth their system of tramping it
was necessary for the society to publish a guide
showing the tramping route. A copy, dated 1829,
bears these lines at the head —

THE TRAMPING ROUTE
Giving an exact Account of the Relief, etc., at each
place. No tramp can become a Receiver unless he has
been all round within four months.

Under this is a list of about forty stages with the
details arranged in columns. One contains the names

TRAMPING 133

of all the towns that represent the various stages and
also the number of miles between, in the next is arranged
the tramping money, and in the others the beer money,
bed money, and the total.

With this list it was customary to give a note of
warning. Here is an example —

We have received information of the expeditious
method of some of our Tramps in conveying themselves
round the trade, or rather passing through it. Some
being paid to Exeter from Bristol, and then conveying
themselves by Coach to London ; others cutting short
the Tramping Route two hundred miles at a time. It
is our duty to apprise these birds of passage that, when
they thus take upon themselves to deviate from the
rules of the trade, they deprive themselves entirely,
for four months, of coming upon the receiving list :
unless they return to the place they took flight from,
at their own expense, and go through those Societies
they previously evaded.

Fortunately, these " birds of passage " were not
numerous. Now and then a man may have " gone
wrong " but the society remained an upright body.
The certificate that each man carried in his pocket had
upon it, printed in bold capitals — -
" The Trade Expects Every Max To Do His Duty."

CHAPTER XIX

THE OUTSIDERS

In London, as in other cities, the authorities sometimes
change the name of a street. Many years ago they
changed Kent Street into Tabard Street. But memories
of Kent Street linger in the minds of old men, and they
call it by the old name still. It was a street of
brushmakers. All in a small way.

Here the proverb, As poor as a brushmaker, seemed
true to the last degree. The street was composed of
big dingy houses with different persons living on every
floor. Many a room was a workshop and kitchen as
well. We could say the tenant lived from hand to
mouth. Each in business on his own account he
was not a journeyman, neither could he be called a
master, as he employed nobody but his family.
He did not belong to the trade union himself nor
employed any member of it. It was a street of
outsiders.

Other brushmakers called them " garret men."
The London Society of Journeymen Brushmakers looked
upon them as mostly " illegal " ; and discussed the
whole matter as " Kent Street."

The dealers, for whom the Kent Street brushmakers
worked, called them the " Friday nighters." 'Twas
Friday they took their goods in and drew what money
the dealer offered. 'Twas Friday they returned home
and " drove the wolf from the door."

There are exceptions always in all men. So here and
there in Kent Street was a man who had a little capital
and a small stock of materials. He sold stuff to others.

134

THE OUTSIDERS

135

Perhaps he lived at a corner shop whose window-panes
were bronzed with pitch steam.

In hard times the shop was indispensable, as it
supplied modest quantities down to the smallest possible.

LV\

£{&

-T7"

vin1

1 1

fl 1 f 5

'H'gflJ

■M.Il -..;»

n «^^f

BRUSH MATERIALS DEALER S SHOP,
KENT STREET, LONDON. 1877

Willingly the owner would get up from his work and
serve a customer with two pennyworth of fibre and a
hap'orth of wire.

To pass down Kent Street was to see brushmakers
at work near the windows. On the ground floor a man
might be making bass brooms, on the next another

10— (1468E)

136 THE BRUSHMAKER

finishing " dairy," and in the cellar a woman drawing
" dandy." Three different tenants. Three business
concerns !

The "dandy" would perhaps be " ricketted."
That is there was a channel formed between the holes
at the back in which to bed the string and save the use
of a cover.

The difficulties in which the brushmakers of Kent
Street worked can be felt only by those in the trade.
Most of them learnt bfushmaking as a family duty.
The father would teach his child ; the child, in due course,
would inflict the same upon his children. Unfortu-
nately the child could be taught but one branch, and that
again would be limited to two or three patterns. Of
necessity the Kent Street brushmakers were specialists.
Their small means dictated their limitations. In other
walks of life specialism means high fees ; in the West
End it points to fortune. In Kent Street specialism
spelt poverty.

The specialist the world over, one would say, employs
the best tools. Kent Street, however, furnished
exceptions. Irony lurked there in every corner.

In 1850, when brushmakers throughout the country
had long adopted the foot lathe, there were men in
Kent Street who bored their stocks with bit and brace.

In the light of skilled craftsmanship Kent Street was
not without genius. It could be said that, in the
circumstances, some remarkable things were done.
We must remember that each person was a specialist.
All a man's energy and skill was centred in brushes of
one sort. This meant the work grew so familiar as to
be like child's play to his hands. Oh ! but in his heart
there was the eternal strain of living !

Each week-end the man sold his goods to the same
dealer ; always on Friday night and at the same hour.

