Dictionarium polygraphicum. Lake.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
LAKE, comes next after CRIMSON, and is good for shadeing and heightening Carmine. But you must take notice of this, that in laying of carmine upon a print, you must touch your lights only with a very thin teint of it, that can scarcely be discerned; and lay it on strong, just upon that part of the light which enters upon the shade; and afterwards lay some lake on the stronger part of the shade.

Lake is to be had ready prepared in shells for water-colours, and is sold in some colour-pops.

To make a fine LAKE.
Take half a pound of good Brazil, boil it in three pints of lye, made of the ashes of vine-sprigs, till it behalf evaporated, then let it settle, and strain it off.
Then boil it again with fresh Brazil a quarter of a pound, of Cochineal 2 pounds, and terra merit a half an ounce; adding to it a pint of fair water; let it boil till it be half evaporated, as before; then set it by to settle, and strain it. But when you take it off the fire, put in half an ounce of burnt-alum reduced to an impalpable powder; let it dissolve, stirring it with a stick, and add to it a quarter of a dram of arsenick.
In order to give it a body, reduce 2 cuttle-fish bones to a fine powder, and put in the powder, and leave it to dry up at leisure, and then grind it with a good quantity of fair-water, in which leave it to steep; and afterwards strain it through a cloth, and make it up into small tablets or cakes, and set it to dry on a card or paste-board.
If you would have this lake redder, add to it lemon-juice,and if you would have it deeper, add to it oil of tartar.

Another LAKE.
Boil shavings or shearings of scarlet in a lye of the ashes of burnt tartar, or oil of tartar; this lye having the quality of separating the scarlet; when it has boil'd enough, take it off, and add to it cochineal, mastick in powder, and a little roch-alum; then boil them again all together, and while it is hot, strain it 2 or3 times through a jelly-bag; the first: time squeezing the bag from top to bottom with 2 sticks, then take out what remains behind in the bag, and wash it welli then pasi the liquor you expresi'd with the sticks through the bag again, and you will find a paste sticking to the sides of the bag, which you may either spread out upon a paste-board, or divide into small parcels upon paper, and set it by to dry.

To make Columbine LAKE.
Steep half a pound of the finest Brasil wood of Fernambouc, rasp'd in 3 pints of the most subtilly distill'd vinegar, for at least a month; and if it be for 6 weeks, it will be the better. After which, boil all in balueo mariæ, 3 or 4 wabbles up, and leave it for a day or two; after which, put a quarter part of alum powder into a very clean earthen pan, and strain the liquor upon it through a cloth, and so let it remain for a day; then heat the whole 'till it simmers, and leaving it again for 24 hours, reduce 2 cuttle fish-bones into powder, and having warm'd the liquor, pour it in upon them; then keep stirring the whole with a stick 'till it is cool, and leave it again for 24 hours before you strain it. Remember that it must be first strained upon the alum, before it is poured upon the cuttle-fish bone.

The marc or dregs of COLUMBINE LAKE.
To make a fine purple colour, besides the carmine for oil and distemper, take the marc or dregs of the columbine lake, which subsides with the cuttle-fish bone, and dry it and grind it; and there will be no fine Lake so splendid: and if it be mixt with Lake, there will be an addition made to its body.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To make the common lacker varnish.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Take rectified spirits of wine 2 pound, shell-lac in powder half a pound, put them into a two-quart bottle, and let them stand till the lac is quite dissolved; then strain it, and add a little common sanguis draconis in fine powder, and a litde turmerick in fine powder, both tied up in a rag; digest them for a day or two, shaking it often, and it is done.
Where take notice, That you may heighten or diminifh the colour by increasing or diminishing the quantity of the colouring ingredients.

Another LACKER.
Take rectified spirits of wine 2 pound, shell-lac half a pound: let it be dissolved, and then strain it; then, instead of common sanguis draconis, take a very little drop of fine sanguis draconis in fine powder, and English saffron dried, which tie up in a fine linnen rag, and put into the varnish, as before.
If you would have the colour deeper, or more like copper, add more sanguis draconis; but if lighter, the more saffron.

