Dictionarium polygraphicum. Of dying clove colour.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
I. To dye an excellent Clove colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, fustick twenty four ounces, crust madder and nut galls of each a pound, red wood ground four ounces; boil them, and enter twenty yards of broad cloth; boil it two hours with a strong heat, handling it; then put in copperas half a pound, oak shavings four ounces; enter your cloth again, handle it well, boil it half an hour, and so cool it; if you would have the colour sadder, put in more copperas.

II. Another Clove colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, joiners oak shavings four pounds, madder two pounds, redwood and walnut tree leaves of each four ounces; boil them well, and enter twenty yards of cloth, which handle well, and boil it three hours, still handling it; then take it out and air it, adding, if need requires, a little more water; then take copperas thirty ounces, enter your cloth again, take it out and cool it, and sadden it, if need requires, with more copperas.

III. Another Clove colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, nut galls and red wood ground of each a pound, fustick and madder of each eight ounces, sumach four ounces; boil all these together for an hour, then enter your cloth, &c. and boil an hour; take it out, and put in copperas two pounds; being melted, put in your cloth again, and let it boil. This will dye twenty pounds weight of wool, yarn, cloth, &c.

IV. Another Clove colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, sumach six handfuls, fustick three handfuls, red wood ground one handful; boil all these two hours and a half, with twenty yards of broad cloth; then cool and sadden with copperas, as you see fit.

V. Another Clove colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, nut galls two pound, madder two pounds, fustick a pound and a half; boil all together, cool with a little water, then enter forty eight or fifty pounds of wool, yarn, cloth, &c. handle your cloth, and boil it two hours and a half; then cool it, and sadden with copperas two pounds four ounces.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Of dying a Cinnamon colour.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
I. To dye a Cinnamon colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, madder a pound and half, nut galls a pound, fustick a pound, red wood two ounces, boil all in your cauldron, after enter twenty yards of cloth and handle it, boiling it strongly two hours, cool it, and put into the liquor copperas four ounces; enter your cloth again; boil and handle, boil a quarter of an hour, and cool it, then put in copperas two ounces more; enter your cloth again, and handle it, and let it boil a quarter of an hour, then cool it, and it will be a good Cinnamon colour; the less copperas the lighter it will be, the more copperas the deeper.

II. Another Cinnamon colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, dry rotten oak half a bushel, madder two pounds, boil them well, and enter twenty yards of cloth; which handle well, and boil three hours, still handling it; take it out of the cauldron and air it, and if need be, add a little more water to the dye, and put in copperas twenty four ounces; enter your cloth again, take it out and cool it, and if it is not sad enough, put it in again with more copperas.

III. Another way of dying Cinnamon colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, nut galls bruis'd small four pounds, fustick, red wood ground, of each a pound, boil them all together; then enter your cloth and handle it well, for fear of spotting, and boil it two hours and cool it, then put in to sadden it copperas two pounds; then it will dye forty eight or fifty pounds of wool, yarn, flannel, bays, cloth, &c.

IV. Another Cinnamon colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, of madder two pounds, of red-wood ground a pound, boil them together for an hour; then enter forty pounds of wool, yarn, cloth, &c. and boil again an hour, take it up and air it, put in copperas three pounds; which when melted, put in the cloth again, make it boil.

V. Another Cinnamon colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, crust madder three pounds, nut galls bruis'd small, fustick, red-wood ground, of each a pound, rotten oak wood, tanners bark, of each half a pound; boil all together; then enter twenty yards of cloth, and boil an hour and half, after which cool and sadden with copperas eight ounces, and if that deepens it not enough put in more.

VI. Another Cinnamon colour.
Take water a sufficient quantity, nut galls, madder, of each a pound, fustick twenty four ounces, redwood ground fix ounces, boil and enter twenty yards of broad cloth, cool and sadden with copperas four ounces.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Cinnabar.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
CINNABAR, a mineral stone, red, heavy, and brillant, found chiefly in the quick-silver mines; call'd also vermilion.

The ordinary vermilion is nothing else but Cinnabar ground up with spirit of wine and urine.

Cinnabar, is either native or factitious.

The native or mineral Cinnabar, or vermilion, which is that above mentioned, is found in most places where there are quicksilver mines; yet it is true also, that it has mines of its own, those in Spain are very famous; the French also have some of them in Normandy.

It may be esteem'd as marcasite of quicksilver, or rather as quicksilver petrified and fixt, by means of sulphur and a subterraneous heat. Chymistry being found to reduce it without much trouble or loss to the nature of mercury, each pound of Cinnabar yields fourteen ounces of mercury.

Accordingly, the principal property and use of this mineral, is to yield a most excellent mercury.

The best mineral Cinnabar is of a high colour, brillant and free from the stone.

Factitious or artificial Cinnabar, or vermilion is form'd of a mixture of mercury and sulphur, sublim’d and thus reduc’d into a kind of stone.

The best is of a high colour, full of fibres like needles.

The method of preparing factitious CINNABAR.
They take six ounces of sulphur, and eight of quick-silver, they mix them well, then set them on the fire till part of the sulphur is con sum’d, and the powder remain black.
After this, it is sublim'd once or twice in open pots, at the bottom of which the Cinnabar remains, very heavy, and streak'd with the lines or needles, some red, others brillant like silver.
This is us’d by painters as a colour, it being a very vivid red, but not drying without some difficulty; Cinnabar or Vermilion is rendred more beautiful by grinding it with gum water, and a little saffron, those two drugs preventing it from growing black.

There is likewise a BLUE CINNABAR, made by mixing two parts of sulphur with three of quicksilver, and one of sal armoniac; these being sublim’d, produce a beautiful blue substance, whereas quicksilver and sulphur alone produce a red.

To purify CINNABAR or VERMILION.
Cinnabar being a compound of mercury and sulphur, must be divested of the impurities it contracts from those minerals, which impurities darken its lustre, and cause it to change.
Grind Cinnabar in stone with fair water, on a marble or porphyry, put it into a glass or earthen vessel to dry, then put urine to it, and mix it so that it be thoroughly wet and swim; then let it settle, and the Cinnabar being precipitated or fallen, pour off the urine by inclination, and put fresh in the room of it, leaving it so all night, and repeating the same change for four or five days, till the Cinnabar be thoroughly purified.
Continue the process with beating up the white of an egg, which mixing with fair water, pour it upon the Cinnabar, and stir the whole about with a walnut-tree stick; change this liquor two or three times as above, and keep the vessel close stopp'd up, or closely covered for fear of dust, which would spoil the Cinnabar, and when you would use it, temper it with gum water, with this it will not change its colour.

Another way.
First pulverize the Cinnabar, and then grind it on a porphyry with the urine of a child, or with brandy, and drie it in the shade.
If you would intirely divest it of all its obscurities, and give it a brighter or redder countenance, infuse in the brandy a little saffron, or put in a little urine and grind the Cinnabar with this liquor.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Chrysolite.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
CHRYSOLITE, a precious stone of a yellow colour. The Chrysolite is the Topaz of the moderns.

CHRYSOLITE, is also a general name which the ancients gave to all precious stones, in which the yellow or gold was the prevailing colour.

When the stone was green, they call'd it Chrysoprasin, the red and blue too had their particular denominations, which express'd their colour, the gold being signified by Chryso; which still began the name.

The modern jewellers call that a Chrysolite, which the ancients call'd a Topaz or Chrysopras, which is a precious stone, green and diaphanous, some of which cast a lustre of gold; this stone is so hard, that it will easily endure the file, and sometimes there are pieces of them found big enough to make statues of, witness that of juba King of Mauritania, made in honour of Queen Arsinoe, wife of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, of the height of four cubits.


To make a paste for an oriental Chrysolite.
To imitate this stone, take two ounces of natural crystal prepar’d, eight ounces of minium in fine powder, add to it twelve grains of crocus Martis made with vinegar, mixing the whole well together.
Then put the whole into a crucible, and set it in a furnace, leaving it there a little longer that it may have time to purify from the lead.
Then will you have a paste for the oriental Chrysolite, which will appear very admirable, set with a foil in gold.

The way to make CHRYSOLITE.
Take ten ounces of our powder of natural crystal and saturnus glorificatus, (which see) to which add one ounce of crocus martis prepar'd; the whole reduc’d to fine powder, well mix’d, and put into a crucible covered and luted, and bake it as directed for other of the like metals, and you will have a fine chrysolite colour, which will be of the native green.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. The way to make China, or fine Earthen-ware; how to Enamel, Paint, and Gild them.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Porcelaine, China, or fine Earthen-ware, is enamell'd with our white stuff, which is already prescrib'd for metals; and its painting the same, and of such colours as we have proposed for enamels.

The custom of enamelling on earthen-ware is of greater antiquity than that on metals; for in the time of Porsenna, who generously undertook the restoration of Tarquin to the Roman government in the Consulate of Valer, Publicola and Horat. Pulvilius, ann. mund. 3444, five hundred and four years before the coming of Christ, or thereabouts, the practice of enameling on ware was used in the estates of that prince; and what gives us very good reason to believe this is the name Porcelane, which has an affinity to Porsenna, though alter'd by the corruption of time. So it is also call’d Fayence from Fayence in the duchy of Urbin, where in the time of Michael Angelo and Raphael Urbin, this art was practised.

And as the secrets of nature are daily more and more discover'd, so has time employ'd the invention of man to improve this, and make it more excellent, not only condescending to en amelling, but proceeding also to painting and pourtraying thereon several curiosities, to which at length are added the ornaments of gilding.

