and whilst it is wet mix brown Pink and Lake thin with varnish and lay all your faintest clouds or spots which you may soften very sweetly seeing your varnish is moist After three hours standing or longer if the colours are drie with a large soft Tool pass it lightly over and again wetting it lay in your clouds more warm and dark with Umber and Collins-earth before t is drie always observing the life and sweetning your work which is blending and mixing two colours after they are laid so that you cannot perceive where either of them begin or end but insensibly join with each other If the clouds are not dark enough repeat the varnishing and clouding once more where t is required When t is well dried glaze it two or three times with brown Pink yet a little tincture of Verdegreas in it will not be amis if you had rather you may varnish it with Lacc-varnish and finish it as you did the former Whiten and prepare your wood in all respects as you do for white Japan and after you have done it over with flake white or white-lead if you design a white with some veins use some Vine-black which is made of the cuttings of Vines burnt and grinded mix two or three degrees of it with white-lead and a very weak size being warmed until you have produced the intended colour for the clouds and veins of the Marble Being thus far advanc't call for a large clean brush wet your piece over with water and before t is dry with a great Camels-hair-pencil dipt in the palest thin mixture flush or lay the faintest large clouds and veins of your Marble which being laid on whilst the work is wet will lie so soft and sweet that the original will not exceed it Then if your work be not too drie take a smaller pencil and with a colour one degree darker than the first touch all the lesser veins and variety of the Marble If your work drie too fast wet it again with the brush and water and lay not on your colours when the water is running off lest they bear it company Lastly take a small-pointed feather and with the deepest colour touch and break all your suddain or smaller veins irregular wild and confused as you have them in the natural Marble After days drying cold-clear it that is do it over with Isinglass or Parchment-size and then varnish polish and clear it up exactly in all things according to the directions for white Japan to which places and others above mentioned we refer you By mixing other colours this way any sort of Marble is subject to your imitation and if neatly done well polisht and varnisht will not only exceed any Marbling in oyl but will in beauty and gloss equal the real stone CHAP. XXVII Of Dying or Staining Wood Ivory c. To Dye Wood a beautiful Red. VVoods that are very white take this dye the best of any set a kettle of water boiling with a handful of Allom cast your wood into it permitting it to boil a little that done take your wood but and put into the said water two handfuls of Brasil wood then return your wood into the vessel again to boil for a quarter of an hour and t is concluded When dry you may rush and polish it or varnish it with the tops of Seed-lacc-varnish and polish it by which management you will find the wood covered with a rich and beautiful colour To stain a fine Yellow Take Burr or knotty Ash or any other wood that is white curled and knotty smooth and rush it very well and having warmed it with a brush dipt in Aqua fortis wash over the wood and hold it to the fire as you do Japan-work until it leaves smoaking when dry rush it again for the Aqua fortis will make it very rough If to these you add a polish and varnish it with Seed-lacc and then again polish it you 'l find no outlandish wood surpass it for the curled and knotty parts admit of so much variety being in some places hard in others soft and open-grained to which Aqua fortis gives a deeper colour than to the harder and more resisting parts In short you 'l perceive a pleasing variety interwoven beyond what you could imagine or expect If you put filings or bits of metals as brass copper and iron into the Aqua fortis each metal will produce a different tincture the best French Pistols are stockt generally with this sort of wood and stained after this manner To Dye or Stain Woods of any colour for Inlaid or Flower'd work done by the Cabinet-makers Use the moistest horse-dung you can get that has been made the night before through a sieve or cloath squeez out what moisture you judge sufficient for the purpose convey it into several small vessels fit for the design in each of these dissolve of Roach-allom and Gum Arabick the bigness of a nutmeg and with them mix reds blews greens of what colours best please you suffering them to stand two or three days yet not without often stirring them Then take your woods of which I think Pear-tree is the best if t be white cut them as thick as an half-crown which is in all reason thick enough for any Fineered or Inlaid work and of what bredth you please making your liquors or colours boiling hot put the wood into it for as long time as will sufficiently colour them yet some must be taken out sooner than the rest by which means you 'l have different shades of the same colour for the longer they lie in the higher and deeper will be the colours and such variety