Pill Hard­ware in Cen­tral Square has been spi­ralling down­hill since Ralph Pill sold the place a few years ago and the new own­ers decided to become an Ace chain. Now they’ve really pissed me off. I went in there today to buy an Elder & Jenks angled sash brush. They used to have a great selec­tion of E&J paint­brushes. (These are lux­u­ri­ous brushes hand­made in New Eng­land from real China bris­tle. They leave a flaw­less even fin­ish, they never drip, and they last a life­time or more. The com­pany has been in busi­ness since roughly 1793 as a result.)

No, we don’t carry them any­more, sorry. But we do sell the “Ace” brand. Do you want an Ace polyester-filament brush, “suit­able” for use with “all paints?”