These pieces of ware are of a very general use over all the world, as for ornaments over chimney-pieces, on cabinets and tables, or boards. The choicest come to us from China, and next to them those done at st. Cloud and Rouen; but there are very good made in Holland, at Savonne in Italy, and several other places in France.

The painting and enamelling on these, is what we are properly obliged to take notice of in our art; however, we shall flightly touch upon the composition and moulding the ware, and for this we will prescribe fine and delicate methods sufficient enough to answer the satisfaction of such as employ themselves in this art, and of those persons whose curiosity leads them to enquire after things, whereof they are not already inform'd.

The furnace for making of CHINA must be large, with an opening proportion'd to the vessel you are to place therein; of these there are several sorts, but the most commodious must be made as follows.

You may shape this furnace round or square, but the square is best, because of the opening; it must be made of good brick, and such stuff as can mostly endure the fire, of what bigness you please, with three divisions; the lowest for ashes must be a foot high, that the air may be communicated through its opening to the fire; the middle story is for the fire, and must be underlaid with a very good grate, to separate it from the under story, with an opening for the fuel, and be vaulted above, about a foot in height. According to the size of your furnace, this vault must be made, like that of an oven, and have an hole in the middle, of the same shape as the furnace, round or square, and proportion'd to its bigness, through which the flame may transmit itself to the uppermost story, where the vessels are put to bake in; this last story is to be at least two foot high, and its opening fourteen or fifteen inches, to put and draw the vessels easily in and out; the top must be vaulted too with a round or square hole, and over that a funnel, for the conveniency of the flame and smoak which it draws out.

All the opening, especially to the two uppermost, must be of strong brick, or crucible earth, or rather of iron, well luted within side, which must shut and open easily, and be very exact and fit, that the fire may not suck in any cold air, which might break the vessels.

This furnace will serve also for many other uses, as to melt, reverberate, calcine, cement, and several sorts of work in the laboratory of chymistry; because in it all the degrees of fire may be found, by the help of the lower opening, and the funnel of the chimney.

You may also for baking your China, make use of the furnace hereafter describ'd, where we discourse of painting on glass, putting thereinto your vessel of crucible earth for baking the ware in, and then cover'd over with a vaulted coverlid, with a hole at top to let out the flame and smoke of the reverberatory fire; for this reason there will be no occasion in this sort of furnace for any other opening, because the baking of vessels with your ware, are put in at top before the coverlid is laid on, and so the fire circulates about it, and it becomes very red, whereby the China-ware is baked, as is done in baking of pipes.


To make the stuff for CHINA-WARE.

The composition for this must be very fine, because of the ware, and not such as is used for ordinary vessels, we will therefore prescribe the manner of making it, to prevent the unsuccessful attempts of such as may be ignorant.

For this you must take of shells of every sort which are white and transparent, grind them well on a marble, then searce and reduce them to an impalpable powder.

To make your paste of this powder, first dissolve an ounce of very white gum arabick in a pail of water; when 'tis well dissolv’d and mixt with the water, dissolve therein about a quarter as much quick lime as your powder weighs; then stir and mix it very well, and afterwards put in the powder and stir all together, and knead it as they do mortar. Of this stuff form your vessels, according to the different sorts you desire; let them half dry or more, in the air, before you polish them with your smooth instrument of copper or iron for that purpose, and so leave 'em until they dry thoroughly. Being very well smoothed and dried, glaze them over with your white enamel, prepared as hereafter directed, and so set them dry in the furnace to bake and finish; where having kept them a convenient time, let the fire go out of it self. When the furnace is cold, take 'em out and paint them, and put them in again to bake a second time, observing what directions have been already given concerning these matters; and when the fire is gone out, and the furnace cold, you have the ware in perfection ready to take out for use.

You may make your China-ware also of pure earth, let it not be red tho’, but white or gray; you may try the sufficiency of it after ’tis prepard, by baking some beforehand; and when it comes out of the furnace sound and uncracked, 'tis good and fit for your purpose.

The preparation consists in drying well, and reducing it to a very fine powder; then put it into fair water, wherein has been already dislolv’d a little gum arabick; but most of those that make it, employ only water without gum. After this, you make your dishes, set ’em to dry, polish, glaze, bake, paint, and finish them as before; all which, those who work at them know better than I can express it.


How to Enamel CHINA.

For this, take of the milk-white enamel, grind it very fine, as painters do their colours; put the powder afterwards into a glass cucurbit, pouring some aqua fortis thereon; let it digest a little to cleanse off its impurities, and become fine and transparent; then pour off the aqua-fortis, washing the powder in water over and over again; grind it af terwards with a little gum-water on your marble, and so glaze the vessels with it within and without; dry them in the air, and bake them as before in the furnace.

Or you may heat the vessels to a redness in the furnace, and melt the enamel: when it is in a perfect fusion, dip the smaller vessels therein, and pour of it on the larger, for they will take no more on them than will serve them; set them by turns in the furnace, stopping it very well to avoid the air; bake, cool your furnace, and finish them as before; then take out the dishes, paint and bake them over again, observing all the former directions.


To paint CHINA.
This is done as the enamel, but much more easily, the figures being only just dash'd over in comparison to them; however you must grind your colours with oil of spike on the marble, as has been already said, and so paint on the dishes story, landscape, or any other fancy: but you must never expect to have them so complete and handsome, as those painted on the enamel'd plates, because the former are finish'd standing, and so enlarge in length or breadth; whereas the other are done on flats, and lying; besides, the dishes are for the most part round, and not so easily painted, for if they could be as neatly done as the enamel, they would be excessively dear.

To Gild CHINA.
You must first grind some shade-earth on a marble, with linseed-oil, prepar'd as shall be shewn anon, with which trace out your figures, which must be two whole days a drying; after this, apply very thin leaf-gold, and with a sharp graver, shape the figures, and then put the dishes in an oven, as soon as the batch of bread is drawn out; let the heat be no greater than one's hand may endure, else the vessels would crack; leave them in it for two or three hours or more, if the oven be not too hot; you may else make use of your furnace, by giving it the same moderate degree of heat, as experienced persons are well acquainted with.

Another way.
This is much more handsome and lively, be sides that it can't be effaced; you may with it gild vessels entirely, or border, or give them any lustre you think convenient for ornament, and it will look as well as fine gold.
You must first wet over the places you would gild with gum water lightly, then apply your leaves, and so let them dry: this is enough for plain gilding; but if you would have it carved or figured, you must make use of a steel graver, and afterwards bath the gold with water, wherein borax has been dissolv’d, powdering it in the mean time with crystalline powder, or milk white enamel reduc’d to a very fine powder; then set the dish on a reverberatory fire to melt and be polish'd; thus you'll have as fine a piece of ware as can be.

The way to prepare Linseed-oil for Gilding of CHINA.
Take a Paris pint of linseed-oil in an earthen pot which will hold about two Paris pints; put this on a fire, and when it begins to boil, throw in twice the bigness of a small egg of gum arabick pulveriz'd; stir all well until it be dissolved; then put in an onion of an ordinary size, and the like weight of garlick cut small; when the oil boils well, and swells up by the force of the good fire which must be underneath, pour it out into another such pot, and so in and out of each pot to the other, until all be very well mixt; then put it on the fire again, adding half an egg-shell of powder of mastick, and stir it very well; as soon as it boils again, it will foam and have a great froth, which must be scumm'd off; and then take it off the fire, and brew the ingredients together, with the two pots as before; continue to do thus with it, or stir it on the fire, until it rise no more.
This done, take a very dry toast of white bread to take off the grease (the oil still boiling) and when you put in the toast, ou must at the same time put in some pin-dust; stir all together, and let it stand for twenty-four hours afterwards; strain the oil through a linen-cloth, in which is some very fine sand, the better to filtrate it, and take off the grease, and so you'll have it pure and clear, which bottle up for your use.
Or you may (both ways being good enough) first mix with the oil two ounces of gold litharge pulveriz'd, adding the gum arabick as soon as it begins to boil; and to purify it, let it filter through a linen-cloth full of sand, while its hot, into a glass bottle, wherein is already half an ounce of fine camphire powder, shaking the bottle very well until the oil be cold; after wards lay it in the sun for fifteen days, and it will be entirely purged, and the longer 'tis kept will be the better.


The imitation of CHINA or PORCELANE ware upon tea tables, tea-boards, &c. upon gold and silver grounds.
After the tables or other utensils have been prepared as directed, mark out the designs upon them, make ovals or rounds upon them in a good disposition, so as to be uniform, or well adapted to the design, that they may answer one another in a regular manner; then paste on some paper in proper places, and when the paper is dry, draw your designs upon them, and paint them with water colours; then with a brush lay gold or silver size, and when that is near dry, lay on leaf gold or silver; and when all is dry'd, varnish over with the strongest varnish, except only the ovals or circles of painting, for those must be done with the white varnish, which is so transparent, that all the painting will appear through it.
If you lay on a gold ground, or any colour darker than that, then let your painting be blue and white; or if it is silver or light ground, then use the most fiery colours in your paintings.