you may well imagin contributes much to the beauty and neatness of the work and agrees with the nature of your parti-coloured flowers To Dye or Stain Wood Black Take Log-wood and boil it in water or vinegar and whilst very hot brush or stain over your wood with it two or three times then take the Galls and Copperas well beaten and boil them well in water with which wash or stain four work so often till it be a black to your mind the oftner it is layed the better will your black be if your work be small enough you may steep it in your liquors instead of washing it The best Black Dye for Ivory Horn Bone c. Put pieces of Brass into Aqua fortis letting it stand till t is turned green with which wash your Ivory being polished once or twice Next boil Logwood in water into which put your Ivory whilst t is warm and in a little time it gives a fine black which you must now rush and polish again and t will have as good a gloss and black as any Japan or Ebony If you desire any foldage flowers or the like fancies should remain white and of the same colour with the Ivory draw them neatly on the Ivory with Turpentine-varnish before you stain it for those places which you touch with the varnish are so secured by it that the Dye cannot approach or discolour them After t is dyed if you can hatch and shadow those fancies with a Graver and fill the lines by rubbing and clearing up the whole with Lamblack and Oyl it may add much to its ornament and perfection To Stain a Green colour on Wood Ivory Horn or Bones First prepare either of them in allom-Allom-water by boiling them well in it as you were just now instructed Afterwards grind of Spanish-green or thick common Verdegreas a reasonable quantity with half as much Sal-Armoniack then put them into the strongest wine-wine-vinegar together with the wood keeping it hot over the fire till t is green enough if the wood is too large then wash it over scalding hot as in the other instances To Dye Ivory c Red. Put quick-lime into rain-rain-water for a night strain the clear through a cloath and to every pint of water add half an ounce of the scrapings of Brasil-wood having first boil'd it in allom-Allom-water then boil it in this till t is red enough to please you Thus Courteous Reader are we at lenghth arriv'd at our desired Port. Our Performances have been no way inferiour to our Promises What we ingaged for in the beginning we have punctually accomplisht and nothing certainly remains but that you convert our Precepts to Practice for that will be the ready way to examin and try whether they are false or insufficient We have all along been directed by an unerring Guide Experience and do therefore advise you upon the least miscarriage to make a diligent review and doubt not but second thoughts will convince you of too slight an observance We desire you 'd be as exact and regular in your performances as we have been in ours for by these means Satisfaction will attend both Parties all our designs must succeed to our wish and our Labours shall be crowned with success and reputation FINIS The Lidd of a Powder Box The Lidd oF a Patch Box The side of a Patch Box The side of a Powder Box The Fellow to it The Fellow to it Other patterns for Powder Boxes Other Patterns for Patch Boxes The Sides The Sides The Fellow The Fellow Other patterns for Powder Boxes Other Patterns for Patch Boxes For the side of Patch Boxes Another Sort of work for the Sides of Powder Boxes The fellow to it The follow to it Cloth Brvshes Combe Brushes A Pincushing Trvnks for Pendents Necklace Rings Jewells The topp of a 12 Inch Frame for a Loâ—king Glass for Jappan Worke The Bottom of the Said frame The Side of the fram on the Right hand The side of the frame on the Left hand The topp of a halfe Rovnd Frame for Japan worke called a 10 Inch Dresing frame for a Looking Glas The Bottom of the Said Frame The side of the frame to the Right hand The side of the Frame to the Left hand For a Standish for Pen Inke paper 〈◊〉 allso may sarve for a Comb Box The Movlding The Fore Side of the Standish For the topp or Lid. of a Gombe Box The Movlding The fore side of the Combe Box Seuerall Figures to be plased as Occasion serveth in Japan Worke A Pagod Worshipp in the Indies Another For Drawers for Cabbinets to be Placed according to yoâ—… fancy Of Drawers som are Deepe som more narrow of the same Cabbinett An Embassy
warmth you gave it makes the quicksilver also more ready to spread After these two or three visits made to the fire give it the thorough-heat at first mentioned then take it from the fire and with a scrub-brush that has never been toucht with quicksilver clean it as you did in the beginning Now if you perceive any spot of quicksilver untoucht you must lay your gold upon it again when t is cleaned with the scratch-brush you may after this manner heighten its colour if you think convenient Take of Salt Argal and Brimstone an equal quantity mix them with as much fair water as will cover the thing when put into it boil them over the fire and having tied your guilded work to a string put it into the boiling liquor for a little space looking on it every minute and when it has acquired a colour that pleases you dip it in cold water and the whole is finished But still if you