THE FLOOR PLANE OR LONG JOINER of
Norwegian origin exhibits the characteristic decoration of the stock and
mouth, patterns common on tools of northern European and Scandinavian
origin. (_Courtesy of the Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, Norway._)]

Intended to establish proportion and to insure precision, it seems a
natural consequence that dividers and calipers should in themselves
reflect the same sense of balance and grace that they were designed to
govern. Still, even the most prosaic examples of woodworking tools,
completely divorced from the quasi-mathematical devices of measure and
proportion, have this quality and can be admired solely as decorative
objects. This is most evident in the three European bench planes
illustrated in figures 21, 22, and 23: one Norwegian, dated 1704; one
Dutch (accession 319562), dated 1756; and one German, dated 1809. The
Norwegian and German examples, with their elaborately carved bodies and
heart-shaped mouths, are typical of the type that Swedish and German
colonists in America might have used in the 17th and 18th centuries.
They are important for that reason. Also, all three exhibit elaboration
found on other material survivals from these countries in their
respective periods. For example, the incised rosette of the Dutch plane
(fig. 22) is especially suggestive of the rosettes found on English and
American furniture of the 1750's and 1760's, specifically on high
chests.

The decorative motifs that characterized European tools of the 17th and
18th centuries obscured technical improvement. By contrast, in England
and America, tools gained distinction through the directness of their
design. Following English patterns, tools of American make were
straightforward. Only later, in new tool types, did they imitate the
rococo flourish of their European predecessors. In America, as in
England, the baroque for things functional seemingly had little appeal.
This is particularly true of woodworking planes on which, unlike their
continental cousins, embellishment is rarely seen. Exemplifying this
tradition are three early 19th-century American planes: a plow, for
cutting channels of various widths on board edges, marked "G. White,
Philda" (fig. 24); a rabbet, for notching the margin of boards; made
by E.W. Carpenter of Lancaster, Pennsylvania (fig. 25); and a jack or
foreplane, for rough surfacing (accession 61.547), made by A. Klock and
dated 1818 as seen in figure 26.

[Illustration: Figure 22.-