To take off the figure from any piece of CHINA-WARE, tho' the person has not been acquainted with drawing.
If there be upon a dish, plate, cup, &c. any figures that you like and would take off, you must lay a piece of oiled paper over them, fo as to hold the piece steady till you can trace out the lines of the figures; then lay the oily paper on a paper black'd on one side, and the black'd paper on a clean paper; then trace the lines with a pen or blunted point of a needle, till the lines are all impress'd on the white paper, and draw them over with a black lin'd pencil, and mark the shades where they separate from: the light parts of the colour, that so you may lay on your colours as you see them painted on the China-ware; then cut out the figures close to the out-lines, and fix them upon your ground of whiting and size, or size with ground chalk, with thick gum, arabick and water; and when they are quite dry, paint them, the lighter parts in water colour, and the shady parts with var nish mix'd with the darker colours; when these are dry, wash all over with the white varnish before the fire, but take care that it be not so nigh the fire as to make the varnish rise in blisters.
When the varnish is dry, lacker it again with the same var nish, and repeat this a third time; then scrape some tripoli very fine, and with a soft rag dipt in water, take up a little of the tripoli at a time, and polish it by gentle rubbing till it is smooth; then wash off the tripoli with a soft spunge and water, and them. wipe it off with a dry fine cloth; and when it is thoroughly dry, if it be a white varnish, clean it with whiting and oil; and if a black varnish, with lamp black and oil.
But the common way is to cut out prints, and paste them on such parts as is thought fit, and then to colour them with water colours, and to varnish them with white warnish.
This is an easy way of painting, because the shades of the prints, when you lay on a transparent water colour, will give the light and shade that colour to your purpose, without using a dark and light colour.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Chalcedony, Calcedony.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Chalcedony, Calcedony is a precious stone of a bluish or yellowish colour, rank'd among the kinds of agate. It is suppos'd, by some, to be the white agate of the ancients, though there are sometimes found pieces of it blackish.

This stone is very fit for engraving, and much us'd, either to engrave arms, &c. upon, as being harder and preferable to crystal, if good, or to paint them on the backside. In some places, vases, cups, &c. are made of it. That which is clearest with a pale cast of blue is accounted the best.


To make a CHALCEDONY in glass.
There are three different ways to prepare an artificial Chalcedony, which will make three different species of it, all of them very fair, but whose beauty also may be augmented by the number of ingredients, they are compos'd of; and which cause those diversities of colours, which that stone ought to have.
Among the rest of the ingredients employ'd for this purpose, there are some that give no colour to glass, as tartar, soot, armoniac and mercury.
Those that are of an uncommon nature, as lead, soot, tartar, the azure stone, often hinder the union of the ingredients, by reason of the separation which may happen by the cooling the metal; which does not happen to those who know how to ob serve the degree of heat, wherein the principal knowledge of this art consists.


To make the first sort of CHALCEDONY.

Put a pound of aqua fortis prepar'd into a glass body with a long stick, and two ounces of silver in small and thin plates, or granulated, put the body in an ash furnace over a soft fire or in warm water, and the silver will be presently dissolv'd.

At the same time, take another body and dissolve in it three ounces of quicksilver; in twelve ounces of the same aqua fortis; then mix both the solutions together into a larger body, which set into the same bath of warm water, or ash furnace; then add to it three ounces of sal armoniac, which dissolve over a gentle fire, then add to it half an ounce of zaffer, and a quarter of an ounce of manganese prepar’d by little and little, with as much Feretto of Spain, also by little and little; for fear the matter coming to swell too much, should break the vessel.

Add to all these ingredients half an ounce of crocus martis calcin'd with sulphur, as much scales of copper three times calcin'd, which ought to boil like manganese; as much blue lake (such as is us’d by painters) and the same quantity of red lead, the whole reduc’d to powder.

In putting in these powders, you must gently stir the glass body, that they may the better incorporate with the aqua fortis, but be sure to take care that there be not too much heat; then stop the mattrass (or glass body) very well, stirring it well every day for ten days, that the powders may well incorporate, and that they may always appear as separated from the water.

Set the large glass body into a sand furnace, in a temperate heat, or rather empty it into a glass cucurbit, after you have well luted it at the bottom, and set it over the same fire, so that the aqua fortis may evaporate in twenty four hours; and at the bottom of the vessel you will have a yellow powder, which keep safely in glasses for use.

When you are to make the Chalcedony, take white crystal in glass, well purified, and that has been often melted; for crystal new made, is not fit for that operation, because the colours will not stick to it, but are consum’d by the frit.

Put about ten pounds of this crystalline glass into a pot, and when it is well melted, put in about an ounce and a half of your yellow powder at three different times, mix the glass well with it each time, that the powder may incorporate with it, the glass being thus well mixt; let it stand an hour, then mix it once more, and let it stand for twenty four hours; then mix it again for the last time, and make an eslay of it, it will give a yellowish azure colour.

Having made your essay, and found your matter right, the pot may be taken out of the furnace, and when it is cold, you'll have the colours which shall represent the wavings of the sea, and other fine things.

But to have a very fair Chalcedony, you must perform a second operation, to join to the first, by taking four ounces of tartar calcin'd, one ounce of chimney soot well purified, one quarter of an ounce of crocus martis calcin'd with sulphur, mix the whole together, then put it into the melted metal at five or six different times; otherwise the impetuous swelling of the metals would break the pot, and the whole would be lost; which may be avoided by putting it in by little and little, stirring it each time well, that the matters may incorporate; also make the pot boil, and let it stand twenty four hours. After which time you may work it into what you please.

Which set into the furnace to whiten, and see if the glass please you, if it be green without, and blue, white, red, yellow, and of all other colours, like jasper and oriental agate.

If looking on it obliquely, it be red like fire, and held to the fun, it shews the colours of the rain-bow by reflection of the rays; if so, then it is fit to make all sorts of vessels, which may be polish’d at the wheel.

If it be pale and clear, more calcin'd tartar and soot must be added to it, as before, stirring it well to make it incorporate; then let the glass stand and purify several hours, and then you may work it, as you please.

Chalcedony is much us’d for the effigies of Kings and Princes, for heads, cups, and many other vessels; principally for seals, because it is easily engraven, and the wax will not stick to it.


A second species of CHALCEDONY finer than the former.

1. Put a pound of aqua fortis, and three ounces of coppel'd silver, granulated into a glass body, in order that it may be the better dissolv’d.

2. Put also a pound of aqua fortis, and five ounces of mercury well purified, and pass'd through a glove into another glass body, and close it well.

3. Put also a pound of aqua fortis with two ounces of sal armoniac, into another glass vessel to be dissolv’d.
When it is dissolv’d, add to it crocus martis, prepar’d feretto of Spain, leaves of copper calcin'd, by means of sulphur, of each half an ounce; reduce the whole into powder, putting them in one after the other, and by little and little, for fear the matter should break the vessel.

4. Put one pound of aqua fortis, with two ounces of sal armoniack into another earthen body, and when the whole is dissolv’d, add successively as before of good crude antimony, of blue enamel, such as is us’d by painters, of red lead, and of vitriol well purified, each half an ounce, all of them well pulveriz'd; these also must be put in by little and little as before, for fear of breaking the vessel, then close it well.

5. Put also one pound of aqua fortis, and two ounces of sal armoniack into another glass body, and when dissolv’d, add two ounces of zaffer prepar'd, a quarter of an ounce of manganese of Piedmont, also prepar’d, half an ounce of thrice calcin’d copper and an ounce of cinnabar; reduce all to a fine powder, and put them in by little and little into the vessel, taking care that the powders don't by too much swelling break the vessel, then close it well.

6. Put a pound of aqua fortis, and two ounces of sal armoniac, into a fixth vessel of the same bigness as the rest, and as foon as it is dissolv'd, cast in two ounces of cerus by little and little, for that will also cause a fermentation. Then add the like weight of painter's red lake, and as much of iron scales from the anvil, putting it in by little and little, for the reasons before men tioned; and in a word proceed very slowly in all these operations, flopping all the vessels well.

Set all these vessels on a gentle fire of ashes, or in a warm bath, to hasten the solution of the materials, they must be stirr'd at least fix times a day, for twelve days, in which they must continue in that heat, that the aqua fortis may the better penetrate the powders, and they communicate their tinctures the better to the glass. The twelve days being ended, put the whole into a large glass crucible, and lute it well for fear of breaking, pouring them gently in out of the fix matrasses one after the other, having first well stirr'd each of them; then set this cucurbit on a gentle ash fire, and having fitted a head and receiver to it, and luted the joints well, then gently distil all the aqua fortis that is in the body, for the space of twenty four hours, making a very gentle fire towards the end, otherwise the powders may be spoil'd by too much heat, and the spirits which ought to remain in the powder, would pass into the receiver.

Then they will remain at the bottom of the vessel of a yellowish red colour, which keep in a glass well stopp'd for tinging glass or crystal, which is yet better.


The third and last way of making a CHALCEDONY.
This though something more tedious surpasses the two other in beauty.

1. To make this preparation: Take the aqua fortis, of which put one pound into a glass matrass, with four ounces of leaf silver to dissolve, then stop the matrass.

2. Put a pound of the same aqua fortis, with five ounces of mercury purified with salt and vinegar, after the following manner.
Put common salt into a wooden dish, sprinkle it with vinegar, and add to it a little common fair water to make it dissolve, put in the mercury, and stir it well with a wooden pestle to draw out the blackness, repeat the washing them often with salt and vinegar, till there be no more blackness; then dry them with warm linen or cotton, and pass it through a glove; then it will be purified and fit to put into the aqua fortis. When it is dissolv’d, stop the matrass and keep it.