would have the work more rich and lasting you may again quicken it with quicksilver and aqua fortis and guild it over again after the former method and repeat it so often if you please till your gold lies as thick as your nail upon the metal Another way to guild Silver Brass or Princes-metal First brush over your silver with Aqua fortis then quicken your work with Mercury as before taught Let your gold be beaten thin and put into a Crucible with just so much quicksilver as will cover it and let it stand till it begin to blubber then strain it through a piece of leather as before and the quicksilver will go through and leave your gold but discoloured as hath been said then lay it on with an iron-tool and in every thing do as you were taught in the other guilding Another way to heal or heighten the Colour of your Gold Take Sal Armoniack Salt-petre Sandiver Verdigreece white and green Vitriol grind them with white-wine vinegar which lay all over your work then lay it on a fire and give it a small heat that may make it smoak and then take it off and quench it in urine To take off Gold from any guilt Plate without the damage of one or loss of the other Put as much Sal Armoniack finely beaten into Aqua fortis as will make it thick like a Paste spread your Plate all over with it put it into the fire give it a thorough heat neal it or make it red hot then quench it in fair water and with a scrub-brush scratch and scrub the Plate very well which will fetch off all the gold into the water After a little time standing quietly pour off your water and the gold will he to your satisfaction found at the bottom if all the gold be not come off do the same again As for cleansing this plate or any other which we call Boiling of silver first make your plate red hot let it stand till t is cold then mix Argal and Salt with water when it boils put in your plate keeping it there for a quarter of an hour take it out and when washed and rinsed in fair water you 'l perceive by its beauty that t is sufficiently changed To Silver-over Brass or Copper as the Clockmakers do their Dial-plates Having Leaf or burnt-silver in readiness put it into as much Aqua fortis as will cover it after an hours standing pour off the Aqua fortis as clean as may be from the silver wash the silver three or four times with water let it dry and then mix it with one part of fine Argal to three of silver with a little fair water When you make use of it rub it on the work with a cork until t is all silvered and lie as fair as you could wish Next dry it well with a linnen cloth and having made it warm wash it over three or four times with the best white varnish spoken of in this book and it will not fail to secure it from Tarnishing and other injuries To guild Iron Brass or Steel with Leaf-gold or Silver If you are to guild Brass or old Iron you must cleanse it very well with a Scratch-brush before you hatch or guild on it but for new Iron or Steel after you have filed it very smooth take a hatching-knife which is only a knife with a short blade and long handle and hatch your work all over neatly then give it an heat whilst it looks blew on a charcoal fire from whence take it and lay on your gold or silver and with a sanguine-stone burnish it down a little then give it the same heat and burnish it all over Thus may you repeat three Or four of half a dozen or a dozen times if you please still observing to give it the same heat before and after you lay on your gold or silver and burnish it This leaf-gold and silver is much thicker than the other and four times as dear To refine Silver Take Silver be it never so coarse and melt it in a melting-pot then cast it into water to make it hollow after t is cold take it out and dry it mixing one ounce of Salt-petre to a penni-weight of Antimony so proportionably greater quantities if you have occasion These with your Silver confine again to a melting-pot covering that with another very closely luting them together with loam made of clay and horse-dung The two pots being thus cemented put 'em into the fire and give them a very strong heat after which remove them to a cooling place Break the pot when cold and you 'l perceive the silver fine at the bottom but the scorio and dross on the upper part like a cinder Copper may be separated from Gold after the same manner To separate Gold and Silver when incorporated with Aqua fortis Take as much Aqua fortis duplex as will something more than cover your metal in a strong vial or parting-glass Put it on sand over a gentle fire at first with the glass open and unstopt for if t is closed t will break in pieces as may also a fierce fire at the beginning by degrees therefore increase its heat till you make the Aqua fortis simper and boil continue so doing till your metal be dissolved This done pour the Aqua fortis gently into water the silver will invisibly go along with it but the gold remain at the bottom of the glass which gold when well washed with water you may melt down or preserve for guilding metals by mixing it with quicksilver and straining the latter through leather as you were instructed by Leaf and Ducket-gold Now to reduce the silver into its former body which appears to be a water and so would remain many years unless you take this method for its alteration pour the said water wherein your silver is floating like undiscernable Atoms into a copper vessel if in any other put in copper-plates and immediately all the silver will repair to the copper like an army to