THE OUTSIDERS 137

It was the dealer's time. It was the hour of reckoning
in which the dealer would decide. 'Twas the inevitable
occasion when the poor brushmaker placed his goods
upon the merchant's counter and himself at the
merchant's feet. He was a " garret man," a " Friday
nighter," an outsider.

INDEX

Abfall, 11

African piassava, 86, 90, 92,

93, 100
After centuries of silence, 1,

2. 4
All bristles. 96
Apprentice, 30, 31, 38, 44, 45,

107, 109, 119, 123
Artists' brushes, seventeenth

century, 49
Atlalea funifera, 89
Australian horsehair, 80
A itszug, 1 1

Bahia piassava, 86, 90, 92, 93,

100
Baltic ports, 21
Bass broom, 86

dressing, 89, 93

factorv, 112

Bassine, 86,' 100
Bear hair, 54
Bench shears, 69
Besom. 46, 85, 102
Bessarabia, 1 1

Bit and brace, 86, 136
Bonebrush maker, 77, 78
Borassus flabelliformis, 99
Bow saw, 55

Brazil, 89, 91, 92, 93, 100
Bristle dresser in Poland, 21

merchants, 7, 10, 12

Bristles, China, 5, 8, 10, 11,

13, 14

, English, 7

, French, 12

, German, 8

, Indian, 5, 8, 11, 13

, Irish, 7

, Polish, 8, 1 1

.Russian, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11,

13, 25, 28

Bristles, Siberian, 5

Bristol, 113, 119, 120, 124,

126, 127
British Museum, 1, 63
Bromelia sylvestris, 94
Broom, bass, 86

, cocoa, 101

, whisk, 103

-corn, 102

root, 102

Brushmaker in Poland, 16
Brushmaker's blank, 120

- arms, 3, 19, 71, 81,
110

societies, 107, 108, 109,

110, 113, 114

Bucharest, 11
Bull's eye, 28. 29
Butcher's cleaver, 88

Calcutta, 1 1
Camel hair, 51
Cape Palma, 92
Card. 82

Caryota urens, 98
Ceylon, 98

Charcoal stove, 44, 45
Chimnev sweep, 84, 92
China bristles, 5, 8, 10, II,
13, 14

horsehair, 80, 83

Chinese brushmaker, 10

craftsman, 10, 78, 83

guilds, 10

painter, 50, 52, 53

pig, 25, 26

wild boar, 14

Christian colonies in China, 10
Chungking, 1 1

Circular polishing brushes, 72
Clothes brush, 68
Club-houses, 121

139

140

INDEX

Cocoa fibre, 100

broom, 101

Cocos nucifera, 100
Combing, 29, 32, 34
Congo, 92

Co-operation, 112, 113
Country folk, 17
Courland, 1 1

Craft guilds, 10, 45

Dantzic, 8

Dialect, 16

Dairy brush, 68, 126, 136

Dragging, 28, 29, 32, 33

Drafts, 80

Drawing bench, 69

hand, 66

Dower, 11, 12

Engining, 35, 36
English bristles, 7
■ horsehair, 80

sash tool, 54, 55, 56, 57,

58, 59, 60

Employment of women, 66, 67

Feather as fine paint brush, 52

Fibre drafting, 97

Finisher, 75

Finland, 8

Fitch hair, 54

Flat iron, 62

Folk, country, 17

-, Russian, 11, 16, 17, 18

Fourth class on the railway, 18
French bristles, 12
Friday nighters, 134, 136, 137
Furs, 7, 18

Gaboon, 92
Gainsborough, 50
Garret men, 134, 137
Gekochte, 12
German bristles, 8
Guilds, 10, 45
Giotto, 48
Goat hair, 53
Grand Bassa, 92

Graving, 78
Grebinikoff , 1 1
Gusseff, 1 1
Gipsies, 85, 86, 90

Hackle, 80, 81, 82, 83
Hair, bear, 54

-, camel, 51

— , fitch, 54

, goat, 53

— — ■, hog, 47

, horse-, 79

•, ox, 54

, sable, 53

, squirrel, 53

broom, 96

brush, 74

pencil, 51, 53

hand, 8, 13, 27

Hankow, 1 1
Hawkers, 85, 86
Hochzeit, 1 1

Hog hair, 47

■ reeve, 6

Hongkong, 1 1
Horsehair, Australian, 80

•, China, 80, 83

■, Siberian, 80

— — , South American, 80
Hot plate, 56, 58
Hull, 7

Indian bristles, 5, 11, 13

■ wild boar, 14

Irish bristles, 7

Is it all bristles ? 96

Istle, 94

Italian whisk, 100, 101

Journeyman, 119, 128

Kamschatka, 8, 11, 62
Kent Street, 134, 135, 136
Kitchen copper, 88
Kitool, 86, 98, 99, 126
Kolinski, 53
Kovno, 17, 21
Kutin, 11