A LACKER varnish to be used without fire.
Take of the following varnish (in the next section) 2 pounds, Venice turpentine an ounce or 2 ounces; mix and dissolve it well with the varnish.
With this you may lacker or varnish any thing in the open air, which, altho' it may look dull and cloudy just after varnishing, yet will that quickly vanish, and it will obtain in a short time a pleasing and goodly lustre.


To make the best sort of LACKER varnish now used by gilders.
Take fine seed-lac varnish (which see under the article VARNISH] 6 ounces, with which mix arnotto in fine powder a sufficient quantity; set it over the fire in a gally-pot, and let it dissolve, and keep it in a bottle close stopped.

2. Take fine seed-lac varnish 6 ounces, as much gamboge in powder as it will dissolve in a gentle sand-heat; keep this also in a glass close stopped for use.

3. Take seed-lac varnish one pound, and add to it 2 spoon fuls and a half, or 2 spoonfuls of the first reserved tincture, and 5 or 6 spoonfuls of the second reserved varnish tincture; and add to this 15 grains of saffron tied up in a rag: digest them for 24 hours, having first shaken them well.

4. Then make a trial of this varnish upon a bit of silver; if you find it too yellow, put in more of the arnotto, or first reserved varnish tincture: thus increasing or diminishing the preparation, till you have brought it to the exact golden colour, which is the ultimate or only thing aimed at.


To LACKER oil-painting, sized works, or burnished silver.
Warm your picture-frame or piece of work before the fire; then having put out some lacker into a large gallipot, with a fine large and fast btush of hog's-hair, or camel s-hair, nimbly pass your work over, and be lure that you do not miss any part of it, nor yet wash the same part twice; but take special care to lay it thin, and even, and presently warm it by the fire while it looks bright; for by so doing you may lacker it again in a quarter of an hour, warming it before ana after the operation. Repeat this twice or thrice, and if you find the colour not deep enough, do it again the fourth time; but take care of ma king it too deep; for that is a fault cannot be mended.

To make LACKERING look like burnished gold
If you have before-hand burnished your silver very well, and your lacker is tinged of a true gold-colour, and you lay it on carefully with an even hand, not thicker in one place than another, matting it as you do burnished gold, it will be so exactly like gold-foil, or gilding, that it will be able to deceive the most curious eye, that shall not be before-band acquainted with the fallacy.

Here you are to observe, That in lackering carved works, you must be quick, or strike and job your brush against the hollow parts ofit, to cover them also, matting and varnishing them deeper, and more dull than other parts of the frame and pieces; and this deepening is done with the lacker-varnish, (or with arnotto it self) which being well mixed with the same, all the deep and hollow places and veins of the work are to be touched and deepene with it; by which means the colour is accomplished, and the reflection or a perfect glory.


To LACKER in oil such things as are exposed to the weather.

1. The same method is to be observed here, as in the former, excepting in this, that your priming ought to be whiter than the last, which is effected by mixing a little white-lead which has been ground a long time, with the former gold size.

2. Also your silver uze ought not to be so dry as that of gold, when the leaves are laid on.

To gild carv'd-work in oil, which is not to be exposed to the open air. Melt some size, and put in just so much whiting as will make it of a white colour; do the frame over once with this size. a. Then add more whiting to the size, till it is of a proper thickness; and do it over 3 or 4 times, or more, with this, according as you find the work does require, letting it dry tho roughly between each time.

3. When this is thoroughly dry, rub and smooth the work all over with a piece of fish-skin or Dutch-Rushes, and afterwards water-plane it, with a fine rag, dipp'd in water; rubbing it gently till it is very smooth, and then set it by to dry; and then size it with strong file.

4. Let it stand till it is dry, then lacker over the work twice by a gentle heat, and lay on your gold size, and perform every thing as before directed for laying on leaf-gold.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Lacca.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Lacca, is a kind of gum, or rather wax, hard, red, brittle, clear and transparent, brought from Malabar, Bengal, and Pegu, and used in dying scarlet, &c.

Authors are not agreed as to the production of this curious wax.