metal you may rest satisfied that your undertaking whether of Gum-water or Gold-size is armed against all injuries and Tarnish and if performed Artist-like adds to the native lustre of the metals with an artificial gloss more bright durable and surprizing To secure your whole piece both Draught and Ground-work whereby it may endure polishing and obtain a Gloss all over like some of the Indian performances Here also as in the last your patience must be desir'd and before we open our Scenes think it reasonable to give you a survey of those passages which must be transacted in the Tiring-room or Shop before the Actors and Operators appear on the Stage That necessary and serviceable friend Venice-Turpentine here also gives his attendance who in the quantity of one pound to three pints of water takes up his lodging in a clean earthen Pipkin almost as large again as the Inhabitants These Guests so disposed of with their house of clay the Pipkin place over a gentle fire and by degrees warm them till they being pleased with their habitation begin to simper and dance a little then do you promote their pastime by stirring with a stick as in the last Chapter you were directed But if they finding the place too hot for them should endeavour to escape by boiling over which you 'l soon discover by the rout and bustle and rising of the water release them not from the Vessels but fix the Pipkin in a cooler place yet so that they may always dance and boil leisurely If you find that a little of this Liquor being pour'd on the ground if cold is willing by your fingers to be reduced to powder you may conclude that the operation has succeeded well and ought now to be concluded Having stood long enough to loose its acquired heat and will suffer you to handle it part these fellow-sufferers by taking the Venice-Turpentine into your wet hands and therewith squeez from it its friend the water as clean as possibly roll it into the figure of a ball and after a day or two pound and beat it into fine powder and in a fit place set it to dry but not too near the fire which will melt it and lastly imprison it in a Gallipot This Operation is just like the former but the two Turpentines are at variance and differ in their colours for this is as white as Paper the other in the last Chapter as yellow as Amber You must therefore of necessity judge this most excellent for the present life although t is more often to be washt with it before it will endure and acquire a glittering Polish Having advanced thus far let us now proceed to compose the Varnish by joining one ounce of this powder'd Turpentine to half a pint of Seed-Lacc-varnish in a bottle twice as large as the things you put in close stopt When it has stood some small time on an easie fire take it off unstop and shake it be sure to do so until the Turpentine be dissolved to the bigness of a large Pea and after two days have both cool'd and settled it decant and separate the clearest which is now in readiness for your work Your piece therefore lying before you drawn and finished waiting for security against all damages fortifie after this manner Take a neat clean varnish-Pencil large or small as your work is in its Area surface and breadth for a large Table or Box requires a great Pencil and so the contrary This Pencil being dipt into a Gallipot wherein you have poured some of the said varnish when you take it out always stroke it against the sides of the pot for fear it should be too full and overburthened with varnish which will incur this inconvenience That 't will lie thick and rough in some places whereas a smooth and even superficies is its greatest beauty This without any distinction must wash over your whole work both draught and ground And you must do it five or six times as you see the gold and metals keep their colour gently warming and throughly drying it between every wash and indeed it must be but just warm for if more 't will ruine all your labour Having observed these rules as also that it must by all means be evenly and smoothly done let it have rest fot three or four days before you attempt any thing further upon it After this time is past provide some Tripole scraped with a piece of glass and a fine rag which dipt in a bason of water and some powder of the same Tripole being lickt up by the said cloth therewith in a moderate way neither too hard or too soft rub and stroke until it becomes smooth and glossy but if it should come so near your gold or draught as to molest and displace it utterly desist and rub no more there but let your chief aim be to render your ground or black bright and smooth for there your wavings and uneveness will be most discernable Now to fetch of the Tripolee take the softest Spunge soak'd in water and with it wash it off and a clean cloth or rag to dry and free it from all the Tripolee that remains But because this will not free the crevises and fine lines from it mingle a little oyl with a like quantity of Lamblack and grease your Table all over with