3. Take another glass body, put into it another pound of aqua fortis, with three ounces of fine silver calcin'd.

Amalgamate the silver with the mercury, as the gold smiths usually do (See AMALGAMATION) and put it into a crucible, with its weight of common salt purified.
Then set the crucible on hot coals, that the mercury may evaporate, and that only the silver may remain at the bottom, which will be purified and calcin'd.
Then add to that calcin’d silver, an equal weight of common salt purified as before, mix them well together, and set them over the fire in a crucible to calcine them again; then wash them well with warm water to take out the salt, and afterwards put this silver into a glass vial filled with common water, boil it, till one fourth of it is consum’d, then let it cool and settle to the bottom, after that decant off the water, and put more upon it.
Repeat this process with fresh water three times, and at the fourth dry the silver, and put it into the aqua fortis, and stir it well and stop the matrass.

The method of purifying common SALT, is as follows:
Dissolve fea-salt in a convenient quantity of common water, boiling it for the space of two hours; then let the water rest, that the earthy part of the salt may settle to the bottom; then filter the water and evaporate it in an earthen vessel, or rather in a glass cucurbit, till the salt remain dry at the bottom.
Dissolve this salt again, making the water boil, then let it stand for the dregs to settle, after which filter it and evaporate it as before; which you must continue to do, till there are no more fæces or dregs, and it will be well purified and prepar’d.

In order to continue the preparation of the materials.

4. Put a pound of aqua fortis into a glass matrass, and add three ounces of purified sal armoniac; that is to say filtred and whitened, till it leave no fæces or dregs, as has been shewn in common salt; then dissolve a quarter of an ounce of silver in that water, and stop the vessel well.

5. Put also another pound of aqua fortis into another glass matrass, with three ounces of purified sal armoniac, that is to fay, filter'd and whitened till it leave no faces or dregs, as has been shewn as to common salt; then diffolve a quarter of an ounce of silver in that water, and stop the vessel well.

6. Put also another pound of aqua fortis into another glass matrass, with two ounces of sal armoniac when it is dissolv’d, put into that water cinnabar and crocus martis calcin'd with sulphur as above; of ultramarine and feretto of Spain prepar’d, of each half an ounce, having reduc’d all to a fine powder; this must be put in by little and little, for fear of breaking the vessel by the fermentation; which they make with the aqua fortis, then stop the matrass.

7. Put a pound of aqua fortis into another matrass, and dissolve in it two ounces of sal armoniac as before; add to it of crocus martis calcin'd with calcin'd tin, known among the glass men, of zaffer described and cinnabar each half an ounce, powdering them all very well, putting them in by little and little, as before, then stop the matrass.

8. Put also another pound of aqua fortis into another matrass, and dissolve in it two ounces of sal armoniac; then add an ounce of small leaves of copper calcin'd, half an ounce of scales of copper thrice calcin'd, half an ounce of manganese of Piedmont prepar'd, and half an ounce of scales of iron, which fall from the smith's anvil, the whole being reduced to a fine powder; which throw in by little and little as before, then stop it well.

9. Put another pound of aqua fortis into another glass body, and add to it two ounces of sal armoniac, the dissolution being made, put to it half an ounce of red lead by little and little, and one ounce of scales of copper, half an ounce of crude antimony, and as much caput mortuum of vitriol purified, all being reduc’d to a fine powder; then stop the matrass.

10. Put another pound of aqua fortis into another glass matrass, with two ounces of sal armoniac, add to this water orpiment, white arsenic and painters lake of each half an ounce; let the whole be finely powder'd, put them into a matrass by little and little as before, and stop it up well.

It has not been repeated at each operation, that you must set your matrass on an ash furnace over a gentle heat, or in a warm bath to hasten the solution of the materials; because it has been said, that it must be always done in the preparation of these things, which are for tinging the first species of Chalcedony.

All the nine matrasses mentioned in this process, must remain fifteen days in the same heat, and be often stirr'd daily, that the water may the better operate on the materials, subtilizing them, and well opening their tinctures.

Then put all these materials with the aqua fortis into a large glass body, by little and little, that they may unite well together; close the body, and set it on the same heat, stirring it well for fix days.

After this, take a large glass cucurbit well luted half way up the body of it, and set it on an ash furnace, put into it all the materials out of the body; fit a head and receiver to it, lute the joints well, and distil it for twenty four hours over a gentle fire, left the colours should be spoil'd, that the water may pass gently over, and the spirits remain in the powder, which of green will become yellow.

Thus putting that powder in the requisite dose (as has been taught in the first species of Chalcedony) into purified metal made of broken pieces of crystal, and not of frit; and adding to it in its due time calcin'd tartar, chimney soot, crocus martis made with vinegar, as has been directed, and these materials will give an opacity to glass, which in twenty four hours time may be wrought, managing it well with proper tools and often beating it, and you will have things of an extraordinary beauty, greater than can be imagin'd.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Of dying a Carnation or Red-Rose colour.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
I. To dye a Red-Rose Carnation or blood red.
Take liquor of wheat bran, a sufficient quantity, alum three pounds, tartar two ounces, boil them and enter twenty yards of broad cloth, boil three hours, cool and wash it; take fresh clear bran liquor a sufficient quantity, madder four pounds, boil and sadden according to art.

II. Red-Rose or Carnation colour.
Take wheat bran liquor a sufficient quantity, alum two pounds, tartar two ounces, boil and enter twenty yards of camlet, boil three hours; after which, take it out and wash it very well, then add madder a pound, enter and boil it again, cool and wash it; after which take clear liquor a sufficient quantity, cochineal in fine powder two ounces, tartar two ounces; enter your camblet, boil and finish.

III. Another Carnation colour.
Take running water four gallons, pot ashes two pounds, mix and digest forty eight hours, this done, divide the liquor half into one pot, and half into another pot; let the first pot stand in the hot embers up to the top or in a furnace, and the other by a fire to keep warm, and to fill up the first pot as it boils away; into the first put red brisca or spanish flocks, or wool two pounds, let it boil till it is thick, adding alum and a little gum Arabick, of each the quantity of a walnut; diminish the heat and let it be only scalding hot, then put it in the matter you would dye, letting it lye twenty four hours in the liquor.

IV. An excellent Observation.
The Bow-dyers know that the solution of jupiter (which is delved tin) being put in a kettle to the alum and tartar, makes the cloth, &c. attract the colour into it; so that none of the cochineal is left, but is all drawn out of the water into the cloth.

V. Another Observation.
The spirit of nitre being used with alum and tartar in the first boiling, makes a firm ground, so that they shall not spoil nor lose their colour by the sun, fire, air, vinegar, wine, urine or salt-water, &c.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Carmine.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
CARMINE, a red colour, very vivid, bordering somewhat on the purple, us’d by painters in miniature; and sometimes painters in oil, tho' rarely, by reason of its great price.

Carmine is the most valuable product of the cochineal mestique; which is a secula or sediment, residing at the bottom of the water, wherein cochineal, conan, and antour has been steep'd: some add rocou, but this gives carmine too much of the oval cast.

That which is good is almost in an impalpable powder.

Some make Carmine with brazile wood, fernambouc, and leaf gold beat in a mortar, and steep'd in white wine vinegar; the scum arising from this mixture, upon boiling, when dryed, makes Carmine; but this kind is vastly inferior to the former.

Another Carmine.
Steep a pound of brazile wood, of fernambouc of the colour of gold, for three or four days in an earthen vessel or pot of white wine vinegar; after having broken it well in a mortar, boil it half an hour.
Then pass or strain it through a very course linen cloth, and set it again upon the fire.
Take another little pot of white wine vinegar, and in it fleep or temper eight ounces of alum. Put this alum so tempered in the other liquor, and stir it about well with a spatula.
The scum or froth which arises is the Carmine; take it off as it rises, and let it dry. The same may be done with cochineal instead of brazile.

Another Carmine.
Take three pints of spring water, which has not passed through leaden pipes; put it into a glaz'd earthen pot, and set it on the fire.
When it is ready to boil, put in half or a quarter of an ounce of the grain of cohan or dyer's red, which the feather dyers use, reduc’d to a fine powder.
Then boil it for about three quarters of an hour, or till the fourth part of the water be consum’d. Let the fire be a coal fire.
Then strain this water through a linen cloth into another well glaz'd vessel, and set it on the fire till it begins to boil; then put in an ounce of cochineal, and a quarter of an ounce of arnotto, both reduc’d to powder apart; and let this liquor boil away to one half, or rather till it raises a black scum, and is very red; for it takes a colour by being boil’d.
Then take it off the fire, and strew into it half an ounce or three pinches of roch alum, or Roman alum, pulveriz'd, which last is reddish and better; and about half a quarter of an hour after, strain it through a linen cloth into a vessel well glaz'd, or you may divide it in several small Dutch glaz'd porringers, in which let it stand to settle for twelve or fifteen days, and there will appear on the surface a mouldy skin, which you are to take off with a spunge, and expose the matter underneath to the air.
When the watry part on the top is evaporated, dry the matter which remains at the bottom, and grind it upon a very hard and smooth marble stone or porphyry, and then sist it through a very fine sieve.
The quantities of these ingredients are not so fixt to the proportion before directed, but that you may put in either more or less of them at discretion, according to the depth or degree of colour you desire.
If you would have the Carmine redder, you may put in more arnotto, if more of a crimson, more cochineal; but all of them must be reduc’d to powder separately, and the grain of cohan or dyers weed must first be boil'd alone, and the other altogether as before directed.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Calamine stone, lapis calaminaris, calamite, cadmia.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Calamine stone, lapis calaminaris, calamite, cadmia - a kind of fossil bituminous earth much us'd in foundery; being us'd in tinging copper of a yellow colour, i.e. in converting it into brass.