IXDEX

141

Landlord of club-house, 122

Leek, 11

Leeds, 3

Legend, 4

Leopoldinia piassaba 93

Liber Albas, 23

Litaus, 18

Liverpool, 87, 92, 94

London Society of Journey-
men Brushmakers, 8, 66, 85,
107, 131

Loughborough, 87

Lynn, 71

Machine-made brushes, 104,

106
Madagascar fibre, 86, 101
Manchester, 93, 126
Marten. 54
Memel, 11, 20
Mexican fibre, 79, 86, 94. 95,

96, 97, 98, 101, 126

whisk. 101, 102

Middle Ages, 22, 48

Millet, 101

Minute books, extracts from

old, 8, 66, 67, 85, 107. 112,

114, 116
Mixing, 28, 33
Moldavia, 1 1

Monkey bass, 86, 93, inn
Monrovia, 92
Moscow, 1 1
Mustela zibellitia, 53
Mysticetus, 84

Xailed-stock brushes, 63, 64
Xegros, 91

Nottingham, 15, 120, 121
Novikofi, 11

Okatka, 8, 12

Old Calabar, 92

— — masters, 47

One-knot paint brush, 54, 60

Oracle of thunder, 91

Otborni, 12

Outsiders, 134, 135. 136, 137

Ox hair, 54

Paintbrush maker, 47

brushes, modern, 55

of old masters, 47

Painter's pencil, 51
Painters' portraits of them-
selves, 47

Palmvra fibre, 99, 100
Panframe, 38, 42, 44
Panhand, 38, 39, 40, 42 110
Para piassava, 93
Pencil, camel hair, 51

, hog hair, 47

•, sable hair, 53

Petersburg, 8, 1 1
Piassava, 84, 87, 88
Pig, domestic, 13, 48

■, semi-wild, 6, 13

, wild, 10

Pigs of St. Anthonv's Priorv,

23
Pigstves in old London streets,

23
Pitch pan, 1, 38, 44, 110
Plain de Jaumave, 95
Poland, 8, 16, 46
Polecat, 53
Polish bristles. 8, 1 1

knots, 21

swine, 21

Pot ticket, 108

Romance of Mexican fibre, 94

Ricketing, 136

Riflings, 8, 13, 32

Russia Co., 6

Russian bristles, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13

folk, 11, 16, 17

wild boar, 14, IS

Sable, 53

Sash tool, 54. 55, 56, 57, 58,

59, 60
Schlager, 1 1
Schwedoff, 1 1
Scrubbing brush, 68, 97, 100,

104, 106
Semi-wild pig, 6, 13, 21, 24
Shanghai, 1 1

142

INDEX

Shaving brush, 115, 119
Sherbro, 92
Shoe brush, 68, 126
Siberia, 6, 8, 11, 15
Siberian bristles, 5

horsehair, 80

polecat, 53

squirrel, 53

Skunk, 53
Sobol, 53

Sorghum vulgar e, 101, 102

Sorting, 28

South American horsehair, 80

Spokeshave, 75

Spitz, 11

Spoon bit, 41

St. Anthony's Priory, 23

St. Petersburg, 8, 1 1

Staveley, 19

Squirrel hair, 53

Sue hoy, 12

Sus cristatus, 14

scrofa, 15

leucomystax, 14

Sweep's brush, 84

Swine, English, 6, 7, 24, 25

, Irish, 7, 24, 25

, Polish, 21

■ , Russian, 5, 20

Swineherd, 20, 24

Tampico, 94
Tictina, 1 1
Tying on, 60, 61

Tying up the knot, 56

Tientsin, 11

Tooth brush, 77

Tramping, 120, 128, 129, 130,

131, 132, 133
Treadle lathe, 42, 86
Trepan drawing, 76
Tsingtau, 11
Tula, 95
Turned hairs, 36

Velasquez, 50

Van Tromp's broom, 7
Varnish brush, 53
Viligaluki, 12
Village post office, 10
Vodka, 17

West Africa, 90
Whalebone, 84, 85
Whisk broom, 103

, French, 100, 101, 102

, Italian, 100, 101

, Mexican, 101, 102

Whitewash brush, 62, 63, 64
Wild boar, Chinese, 14

, English, 6

— , Indian, 14

, Russian, 5, 14, 15

■ pig, 10

Women brushmakers, 66, 67

Yersckoff, 1 1

Printed hi linth. England, >>u sir Ttaae Pitman A Son*, Ltd,

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