F. Tachard, who was upon the spot, fays, that a kind of little ants, fixing themselves to the branches of several trees, leave behind them a reddish moisture, which lying exposed to the sun and wind, hardens in 5 or 6 days time.

Some again are of opinion, that this is not the production of the ants, but a juice which they draw out of the tree, by making little incisions in it; and indeed the trees where the Lacca is found do yield a gum; but then 'tis of a nature very different from the Lacca.

The ants are as it were a kind of bets, and the Lacca is their honey: they work at it 8 months in the year, and the rest of the time they lie by, because of the rains.

The Method of preparing the Lacca is as follows: the first thing they do, is to separate it from the branches, to which it adheres; pound it in a mortar, and throw it into boiling water, and when the water is well dyed, they pour on fresj, till such time that it will tinge no more.

Then this water is set in the sun to evaporate, and afterwards the liquid tincture is strained through a cloth.

This gum being examined by M. Geoffroy, appeared to be a kind of Comb, such as bees and some other inlects are accustomed to make. Upon breaking it into pieces, it appeared divided into a great number of little cells of an uniform figure, and which plainly shew that it never ouz'd from trees: these cells are not mere excrements, as some take them to be, but are destined for something to be deposited in them, and accordingly are found to contain little bodies, which those Persons who observed it first took for the wings, or other parts of insects which produced the Lacca.

These little bodies are of a beautiful red; and when broke make a powder as fine as cochineal.

It is most probable that these cells are designed for the lodging of the young brood in, as those of bees; and that these little carcasses are the embryo's of the insects, or perhaps their skins. This before mentioned is the natural Lacca.

There are several forts of Lacca, or Lake, or Laque; besides which there are several Lakes used by painters which go by these names, and are called artificial lakes; being coloured substances drawn from several flowers. See the article LAKE.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To dye Silk a King's colour.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Put a sufficient quantity of water into a clean kettle or copper, and to every pound of silk take 12 ounces of madder, and the same quantity of galls; boil the silk with them for an hour, then take them out, let them be a little browned, and then dried.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To extract scarlet colour from Berries of Kermies, for making a fine lake.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Several ways may be given for extracting the tincture of these grains for making Lake; but I shall only mention two; the first is indifferent tedious; but is very excellent, and produces a tincture whereby is made a most admirable fine lake.

The way of making the Lake in France is very modern, and it is but of late they have had the secret in Paris, which was brought from Venice.

Take a gallon of fair-water, and 4 pound of whearen bran, a drams of oriental Piraster, and as much Fenugreek; set all in a kettle over a fire, till the water is milk-warm; keep your hand in it until you can bear the heat no longer; then take it off, and cover it with a cloth that the beat may continue the longer; let it stand for 24 hours, then run off the lixivium, and keep it for the following purpose.

Put 3 quarts of fair water to half the lixivium into a clean earthen vessel; set it on the fire, and make it boil, which when it begins to do, put in an ounce of the grain pounded to an impalpable powder, in a brass mortar, and searced; then having pounded a little crude tartar, to take off the remaining part of the grains on the bottom and sides of your mortar, and so put it in with the grains; when the water begins to boil again, take it off in an instant, and set it by to cool.

This done, and the water cold, take the shearings of scarlet woollen-drapery, and let them stain therein for about half an hour: afterwards squeeze it into another earthen pot by expression; and after you have thus drawn off all the tincture, put the shearings into the last pot; stirring them about very well with a small stick, that they may stain the sooner. Boil all for about half an hour over a gentle fire, or else the tincture will become black; then take out the shearings, and put them well ting'd into a vessel of cold water: about half an hour after pour off the water gently, and so put fresh on again; then press and spread them to dry in a clean place, where no dust can come at them.

When you have done this, make the following lixivium.

Lay Vine-ashes stalks in a hempen cloth doubled, or ashes of willow, or some other lighter wood; pour on them by degrees cold water, letting it strain through into a vessel set underneath; pour it again on the Ashes, and when it is all run through, set it by to settle for 24 hours, that the ashes which is carried off, may fall to the bottom. When you have done this, pour the lixivium by degrees into another vessel, having warm'd it.