It is either of a greyish colour, as that of Germany and England; or reddish, as that about Leige, and in some parts of France, accounted the best, because yellow by calcination.

It is dug out of mines, usually in small pieces, having eyes, sometimes veins, of lead usually; tho’ not always found in lead mines.

It is generally dug in barren rocky ground; its courses running usually at fix a clock (as the miners phrase it) i. e. from east to west, sometimes at nine and sometimes at twelve; or per pendicular, which is accounted the best.

After it has been dug, it is wash'd, or buddled (as they term it) in a running water, which carries off the impurities and earthy parts, leaving the lead, calamine, and other sparry parts at the bottom; then it is put into a sieve, and shaken well in water, and the lead that is mixt with it sinks to the bottom, the sparry parts ascend to the top, and the calamine remains in the middle.

Having been thus prepar'd, they bake it in an oven for four or five hours, the flame being so contriv'd as to pass over, and so to heat and bake the calamine; it is kept continually stirred and turned with an iron rake.

This being done, it is pounded to a powder, and all the stones found in it are picked out, and then it is fit for use.

As to the manner of applying it in the preparation of brass, see the article BRASS. And for other uses, other articles.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum. Containing. Polygraphick Dictionary. B. Bice. Bistre.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
BICE. As blue BICE bears the best body of all bright blues us'd in common work, as house painting, &c. but it is the palest in colour; it works indifferent well, but inclines a little to be sandy, and therefore requires good grinding, and that on a very hard stone; it is a blue that lies best near the eye of any now in use except ultramarine; but this last is too dear to be us'd in ordinary work.

BISTRE, BISTER, a colour made of chimney soot boil'd, and after BISTER, swards diluted with water, serving painters to wash their designs. Instead of this some use the strokes of a pen, some Indian ink, others a black stone, &c.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Burning of colours.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
There are several colours that require burning; as first lamp black, which is a colour of so greasy a nature, that except it is burnt, it will require a long time to dry.

The method of burning, or rather drying lamp-black, is as follows: put it into an iron ladle or a crucible, and set it over a clear fire, letting it remain till it be red hot, or so near it, that there is no manner of smoke arises from it.

Secondly, umber, which if it be intended for colour for an horse, or to be a shadow for gold, then burning fits it for that purpose.

In order to burn umber, you must put it into the naked fire in large lumps, and not take it out till it is thoroughly red hot; if you have a mind to be more curious, you may put it in a crucible, and then put it into the fire, till it be red hot; then take it out, and when it is cold, lay it up for use.

Ivory also must be burnt to make a black, thus: fill two crucibles with shavings of ivory; then clap their two mouths together, and bind them fast with an iron wire, and lute the joints close with clay, salt, and horse-dung well beaten together; then set it in a fire, covering it all over with coals, and let it re main in the fire, till you are sure the matter inclosed in the crucibles is thoroughly red hot; then take it out of the fire, but do not open the crucibles, till they are perfectly cold; for if you should open them while hot, the matter would turn to ashes; and so it will be, if the joints are not luted close; for it is only the exclusion of all air, that prevents any matter whatever that's burnt to a coal, from turning to a white ash, and preserves the blackness.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. The method of dying browns.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
I. The method of dying BROWNs.
Take a sufficient quantity of water, put it into the copper, and put of red-wood ground and nut galls bruis'd, of each twenty ounces; boil them together, and enter twenty yards of broad-cloth, boiling it for two hours and a half, and keep cooling it with a cooler, for fear of spotting; then take it up and air it: then put in sixteen oun ces of copperas, and enter the cloth again, when it is almost ready to boil again, and handle it, letting it boil half an hour, and then cool it. If you would have the colour sadder, put in more copperas.

II. To dye a sad BROWN.
First, infuse the cloth or stuff to be dyed in a strong tincture of hermodactyls; then put saffron and ashes in a bag stratum super stratum, upon which put water two parts, mixed with vinegar one part; strain out the water and vinegar, being thoroughly hot, fifteen or sixteen times. In this lixiviate tincture of saffron, put the former matter to be dyed, letting it lie a night; then take it out, and without wring ing, hang it up to dry; repeat this working the second and third times.

III. To dye a BROWN tawny, or iron rust colour.
Make a strong decoction of walnut-tree leaves in fair water; then put in the matter you would have dyed, and boil it some hours with the leaves in the said liquor, and when it comes out, it will be exactly of a tawny brown colour.

IV. To make the colour call'd the London BROWN.
First dye twenty yards of cloth of a bright blue; then take stale, clear liquor made of wheat bran a sufficient quantity, a quarter of a pound of ground logwood, and of alum two pound and a half; mix and boil the cloth two hours and a half, and then cool it; afterwards take fresh liquor made of wheat bran and clear, to which put two pounds and a half of madder, and handle the cloth; let it have a quick fire to a boiling, then cool it; after which, take a sufficient quantity of fair water, half a pound of logwood, a quarter of a pound of brasil ground; then let them boil well, adding some urine; then enter the cloth, and handle it, and let it boil a quarter of an hour; cool it and wash it well.

V. To dye woollen a clove BROWN.
Boil three pounds of alum, and two pounds of tartar in a copper; then put in the stuff, boil it two hours; then take it out, and put in together five pound of madder, and a pint of wheat-bran, stirring the liquor three quarters of an hour, till it is boiling hot; then draw off the water, putting in fresh water, and put in a pound of galls and the cloth, which boil for an hour; then take it out again, and put three pounds of copperas into the kettle, and then put in the stuff again, and stir it about till it is sufficiently dyed; then rinse it.

VI. Another clove BROWN.
Heat some water with clear fine flour, and for every pound of stuff, put in two ounces of alum, one ounce of tartar in powder; boil them together, then put in the stuff, and stir it about for an hour; then cool and rinse it; then heat some fair water, and for every pound of stuff, take two ounces of brasile; boil it for half an hour, then put the rinsed stuff into it, and work it so long, till it is sufficiently tinged red; then take it out, and add to the dye an ounce of vitriol; dissolve it very well, then work the stuffs so long in it as you shall judge proper; then rinse it out.

VII. Another BROWN colour.
Take as much water as will cover twenty eight pounds of wool, yarn, flannel or cloth; put it into a copper, to which put nut-galls bruis'd small two pounds, red-wood ground half a pound; then put in the matter to be dyed, let all boil together for three hours; then take out the cloth and air it; then put into the same liquor four pounds of copperas, let it melt; then enter the wool, cloth, &c. again, and boil it to deepen the colour to what degree you would have it.

VIII. Another London BROWN.
To a sufficient quantity of water, put a pound of nut-galls bruis'd, red wood ground, madder and fustic of each half a pound; boil all together for an hour; then put in your cloth or other matter to be dyed, and let it boil an hour also; afterwards take it out and cool it; then put in two pounds of copperas, and when it is melted, put in the cloth again, and sadden it. This will dye twenty pound weight.

IX. Another kind of BROWN.
Put a pound of nut-galls bruis'd small, two pounds and a half of red wood bruis’d to a sufficient quantity of water; let them boil for two hours; enter twenty yards of broad cloth, and sadden it at your pleasure.

X. Another London BROWN.
To a pound and a half of red-wood ground, put a sufficient quantity of water, into which enter twenty yards of broad cloth; boil all together for an hour; take it forth and cool it, and put into the liquor wood-soot a sufficient quantity; and let the copper boil till the wood is dissolv’d; then put in the cloth, and boil it for an hour; take out the cloth and cool it; put in copperas a sufficient quantity; put in the cloth again, and sadden it as usual.

XI. Another BROWN colour.
Put two pounds of madder, and a pound and a half of nut galls bruis'd, and three quarters of a pound of fustick, into a sufficient quantity of water; let them boil, and then put in fifty pounds of wool, yarn, flannel or cloth; let it boil for two hours and a half; then cool it, and t in copperas two pounds, and boil to a sadness design'd.

XII. To dye a lasting and neat purple BROWN.
First dye cloth (for slight stuffs will not bear the price of this dye) a blue, either light or dark, according as you would have the colour; then boil it first either with galls and madder, or with galls only; and after that with copperas.
When it has been well boil'd with madder, or with copperas and madder, or with galls alone, if it be perfectly finish'd, it will not take any stain from wine, vinegar, or urine.
On the contrary, all colours dyed with wood; as for example, the red or the blue, in which brasile has been us'd, will take stains from the weakest acids, which will cause in them a very visible change.
Indeed yellow wood is a sort of exception to this general rule, for its dye does not change so soon.

XIII. To dye barley straw, &c. BROWN.
Take a sufficient quantity of lixivium, Indian wood ground, green shells of wallnuts, of each half a pound; let the straw steep four or five days in a gentle heat, and then take them out.

XIV. To dye or slain wood of a walnut tree BROWN.
Take the green shells of wallnuts, dry them in the sun, and boil them in nut oil; and rub the wood with this oil.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Observations on Brown Colours.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Spanish Brown is a dirty brown colour, but of great use; as also to shadow vermilion, or lay upon a dark ground behind a picture. You may shadow yellow berries with it in the darkest places, when you want lake or thick red-ink; but don't colour garments with it, unless it be old mens gowns.

Umber is a hair colour, and the best and brightest when it is calcin’d red hot; but it must not be burnt for colouring any hare, horse, dog, &c. but for other uses, it is best calcin'd or burnt; as for colouring posts, bodies of trees, timber-work, or any dark ground in a picture.
Use it not in garments, unless in old mens gowns or caps fanding together, which are not to be all of the same colour. But for distinction's or variety’s sake, you may use it unburnt in many cases.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Spanish brown.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Spanish BROWN is a dark, dull red, of a horse flesh colour. It is an earth, and is dug out of the ground; but there is some of it of a colour pleasant enough to the eye, considering the deepness of it.