the same now to fetch off this too labour and rub with a fine cloath until your Lamblack and Oyl vanish and disappear To conclude this tedious business Take one fine clean rag more and therewith rub and stroak until a gloss is acquired and that it glissen and reflect your face like a Mirror or Looking-glass I suppose by this time it is apparent what trouble pains care and accuracy accompany our Undertakings and if to these you prefix the Skill Fancy and fine Hand of the Artist I say all these must enhance and set an high price upon good Japan-work These instructions for composing Varnishes the must needful and best for all works of this kind being thus fully laid down it will be no ways prejudicial to give some Rules which must be most strictly observed in all sorts of Varnishing and to inform you how you may employ these Varnishes about other Woods or to lay Blacks and other colours which are much in vogue with us and the Indians We grant it is not a part of Japan-work properly but rather foreign to that design but its universal benefit will abundantly compensate for that pretence and the knowledge of it cannot certainly prove burthensome to any But to those especially it is advantageous who living in the Country remote from Artists cannot without great trouble move or alter anything they have by them unless assisted by this our information CHAP. III. General Rules to be diligently observed in all manner of Varnishing I Am very sollicitous that your Work should succeed and therefore take all imaginable care to guide you so that you cannot possibly miscarry and in order
slight polish will remedy with clearing it up afterward Now the causes of this disappointment are two either first your varnish is not reasonably well dried or it has not a sufficient body of varnish both these occasion it to mist and as it were to purl T is no hard task to distinguish them if the former is in fault it will appear dull but of a full body and smooth if the latter the work will look hungry and so bare that you may almost if not quite see the very grain of the wood through your varnish This last fault is mended by five or six washes more of your fine Seed-Lacc the other is assisted by frequent polishings with discretion One Memorandum I had almost passed over in silence which I presume I have not any where mentioned You must look upon it as a necessary remark and by no means to be omitted and this it is To be industriously careful in laying on your colours and varnish never to strike your pencil twice over the same place for it will make your varnish or colours lie rough and ugly but let every stroak anoint a place not washt before carrying a steady quick and even hand beginning at the middle of the table and so conveying your brush to either end until the whole surface has been passed over Perhaps I have here spoken the same thing over and over again in justification whereof I alledge what Seneca did to those who objected that he was guilty of tautologie and repetition I only says he inculcate often the same precepts to those who commit and react the same vices This is my case if you charge me with that fault my plea is his I often admonish you and insert many cautions which refer to the same error and apply 'em to those who are subject to frequent miscarriages To make Lamp-black Being furnished with a Lamp that has three or four Spouts for as many lights and cotton-week which you may have at the Tallow-chandlers twisted up so big that it will but just go into the nose of your Spouts for the greater light they make the large quantity of black is afforded Procure a quart of oyl by the Oyl shops rated at 6 d. and so much will make black enough to use about a large Cabinet Get a thing to receive your black in such in shape and substance as you may often see is planted over a candle to keep the flame and smoak from the roof or ceiling of a room Having placed your weecks in their proper apartment and put in the oyl fire or light 'em and fix your receiver over them so close that the flame may almost touch them After it has continued so the space of half an hour take off your receiver and with a feather strike and sweep off all the black on it Snuff your weecks and put it on again but forget not to supply your Lamp with oyl as often as occasion shall require and when you imagine more black is stuck to the receiver do as before directed and thus continue and persevere until you have obtained black enough or that all your oyl is burnt up and exhausted This is that which is properly called Lamp-black and is of excellent use for black varnish White Varnishing or Japan You cannot be over-nice and curious in making white Japan nothing must be used that will either soil or pollute it in laying on the colour or in varnishing Your first necessary therefore is Isinglass-size to make which the next Section shall instruct you scrape into it as much whiting as will make it of a reasonable thickness and consistence or so long till by a stroak with your pencil dipt into it it will whiten the body which your brush has passed over your own discretion is the best guide Suffer it not to be in extreams either too thick or too thin but with your brush made of the softest Hogs-hair mix and incorporate