wrong delivery from the future novel

[SlavaNY]

Hi,
I am looking for a short scifi story
about a man received somehow wrong delivery from the future, of a drawing machine. Machine had strange hieroglyphs on it, so the man could not completely figure out how to work it, but he found that pressing one button creates an exquisite drawing, and another resets a machine. Drawings were always unique,and the man became a famous artist. At the end of the story we find that second hieroglyph button he was pressing was an "erase" button, so he emptied machine memory; last drawing was unfinished drawing of a hand. I think the man committed suicide.
I've read it in childhood; looking for this story for several year but can't remember the author or a title

Regards,
Slava

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Found it! I thought it sounded familiar, so I went looking, and it is:

Damon Knight -- "Thing of Beauty"

 

[MacSally3245]

Thanks for the Title and Author, I too remember reading this some time ago.
Now to try and find it.

Disillusioned by today's Science Fiction writers, why oh why can't they write stories like this any more.

 

[SlavaNY]

Thank you DustyZebra,
I was trying to find this book for a very long time, I read it in childhood and remembered some details wrong - like hieroglyphs instead of Swedish. Google search would be useless, that was the power of crowdsourcing
Slava