Tools are the father of all other antiques. Master paintings, the great statues, the finest pottery, the most decorative furniture, the most colorful tapestries -- all of these would have been nothing more than someone's momentary idea without the tools needed to create them. Every manmade object depends on the use of tools for its existence, and mankind's greatest creativity and intelligence is reserved for the creation of newer and better mousetraps to solve the production problems of the day. Tools were the first expression of human cognition. Tools, obviously, come in all shapes, sizes, and sorts. Each tool was designed for a different job and so the variety is endless.
Tools were made all over the world and they were made from just about anything... wood, steel, ivory, bone, cast iron, brass, etc, and they were, at least in the early days, designed to be beautiful things as well as functional ones.
Some tools are large, and others are small. Sometimes the size differentials are a matter of fitting the intended purpose, and other times miniaturists have taken a normal- sized tool and shrunk it down to a smaller scale both as a demonstration of their tool making ability.

The ability to design and use tools is one of the most important factors in human development. But, tools are not just a way to get things done -- they can also be beautifully made, and in some cases the design of a tool is so ingenious, so elegant, that the sheer demonstration of human creativity it embodies makes the tool immensely valuable. Studying the development of tools in human history is particularly fascinating, and understanding how and when a tool was developed creates a context for understanding other historical milestones. For example, the invention of a saw whose blade could be temporarily removed and then replaced lead to elegant (and possibly overdone) statements of fashion in the decorative scrollwork patterns popular in Victorian times.