very well the whiting with your size This being prepared whiten your work once over with it and having stood till t is throughly dry do it all over again and when dry repeat it a third time after which let it stand twelve hours but be sure to cover and defend it from dust before t is varnish't Take then some rushes rush it as smooth and as close to the wood as you can conveniently This done procure some white flake with which the Colour-shops can furnish you mix it too with your size only that it may lie with a full fair body on your piece With this three several times whiten your work giving it sufficient time to dry between each of them then rush it extraordinarily smooth but be not now so bold as you were before adventure not to come near the wood but by all means keep your distance These two sorts of white being used we charge you with a third and that is white Starch boiled in fair water until it come to be somewhat thick and with it almost blood-warm wash over the whole twice never forgetting that it should dry between every turn After 24 hours rest take the finest of your white-varnish and with a pencil first washed in spirit to clean it from dust anoint or varnish your work six or seven times and after a day or two do the like again These two fits of varnishing if done with a fine careful hand will give it a better gloss than if it were polish't if not so accurately performed t is requisite to polish it and in order thereunto you must bestow five or six washes of varnishing more than to the former so that if t is done so well that it stands not in need of a polish two turns of varnishing will suffice but if it must be polish't three are absolutely required besides a weeks rest before you begin polishing Care and neatness should attend this operation from one end to the other for in polishing your Linnen and Tripolee must be both of the finest your hand light and gentle your cloth neither too wet or too dry and when you clear it up and give it the finishing concluding stroak fine flower and oyl must be admitted to the performance but Lamp-black utterly laid aside and excluded To make Isinglass-Size Take an ounce of Isinglass divided or broke into small pieces let it stand in a clean Pipkin accompanied with a pint and a half of fair water for twelve hours together Place the vessel on a gentle fire suffer it to boil mighty leisurely and continue smiling and simpering till it is wholly consumed and dissolved in the water After the water it self is wasted and boiled away to a pint or less remove it and let it stand in a convenient place to cool This when cold will turn to a Jelly which we call Isinglass-size You are advised to make no more than what will serve your present occasions for two or three days will totally deprive it of its strength and virtue T is of great
paste must be thicken'd and raising each part successively beginning with the lowest you are to conclude with the upper-most and when all is drie if need require smooth it with a rush and then it is in a condition fit to receive your metal Make ready then what sort of metal you please to cover it with mixed in gum-water and with a pencil destined for the use lay it on the raised work full and fair give it leave to drie and with a dogs tooth which you may have at the Guilders or a Stone or Agat by them emploied in their Frames and Guilding burnish your work untll it is bright and shines as much as you desire it should And farther dip the pencil into your finest Lacc-varnish and laie it over twice then set it off or shadow it with what your fancie directs but of this I shall discourse hereafter Take notice that if you grind more paste than you can consume at once and it be drie before you shall have occasion for it the second time grind it again and t is fit for your business You may judge of the strength of your paste by the easie admittance of your nail press'd hard upon it for then t is too weak and must be hardened and strengthened by a more strong gum-water Trials and Experience will give you more accurate more satisfactorie directions With these ingredients joined to Art and Skill it is possible to make a paste so hard so stubborn that a violent stroak with an hammer can neither break or discompose it CHAP. XII To prepare ordinary rough-grain'd woods as Deal Oak c. whereby they may be Japanned and look well PRovide ordinary Size used by the Plaisterers and vended by Colour-shops dissolve it over the fire making it pretty warm mix Whiting with it until t is of a reasonable body and consistence yet not too thick then take a Brush fit for the purpose made of hogs-hair Lay your work once over with this mixture of Whiting and Size and so often repeat it until you have hid all the pores crevises and grain of your wood suffering it to drie throughly between every turn You may afterwards take a fine wet rag and rub over your work making it as smooth as your industry is able this furbishing it with a cloath dipt in water we call Water-plaining when drie rush it even and smooth and as close to the grain as possibly you can This done wash over your work twice with the thickest of your Seed-Lacc-varnish after which if it be not smooth again rush it and in a day or so varnish it over with black