It is of great use among painters, being generally us’d as the first and priming colour, that they lay on upon any kind of timber work in house painting, &c. it being a colour that is cheap and plentiful, and works well, if it be ground fine; which may be done with much less labour than some better colours require.

That which is of the deepest colour is the best, and that which is the freest from stones.

Tho' the other sorts do not give so good a colour to the eye, yet they serve as well as any others for a priming colour, for the seasoning of the wood in order to lay other colours on.

Tho' this is a dirty brown colour, yet of great use, not to colour any garment with, unless it be an old man's gown; but to shadow vermilion, or to lay upon any dark ground behind a pićture, or to shadow yellow berries in the darkest places, when you want lake, &c.

It is the best and brightest colour when it is burnt in the fire till it be red hot, tho' if you would colour any hare, horse, dog, or the like, it should not be burnt; but for other uses, it is best when it is burnt. As for instance, for colouring wood, posts, bodies of trees, or anything else of wood, or any dark ground of a picture.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To extract Lake from BROOM FLOWERs.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
First make a lixivium, or lye of soda of the glass house, and fresh quick lime, which must be pretty strong, in which put in the broom flowers, over a small fire, until all the tincture be drawn from them, the flowers become white, and the lye receive the yellow colour.

Then take out the flowers, and put the lye into a glaz'd earthen vessel to boil, adding thereto as much roch-alum as it can well dissolve; then take it off, and putting it into a large vessel, mix it with fair water, so the yellow will separate and descend to the bottom; let it rest there a little, and afterwards decant the water off gently, and so put in more fresh to it again and again, until the water has drawn off all the salt and alum from the lixivium, and it becomes clear.

Thus the colour will be very well cleans'd of the salt and alum, and remain exceeding fine and bright; spread it on pieces of white linen, and let it dry in the shade on new baked tiles, and you will have a most admirable yellow for painting.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Brass.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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Brass, or as the French call it, yellow copper, is a factitious metal made of copper and lapis calaminaris.

The method of preparing it is as follows. The lapis having been calcin'd, and ground fine as flour, is mix’d with ground charcoal; and incorporated, by means of water, into a mass: this being done, about seven pounds of the lapis calaminaris is put into a melting-pot that will contain about a gallon; and over that about five pounds of copper; this pot is let down into a wind-furnace eight foot deep, where it remains for eleven hours, in which time it is converted into brass.

This metal then is cast either into plates or lumps; forty five pounds of crude lapis calaminaris or calamine, will produce thirty pounds when calcin'd or burnt.

Sometimes brass-shruff is us'd instead of copper; but that is not always to be procur'd in quantities sufficient, it being no other than a collection of old brass.

Pure brass is not malleable, unless when it is hot; for when it is cold, it will break. And after it has been melted twice, it will be no longer in a condition to bear the hammer at all; but in order to render it capable of being wrought, they put seven pounds of lead to a hundred pounds of brass, which renders it more soft and pliable.

The best proportion for gun-metal for casting great guns is said to be a thousand pounds of copper, nine hundred pounds of tin, and six hundred pounds of brass in eleven or twelve thou sand weight of metal.

The best brass guns are made of malleable metal, not of pure copper and calamine alone; but coarser metals are us’d to make it run closer and sounder, as lead and pot-metal, which last is made of brass and lead; twenty pound of lead is usually put into a hundred pounds of pot metal.

Corinthian brass has been famous in antiquity, and is a mixture of gold, silver, and copper. L. Mummius having sack'd and burnt the city of Corinth, 146 years before our saviour's time, there being there a vast number of statues, images, vessels, &c. of gold, silver, and copper, all these melted and run together by means of the violence of the conflagration; and this mixture was the composition call'd Corinthian brass. Those who peak of it accurately, distinguish it into three kinds; in the first, gold is the prevailing metal; in the second, silver; in the third, gold, silver, and copper are equally blended.


To make BRASS.
Melt fix pounds of copper with two pounds of lapis calaminaris in powder for the space of an hour, and then put it out.

To cleanse BRASS.
Take aqua fortis and water, of each a like quantity; shake them together, and with a woollen rag dipt therein, rub it over; then presently rub it with an oily cloth: lastly, with a dry woollen cloth, dipt in lapis calaminaris, and it will be as clear and bright as when new.

To purge BRASS.
It is cleansed or purged by casting into it while it is melted, broken glass, tartar, sal armoniack and salt petre, each of them by turns, a little and a little.

To calcine BRASS, call’d Orpello or Tremolante, making a curious sea-green or sky-colour.
Take thin Brass, cut into small pieces, put it into a crucible covered and luted at top; set it in a fierce fire, where let it stand four days in a great (but not melting) fire, for if it melt, your labour is lost. In four days time it will be very well calcin'd; then powder'd as fine as you possibly can, searse it, and the powder will be black; spread this on tiles, and keep a leer on burning coals for four days, near to the round hole; take away the ashes that fall upon it, powder and searse it again, and then keep it close stopt for use.
To know if it be well calcin'd, put it into glass, and if it swells, ’tis right; if not, it is not well calcin'd, or else it is over burnt, and if so, it will not give a good colour.

To calcine BRASS another way, to make a transparent RED.
Cut your thin pieces of brass small, and put it into a melting pot, with layers of powder of brimstone, and metal as in copper. Set it first on kindled coals, then put it into a strong fire in the furnace to calcine for twenty four hours; then beat it to a fine powder, and searse it; put it covered into the furnace on earthen tiles for twelve days, to reverberate; so powder, grind, and keep it for use.
Besides a red, it contributes principally to the making a yellow and chalcedony.

A RED colour from BRASS.
Put small pieces of it into the arches of the furnace, and let them remain there close till they are well calcin'd; but in such a fire, that they may not melt; and when they are well calcin'd, powder the brass, and the powder will be red, and excellent in many uses for colouring glass.
Brass thrice calcin'd is likewise very excellent.

To calcine BRASS thrice.
Put this into the leer, or into the furnello of the furnace, near the occhio, into pans baked or earthen tiles; calcine it for four days, and you will have a black powder sticking together; pound it fine, and searse it; then calcine it again as before, but a day longer, and then it will not stick together, and will be of a russet colour; and do so the third time, but take care that it be not calcin’d either too much or too little, for then it will not give a good colour.
To know if it be well calcin'd, put it to purified metal, and it will make it boil and swell; and if it does not, it is either too much or too little.
This makes a curious sea-green, and an emerald-green, a turquois or sky colour, and other varieties.

BRASS to tinge of a gold colour.
Dissolve burnt brass in aqua fortis (made of vitriol, salt-petre, alum, verdigrease and vermilion) and then reduce it again, and it will be much of a gold colour.

To make BRASS thorough white.
Heat brass red hot, and quench it in water distill'd from sal armoniack and egg shells ground together, and it will be very white.

Another way.
Calcine egg-shells in a crucible, and temper them with the whites of eggs; let it stand so three weeks; heat the brass red hot, and put this upon it.

The way to colour BRASS white.
Dissolve two penny weight of silver in aqua fortis, setting it to the fire in a vessel till the silver turn to water; to which add as much powder of white tartar as may drink up all the water, make it into balls, with which rub any brass, and it will be as white as silver.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Brasil, Brazil.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
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1735
BRASIL, BRAZIL a wood so call’d, because first brought from Brazil, a province of south America. It has various names, according to the places it comes from. Thus we have Brazil of Fernambouc, Brasil of Japan, of Lumon, of st. Martha; and lastly Brasílette, brought from the Antilles.

The Brazil-tree commonly grows in dry, barren places, and in the middle of rocks; it is very thick and large, and usually crooked and knotty. Its flowers, which are of a beautiful red, exhale a very agreeable scent, good for comforting and strengthening the brain.

Though the tree be very thick, it is covered with so thick a bark, that when the savages have taken it off the wood, a trunk, which was before the thickness of a man, is scarce equal to that of his leg.

Brasíl wood is very heavy, dry, crackles much in the fire, and scarce raises any smoke, by reason of its extreme dryness.

None of the several kinds have any pith, except that of Japan. That of Fernambouc is esteem'd the best.

It must be chosen in thick pieces, close, sound without any bark; and such as upon being split from pale, becomes reddish; and being chewed, has a sugary taste.

It is much us'd in dying, where it serves for a red colour, but it gives but a spurious colour, and easily evaporates and fades; nor is the wood to be us'd without alum and tartar. From the Brazil of Fernambouc is drawn a kind of Carmine by means of acids.

There is also a liquid lacca made of it for painting in miniature.


To make LAKE or Tincture of BRAZILE.
The Brazile meant here is that which the dyers make use of. Take of the finest that comes from Fernambouck, that being the best.

The way of extracting this tincture is the same as that from Kermes (see KERMES) and may be effected two ways, either with the menstruum first prescrib'd, or with strong waters; only observe not to put so much alum to each ounce of Brazile as to the berries; for that tincture is deeper than this from Brazile, and consequently requires more stuff; therefore use only in this as much as you think reasonable, experience will be the best guide.

Take notice too, that when you do it by the first menstruum, there is a greater quantity required of Brazile than was prescrib'd of Kermes-berries, to each pound of shearings.

