Upon a recent visit to the Elbert Hubbard Museum, located in a Roycroft-built Arts and Crafts bungalow located at 363 Oakwood Ave., East Aurora, NY, I had the opportunity to view and photograph the tools that belonged to Charles Hall. These had been donated to the museum by a gentleman from Rochester, NY. These carving tools, of which there were chisels, gouges, small scorps, rifflers and a mallet, certainly gave me the impression that Charles Hall had used more than a penknife.

By studying the chisel marks on his carving you can also tell that he used a wide variety of tools to create his masterpieces. Many of the carvings on these chests have a certain Byzantine or Jacobean feeling—popular in England in the early 17th century. Certainly not in the "Arts and Crafts" style, making these items an anomaly when you consider that they came from one of the foremost manufacturers of Arts and Crafts (or Mission) furniture—the Roycroft. Most of his pieces can actually be considered to be in the Art Nouveau style—which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized chiefly by curvilinear motifs derived from natural forms.