or any other colour as you have been directed in those places where we have treated of it when it has stood sufficiently you may apply your self to finish it by polishing According to these methods you are to prime carved Frames for Cabinets or Chairs when you desire they should look well with this difference that these must not be polisht and by consequence require not so great a body of varnish no more than will contribute to a rich and splendid gloss There is also another way which I recommend for the most valuable because the most durable and lasting but not indeed of so large an extent as the former being proper only for the tops of Tables Boxes or the like and thus you must proceed Boil common Glew in water let it be fine and thin into which cast the finest Saw-dust until t is indifferently thick and fit to lay with a brush which you must provide for that purpose Run it over once with the glew so mixt if the grain of the wood be not effectually obscured wash it again and two days being given to harden send it to a good workman or Cabinet-maker who must scrape it with his Scraper as Pear-tree or Olive-wood are served and make it as fine and even as possibly he can then varnish it as you have been learn't to do by Pear-tree or any other smooth wood This if well done will not come behind any for beauty or durability T is confess'd these labours are to be performed only upon cases of necessity for they are very troublesom and if every circumstance were truly weighed not so cheap or valuable as your smooth close-grained woods of all which Pear-tree is in the first place to be esteemed Of BANTAM-work I Think it most proper in this place to speak of the manner of working at Bantam because the way of preparing the wood is much the same with that of priming with Whiting There are two sorts of Bantam as well as Japan-work for as the Japan hath flat lying even with the black and other lying high like embossed work so the Bantam hath flat also and incut or carved into the wood as a survey of some large Screens and other things that come from those parts will beyond all scruple convince and satisfie you with this difference however that the Japan-Artist works most of all in Gold and other metals the Bantam for the generality in Colours with a very small sprinkling of Gold here and there like the patches in a Ladies countenance As for the flat work it is done in colours mixt with gum-water appropriated to the nature of the thing designed for imitation for the ordering these colours with gum-water you have already received instructions The carved or in cut work is done after this manner Your Cabinet or Table be it whatsoever you please to work on should be made of Deal or some other coarse wood then take Whiting and Size as before taught lay it over your work permitting it to drie between every wash this must be so often done till your primer or whiting lie almost a quarter of an inch thick but always remember to mix your whiting and size thinner than formerly and lay it therefore over the oftner for if t is too thick it will not only lie rough and unseemly but t will be apt to flie off and crackle Having primed it to its due thickness being drie water-plain it that is as we hinted before rub it with a fine wet cloth in some time after rush it very smooth lay on your blacks and varnish it up with a good body and next of all in some space polish it sufficiently though with a gentle and easie hand Being thus far advanced trace and strike out your design with vermilion and gum-water in that very manner which you intend to cut and carve it and very exactly your figures Trees Houses and Rocks in their due proportions with foldage of Garments leafing of Trees and in a word draw it as if it were to stand so without any alteration This finished exercise your Graver and other instruments which are made of shapes differing according to each workman's fancie with these cut your work deep or shallow as you think best but never carving deeper than the whiting lies for t is a great error to pass through that and carve your wood which
to use them The first is Vermilion usually sold at 4 d. the Ounce Carramine being the finest and most excellent Red is sometimes vended for 3 l. the Ounce For Blews the best fine Smalt is to be bought for 4 or 5 s. the pound Blew Bice useful only in making green colours may be gotten for 4 d. or 6 d. an Ounce Ultramarine the richest blew in the world bears several prices the deepest and best will cost 6 or 7 Guinea's but then it must be extraordinary fine other sorts are exposed for 3 or 4 l. the Ounce which is very good too and fit for this use some again for 20 s. the same quantity and may serve for Painting but t is too coarse for glazing Yellow and pale Masticott which is finest free from greet with the brightest colour is the best If it prove coarse grind or wash it a little on a clean stone t is sold for 2 d. the Ounce Red Orpiment you must mix with drying Oyl this too is afforded for 2 d. the Ounce These are the Colours useful in Painting with which you may exactly imitate and hit any colour whatsoever by different ways and methods of mixture Their price also I have given you if you buy them in small parcels but if you furnish your self with