In every thing else follow the former directions, and you’ll have a fine colour or lake less chargeable, and altogether as good as the tincture of Kermes, for painting.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To make bran-water.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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To make BRAN-WATER for preparing slight stuffs for dying. Put a hatfull of wheaten Bran into each pail of water, and boil them together for a quarter of an hour, then pour it into a clean tub, where to every two pailfulls of this liquor, pour in another pail of water, and throw on a handful of leven. The French dyers call these waters eaux sures, i. e. acid or sharp waters, and by how much they are the sowrer, account them so much the better, and fitter to attract the fatness of the stuffs, and dry it clean off, to make them limber, and correct the roughness of the water.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Ty bones, horns, wood, &c.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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1735
To dye BONEs GREEN.
Put of filings of copper and verdegrease, of each three ounces, into a quart of white wine vinegar; add a handful of bruised rue, mix them well, and put the bones in this for fifteen days.

To dye BONEs, HORNs, or WOOD red.
First, let them be boil'd in alum water, then put them into a tincture of brazil in alum water for two or three weeks, or else into a tincture of brazil with milk.

To dye them BLUE.
First boil them in alum water, then put them into a dissolution of indigo in urine.

To dye them GREEN like emeralds.
Put as much filings of copper into aqua fortis as it will dissolve; then put in bones, horns, wood, and let them lie for one night.

To dye ELDER, BOX, MULBERRY, PEAR-TREE, NUT-TREE of the colour of EBONY.
Steep the woods in alum water for three or four days, then boil it in common oil, with a little Roman vitriol and sulphur.

Where you are to take notice, that the longer you boil the wood, the blacker it will be; but too long boiling will make it brittle.

To dye Bones green.
First boil the bones in alum water, them take them out, dry them, and scrape them; then boil them in lime water, with a little verdegrease.

To dye wood like ebony.
Distil an aqua fortis of salt petre and vitriol, and besmear the wood with it as oft as you see occasion.

To make Horns black.
This may be done with vitriol dissolved in vinegar and spirit of wine; or with the snow white calx of silver in fair water.

To make Bones white.
Boil them in water and lime, scumming it continually.

To dye Bones black.
Take litharge and quick lime of each two pounds, put it into a sufficient quantity of water; put in the bones, and stir them with a stick till they boil apace. Then take it off the fire, and keep stirring till all is cold, and the bones will be very black.

To soften Bones, Ivory, &c.
Lay them for twelve hours in aqua fortis, then three days in the juice of beets, and they will be tender, and you may make of them what you will. When you would harden them again, lay them in strong white wine vinegar.

To dye Bone, Ivory, Horn, &c. black.
Put brass into aqua fortis, and let it stand till it is turn'd green, with which wash the Bone, Horn, &c. (it having been first polished) three times: then put them into a strong decoction of logwood in fair water whilst hot, letting them lye a little; which done, rush and polish it, and it will be as black, and have as good a gloss as japan or ebony.

To dye Bones, Horn, &c. of a green colour.
First boil them in alum water, then take wine vinegar what quantity you please, spanish green or common verdegrease well ground a sufficient quantity, sal armoniac half the quantity of the verdegrease; then put in the Bones, &c. and keep them gently boiling till they are sufficiently stain'd.

To dye BONEs, &c. of a red.
Mix a sufficient quantity of quick lime with what quantity of water you please, let it stand a night to dissolve, then decant off the clear water, straining it through a cloth. Take of this water eight pounds, put into it four ounces of brazil wood rasp'd, mix and boil them gently; (then having first boil'd the bones in alum water) put them and boil them into the tincture of brazil, till they are thoroughly red.

To make a BLACK of burnt Bones.
Burnt ivory, or for want of that, burnt bones is the blackest black; and if you have not the conveniency of burning them in crucibles as is elsewhere directed, put them into the fire till they be thoroughly burnt; then take it out, and let it cool, and so slit it in the middle, and take out the blackest of it in the middle, and grind it for your use.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Bollito.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
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BOLLITO a name by which the Italians call a sea green colour in artificial crystal.

This colour is not to be made without a great deal of precaution.

To succeed well, you must have in the furnace a pot fill’d with forty pound of good crystal frit, carefully skimm’d, boil'd and purified, without any manganeze.

Then you must have twelve ounces of the powder of small leaves of copper thrice calcin'd, as directed in the article COPPER. And half an ounce of zaffer in powder, prepar'd as directed in the article ZAFFER.

Mix these powders together, and put them at four times into the pot, that they may the better mix with the glass, stirring them well each time of putting in the powder, for fear it should swell too much and run over.

After the whole has been incorporated, well mix'd and pretty well settled for two hours, try if the colour is deep enough, if so, let it rest, though the sea green or sky colour seems at first greenish, you need not be concern’d at it; for the salt in the glass will consume all that greenness, and change it into blue.

After the metal has stood at rest for twenty four hours, it may be wrought, and you'll have the colour deeper or lighter, according to the quantity of powder you have put into it.

There is no other rule for that but the fancy of the work man, for which reason it cannot be ascertained; besides, the matter that is us’d for tinging glass, makes it have some more colour, some less, which proceeds from the preparation of it.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Body, as to bear a body.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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BODY as to BEAR a BODY, a term us'd of painting colours, and signifies that the colours are of such a nature, as to be capable of being ground so fine, and mixing with the oil so intirely, as to seem only a very thick oil of the same colour.

Of this nature are white lead and ceruss, lamp-black, ivory black, vermilion, lake, pink, yellow oker, verdigrease, indigo, umber and Spanish brown.

Blue bice and red lead are not so fine, as they may be said to bear a very good Body; but those before mentioned may be ground so fine, as to be like even oil itself; and then they also may be said to work well, spreading so smooth, and covering the body of what you lay it upon so intirely, as that no part will remain visible, where the pencil hath gone, if the colour be work'd stiff enough.

Whereas on the contrary verditers, and smalts, with all the grinding possible to be given them, will never be well imbodied with the oil, nor work well.

Indeed bice and red-lead will hardly grind to an oily fineness, nor lie intirely smooth in the working; yet may be said to bear an indifferent Body, because they will cover such work very well that they are laid upon.

But such colours as are said not to bear a Body, will readily part with the oil, when laid on the work: so that when the colour shall be laid on a piece of work, there will be a separation, the colour in some parts, and the clear oil in others; ex cept they are tempered extraordinary thick.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Blueness.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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1735
BLUENEss is the quality of any blue body; or it is such a size and texture of the parts, which composes the surface of a body, as disposes them to reflect the blue or azure rays of light, and those only to the eye.

As for the bluenes of the skies, sir Isaac Newton observes, that all the vapours, when they begin to condense and coalesce into natural particles, become first of such a bigness as to reflect the azure rays, before they can constitute clouds or any other colour.

This therefore being the first colour they begin to reflect, must be that of the finest and most transparent skies, in which the vapours are not arriv'd to a grossness sufficient to reflect other colours.

M. de la Hire, and before him Leonardo de Vinci observes, that any black body, view'd thro' a thin white one, gives the sensation of blue; and this he assigns as the reason of the blueness of the sky; the immense depth whereof being wholly devoid of light, is view'd thro’ the air, illuminated, and whitened by the sun.

For the same reason, he adds, it is, that soot, mixt with a white, makes a blue; for white bodies being always a little transparent, and mixing themselves with the black behind, give the perception of blue.

From the same principle, he accounts for the bluents of the veins on the surface of the skin, tho’ the blood they are fill’d with be a deep red; for he observes, that red, unless viewed in a strong clear light, appears a dark brown, bordering on black. Being then in a kind of obscurity, in the veins it must have the effect of a black; and this view'd through the membrane of the veins and the white skin, will produce the perception of blueness.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To make German BLUE.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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Take sal armoniack two pounds, flowers of sulphur three quarters of a pound, quick lime half a pound; pound and grind them in an iron or marble mortar, till the mercury is wholly mortified and disappears; then put it into a glass body, well luted up to the middle; set it in a very gentle lime; sand heat uncovered, till all the moisture is vanished. Stop it close, and increase heat gradually, to make the mass sublime; so will you have an excellent azure or Blue, which grind on a porphyry to a subtil powder for use in painting.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Of dying BLUEs.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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To dye a Blue or sky colour.
Take a sufficient quantity of urine, and four ounces of indigo, pound it to powder, and then dissolve it in the urine by a gentle heat, being close covered; then try its strength with a little bit of wool or flannel, and if it does not dye well, let it stand longer, until it is of a good colour.
It will be greenish at first, but will turn blue afterwards; before you put in your wool, yarn, flannel, &c, put a pint of yeast into your liquor, and it will make the dye the better; the less indigo is put into the liquor, the better sky colour it will be, provided it be not too little.

II. To dye an excellent Blue colour.
Take of stale urine a sufficient quantity, and four ounces of rock indigo, set them to soak in a good heat, till the indigo is dissolv'd: then put to it a pint of slack'd lime, and a pint of new yeast, mix them well together, and let them stand a quarter of an hour very hot; then stir it, and enter twenty yards of broad-cloth, and handle it over and over, for the space of half an hour; then cover it up for twelve hours, and then take it out and wash it. If it is not deep enough, heat the vat and put it in again.

III. Another way of dying Blue.
Take a sufficient quantity of boiling water, put into it pot-ashes, one pound of indigo, two ounces of madder, four pints of wheat bran; mix them all together and cover it for the space of twelve hours; then open it and put in one pint of woad, stir it about very well and cover it up for an hour; after which open it, stir it about, scum it and then put in your cloth, wool, &c.
This will dye about forty pound weight.

