A slim wooden case, hinged and clasped, holding the tools of the working scribe: a dozen quills cut from goose and swan pinions, a sharp penknife for cutting and re-trimming them, reed pens for heavier strokes, stoppered horn inkwells of black oak-gall and red vermilion, a brass sand caster for blotting, sticks of sealing wax and a small signet, a folded sheaf of vellum scraps, sticks of chalk and charcoal for rough sketching, and a thin writing board for laps and tables alike. Clerks, notaries, heralds, itinerant artists, and lettered travellers all carry some version of the kit; a letter written in the field is delivered faster than one waited on from a city.
The kit is also the starting tool of the draughtsman and the herald: a charcoal sketch, an emblazoned shield roughed in tincture, a surveyor’s field notes, or a pilgrim’s account of the road all begin in the same small case. Ink freezes in winter and blots in summer, quills snap under careless pressure, and the scribe who travels learns to keep spare everything.