greater quantities at one time you 'l find the purchase more cheap and easie Observe that six of these are transparent or glazing colours viz. Brown Pink fine Lake Carramine fine Smalt Ultramarine and Distilled Verdegreas To wash or make any of the Powders very fine You must have four or five large Wine-glasses by you and two or three quarts of clear water Fill one of your glasses with it put in half an Ounce or as much of your colour as you intend to wash stir it well about with your knife permit it to stand no longer than while you could count or tell forty for in this short space of time all the coarse will sink and settle to the bottom the finer remains floating in the water which convey and pour off into another glass leaving the coarse part behind Let the vessel with the fine colour and water stand till next day by which time that also will settle to the bottom of the water This being poured off take out the colour place it on a clean smooth Chalk-stone to soak and drink up the water and when t is dry paper it up for your business Of OYLS It remains that to this account of Colours we subjoyn that of Oyls which must be serviceable to us in the Art of Painting The first of these is Linseed Oyl sold at 8 d. the quart Nut-Oyl to be purchased at 16 or 18 d. the like quantity Oyl of Turpentine is afforded for less than 8 d. the pound Drying-Oyl will stand you in 2 d. an Ounce at the Colour-shops and Fine-varnish 3 d. which in my opinion is too dear and therefore if you 'l give your self the trouble I 'le be at the pains to instruct you how to make either sort To make the best Drying-Oyl Mix a little Letharge of Gold with Linseed-Oyl for a quarter of an hour boil it if you 'd have it stronger continue boiling it but not too much neither lest it prove over-thick and unserviceable Another more ordinary Bruise Umber and Red-lead to powder mix 'em with Linseed-oyl and for boiling follow the directions foregoing When this Oyl has stood a day or two and you find a skin over it know then for certain t is at your service To make Varnishes for these Prints or Pictures in oyl Put an Ounce of Venice-Turpentine into an earthen pot place it over a fire and when dissolved and melted thin add to it two ounces of oyl of Turpentine as soon as they boil take off the pot and when the varnish is cool keep it in a glass-bottle This and all other varnishes ought to be stopt close and secured from the approaches and damage of the Air. With this you may varnish your Prints on glass or others to render them transparent this is what the Shops sell for fine varnish should your varnish be too thick relieve it by an addition of Oyl of Turpentine Another more excellent Varnish either for Pictures in oyl or making Prints transparent Inclose six ounces of the clearest white well-pickt Mastick finely powdered in a bottle with sixteen ounces of oyl of Turpentine stop and shake them well together till they are incorporated Then hang the bottle in a vessel of water but not so deep as to touch the botom boil the water for half an hour in which space you must take it out three or four times to shake it if you 'd have it stronger boil it a quarter of an hour more I could give you a greater-number of Recipe's but 't will be too irksome tedious and unnecessary seeing these will preserve your pictures and are as good in their kind as any Varnishes whatsoever CHAP. XXIV To lay Prints on Glass HAving at large treated of the Colours Oyls and other materials required in this work I proceed to instruct you how the Prints themselves must be laid on Glass First therefore let your Prints be steeped in warm water flat-ways for four or five hours or more if the paper be thick provide then a thin pliable knife with it spread Venice-Turpentine thin and even over the glass and with your finger dab and touch it all over that the Turpentine may appear rough Next take the Print out of the water lay it on a clean Napkin very evenly and with another press every part of it lightly to suck and drink up the water of it afterwards lay the print on the glass by degrees beginning at one end stroaking outwards that part which is fastning to the glass that between it and the Print no wind or water may lurk and hide it self which you must be careful of and never fail to stroke out Then wet the backside of the print and with a bit of spunge or your finger rub it over lightly and the paper will role off by degrees but be careful and avoid rubbing holes especially in the lights which are most tender and when you have peeled it so long that the Print appears transparent on the backside let it dry for two hours next varnish it over with Mastick or Turpentine-varnish four or five times or so often till you may clearly see through it After a nights time for drying you may work on it To lay Prints either graved or Mezzo-tinto's in such manner that you may role off all the paper and leave the shadow behind Soak the Print in water dry it with a cloath spread on the glass oyl of Mastick and some Turpentine and lay on the print upon it exactly as before When t is almost dry brush off the paper with a brush and you 'l find none but the inky shadowed part remain then do this as the former with Mastick-varnish which preserve dry and free