IV. To dye another Blue colour.
Take a sufficient quantity of urine, make it hot, and put into it four ounces of indigo, finely powdered, half that quantity of madder, as much ground malt as madder, and a little yeast, two ounces of pot-ashes, cover it up and let it stand in the warmth of the fire, and try when it will make a good colour, and if it does, first wet the cloth in warm water, and keep the vat warm and work the cloth in it, till it is of a good Blue, taking care to stir it often that it may not spot; keep it thus working till the dye is as deep as you would have it.

V. To dye another Blue.
Steep ebulus or dwarf elder-berries being ripe and well dryed, in vinegar for twelve hours, then rub them with your hands, and strain them through a linen cloth, putting thereto some bruis’d verditer and allum. But take notice, that if you would have the Blue to be clear, you must put more verditer to it.

VI. Another Blue dye.
Take tincture of brasile a sufficient quantity, vinegar three ounces, copper scales one ounce, salt one dram; mix all in a copper vessel, in which put the matter to be dyed.

VII. Another singular Blue dye.
Take of calcin'd tartar three pugils, of unslack'd lime one pugil, and with a sufficient quantity of water make a lixivium, and filter it; put one pound of Flanders Blue to twelve or fifteen quarts of this lixivium, and mix them well together; set it on the fire till it is so hot, that you can scarcely endure your hand in it 3 then having first boil'd (what you would dye) in alum water, take it out and dry it; afterwards dip it in hot lye twice or thrice, and put it into the dye again.

VIII. To make a substantial Blue dye.
Take water a gallon, one pound of woad, infuse it in a scalding or almost boiling heat for twenty four hours; then put into it wool, cotton, stuffs, flannel, or cloth of a white colour.

IX. Another good Blue.
Take a sufficient quantity, heat it in a copper, and dissolve in it half a pound of indigo, then put it into the vat, and add one ounce of madder, and a little ground malt; let it stand a while, and then enter twenty yards of cloth, working it till it is deep enough.

X. Another fair Blue.
Take sal armoniack and quick lime, of each one pound, and two or three ounces of verditer, put all into a vial, and set it in a horse dunghil for forty days.

XI. Another fair Blue colour.
Infuse some turnsole all night in urine, the next day grind it, and mix it with a little quick lime, according as you would have the colour to be; if you would have it a light shining colour, add to it a little gum Arabick.

XII. To dye barley straw of a Blue colour.
Take a sufficient quantity of lixivium of pot-ashes, and a pound of litmus or logwood ground, make a decoction; then put in your straw, and boil it and it will be blue.

To make a fine BLUE staining water.
Take a weak lixivium of pot-ashes, or take lime water, and put into it a sufficient quantity of florey, and dissolve a little alum in it, and stir it well over the fire; then take it off, and throw wood ashes into it, and so you will have a fine blue.

A weaker BLUE staining water.
Dissolve a sufficient quantity of blue florey in a sufficient quantity of water, and a little alum, and it will be of a fainter colour than the former.

A staining BLUE water, weaker than the latter.
Take a quart of pure well water, two shells of florey blue; mix them well together, and lay them on thin. This will be the faintest of all the three.

To dye wood, horns, or bones BLUE.
First boil them in alum water, then put them into a dissolution of indigo in urine.

To dye bristles and feathers BLUE.
First boil them in alum water, and aster, while they are warm, put them them into a tincture of juice of elder berries.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. BLUE of the dyers

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
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BLUE of the dyers is one of their simple or mother colours, which is us'd in the composition of others. It is made of woad, indigo, and a pastel brought from Normandy, and of the three the pastel is esteem'd the best and most necessary; woad, though of less force and effect, yet makes a tolerable colour, indigo only makes a spurious colour; yet it may be us'd along with pastel if it be well prepared, and be not mixt in too great a proportion.
Woad, having but little substance, can neither be us'd alone,: is it capable of correcting the indigo without the assistance of pastel.
Some dyers heighten their blue by adding brazile and other woods.
The way of brightning blues is by passing the stuff, when dyed and well wash'd through lukewarm water, or which is much better, by working and fulling the dyed stuff with melted soap, and then scouring it well.

BLUEs are immediately dyed from the whites, without any other preparation than fulling.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. BLUE for painting or staining glas.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
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Take of fine white sand twelve ounces, zaffer and minium of each three ounces; reduce them to a fine powder in a bell-metal mortar; then put this powder into a very strong crucible, cover it and lute it well, and being dry, calcine over a quick fire for an hour; then take out the matter, and pound it well in the mortar as before; then to sixteen ounces of this powder add fourteen ounces of nitre powdered, mix them well together, and put them into the crucible again, cover and lute it, and calcine for two hours in a very strong fire.

Take it out and grind it as before, then add to it a sixth part of nitre, and calcine again as before for three hours more; then take out the matter with an iron spatula red hot, left it should stick; it being very clammy, and not easily emptied.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Blue Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
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Take gum water, what quantity you please, and white lead a sufficient quantity, grind them well upon a porphyry. Then take ising-glass size what quantity you please, of the finest and best smalt a sufficient quantity, mix them well; to which add of your white lead before ground so much as may give it a sufficient body; mix these together to the consistence of paint.

With this mixture do over your work, and repeat this three or four times, till you see your Blue lies with a good fair body, letting it dry thoroughly between each time; if the blue be too pale, put in more smalt into the size, without any white lead.

Then rush it very smooth, and go over it again with a stronger blue; and when it is thoroughly dry, wash it twice over with the clearest ising-glass size alone; then cover it, and let it dry two days.

Then warm the piece gently before the fire, and with a clean pencil, wash your work over with the finest white varnish, repeating it seven or eight times, and then let it dry two days as before; then repeat again the second and third time, your washes seven or eight times in like manner.

Then let it stand to dry for a week, and then polish it as before directed; and lastly to give it a polish'd and gloss'd appearance clear it up with lamp black and oil.

You may make the colour either light or deep according to your fancy; if it have but a small proportion of the lead, it will be deep; but if it has a larger, it will be lighter.

Also the size for laying blues, white, or any other colour, ought not to be too strong, rather weaker, and just sufficient to bind the colours to make them stick on the work; for if it be too stiff, it will be apt to crack and fly off; and the reason of washing twice with clear size, is to keep the varnish from sinking into or tarnishing the colours.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. A Blue Dye for Silk. How to prepare a BLUE dye. An excellent liquor... To dye Blue.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
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1735
A Blue Dye for Silk.
Procure a tub that may be close covered, put into it a lye made of three pailfuls of river or rain water and clean beech ashes, put in also two handfuls of wheaten bran, two ounces of madder, two ounces of white wine tartar, beaten to powder, one pound of pot-ashes, half a pound of indigo pounded small; stir it very well with a stick every twelve hours for fourteen days, till it tinges a sort of green, and when the dye is grown bright, it must be stirr'd every morning. Put the silk into a warm fresh lye, wring it out and stir it about in the dye some time afterwards, letting it hang in the dye, according to the custom of dying; and besides the blue copper, there ought to be another copper full of lye, that when the silk is wrung out of the dye, it may be rinsed in it; and after it has been wrung very clean out of that, rinse it again in river water, beat it and dry it.
If the silk be moistened in this latter lye or suds, before it is dyed, there is no need of the first above-mentioned lye.
Several sorts of Blue may be made with this dye, either brighter or darker at pleasure, according to the time they are left in it, and when the copper grows low, you may fill it up again out of the rinsing fat; but when the blue copper or fat grows weak, then put in a quarter of a pound of pounded indigo, and half a pound of pot ashes, half an ounce of madder, an handful of wheaten bran, and a quarter of an ounce of tartar pounded, and let it stand eight days without using it, stirring it every twelve hours, and then you may dye with it again as before.


How to prepare a BLUE dye.
Put a pailful of water into a kettle that will hold it, hang it over the fire; put in a handful of unslack'd lime, two pound of indigo, one pound of pot ashes, and let them boil together for an hour, letting them dissolve.
Then having made clean a copper that will hold a tun of water, put into it two pound of madder, two pound of bran, and two pound of pot ashes; boil them a little, and let them settle, and pour the indigo upon them; then strain the lye also into the fat, but the indigo especially must be digested very well, and dissolved, and the copper fill'd with water, covered close, and a fire made under it; suffer it to grow warm, but not hot, stirring it about every two hours till it ferments, and as soon as it begins to melt or digest, it will also begin to turn yellowish, and then you may dye with it, taking care that your hands are very clean, and free from all sorts of grease.
When you have dy'd with the suds, you must strengthen them afresh with pot-ashes; but you must take care to do this neither too much nor too little; for if you are guilty of either extreme, the whole copper full of lye is spoil'd.
Neither ought you to dye too often at one time; but betwixt every time you dye, the liquor must be very well stirred.


An excellent liquor to make the blue suds work, in case it happens that they will not, by reason of some defect.
Take four ounces of madder, four ounces of pot ashes, and two handfuls of bran; boil them together, and pour the liquor into the blue suds; stir it well about, and it will make it work; and if it be too much fattened with ashes, then hang a bag of wheat flour in it, and that will attract all the fatness to it; and if it be yet defective in any particular, add to it a small quantity of salt-petre, and that will bring it to a fermentation, as will also a little grounds of beer, which indeed is one of the best remedies.


To dye Blue.
You must first boil, beat and rinse the silk, and prepare it while it is white without alum; then boil it in the blue suds, and wring it out, and dry it, after the same manner as you do greens.