Catalogue of the Andrew Alpern Collection of Drawing Instruments at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Columbia University in the City of New York

Primary tools of architects and engineers of today are often software programs and computer terminals. As a logical outgrowth of that, the drawings produced by today's design professionals look very different from those produced in centuries past. But it is those older drawings that currently form the major part of architectural drawings held in institutional archives. Practitioners whose daily activities involve manipulating a mouse and an image on a computer screen may have little concept of how technical drawings of the past were produced. The collection of drawing instruments described in this book covers three centuries of useful drafting tools and was assembled by Andrew Alpern over a 40-year period. This catalogue is the first to describe such a major collection and includes information on the instruments, their makers, and some of the original owners. It is illustrated with 235 high-resolution close-up photographs that convey a wealth of information about these exquisite instruments, which are crafted in steel, brass, and solid silver, and are contained in cases of fish skin, leather, tortoise shell, shagreen, and fine woods. --