When it begins to be cold, set it over a gentle fire, and let it boil, and it will become red; take a little of the shearings, press them well, and if it remain without colour, take off the kettle immediately; for the lixivium has extracted it entirely.

Then spread a linnen cloth over a free-stone bowl, set the shearings therein, and pour on the lixivium by little and little, to strain and yield the tincture, then squeeze the cloth and shear ings therein, to press out all the colour that remained in them; throw away the cloth; wash the shearings, clean and keep them for the like use another time.

Then put 12 ounces of roch-alum well powdered into a glass body full of cold water, letting it be quite dissolved; when this has been perfectly done, spread a linnen cloth over 2 staves, and set a large free-stone veflel underneath; put all the alum-water into the bottle of tincture, and strain it afterwards through this cloth: the lixivium will go thro' it clear, and leave the colour behind; but if it mould not be coloured; 'tis only straining it through again, and you'll have done.

Now to get the tincture, you must mix all that remains in the cloth, and gather it together, spreading it afterwards over new-made tiles (which have not been allowed time to moisten) on the pieces of linnen, and then mold them into troches to dry suddenly, without mouldying, which would spoil them.

Therefore great care must be taken that the tiles be not at all moist; and if they are, to change them, that it may dry the sooner, and thus you will have a Lake of an admirable colour for painting: you must lessen or improve the colour as you find occasion by a greater or lesser quantity of roch-alum.


A readier way to extract the tincture os KERMES Berries.

Tho' the Menstruum given above, made with shearings of scarlet cloth, be a very good one for this purpose, yet the following is a more easy one, and as effectual:

Take strong-water of the first run or distilling, and put it into a long-necked glass body; dissolve in it a pound os roch-alum, adding an ounce of Kermes Berries finely powdered and searced; let it digest well, shaking the matrass from time to time, and the strong-waters will draw to them all the tincture of the Kermes, and be very finely coloured; then let all settle for 4 days, and afterwards pour it gently into a glazed earthen vessel.

Dissolve jounces ofroch-alum in running-water, and pour this into the strong-waters, or tincture of Kermes to cause a separation: filter it through a linnen-cloth, and the strong-waters will fall through white, leaving the tincture behind. If they be any thing coloured, strain them again and again, till they be clear: take up the Uke or colour with a wooden spoon, and make it into troches; drying them as directed for the former. Thus you may have a quantity of this colour, or lake, as fine and as good as the former.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Kermes.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
KERMES is a kind of husk or excrescence, as it is generally thought, about the bigness of a Juniper-berry, round, smooth, and shining, of a beautiful red, and full of a mucilaginous juice of the same colour.

The name is purely Arabick, for in that country these berries grow on a small tree or shrub; and from that their native soil were transplanted into Spain, Provence, and Languedoc, where they now are plentiful.

It is found sticking to the leaves and bark of a kind of ilex or holm-oak, in Spain, Languedoc, and other hot countries.

It has a vinous smell, a bitter but agreeable taste; and its liquor contains an infinite number of little round or oval eggs.

The origin of the Kermes is suppos'd to be owing to a little worm, which pricking the holm-oak, to draw its nourishment from it, raises a little tumour or vessel, which fills with juice, and as it ripens becomes red.

When the Kermes is dried, there comes out of it an infinite number of little insects and flies, so small, that they are scarce discernible; insomuch that the whole inward substance seems converted into them.

For this reason it is sometimes call'd vermilion, (unless perhaps it be so call'd from its beautiful vermilion colour.)

To prevent that inconvenience, they usually steep the Kermes in vinegar before they dry it.

The manner of preparing it for dying is as follows:

The grain being taken when ripe, it is spread on linnen: and at first, when it abounds most in moisture, it is turned a or 3 times a day, to prevent its heating, till such time as there appears a red powder among it; then it is separated by being pafled through a searce, and afterwards the grain is spread abroad on linnen, till the same redness of powder is perceived, and then the sifting is repeated again; and thus they proceed while they discover a red powder on the surface of the grain, which is still pafled through the scarce till it will yield no more.

In the beginning, when the small red grains are seen to move, as they will do, they are sprinkled over with strong vinegar and rubbed between the hands.

Were not this precaution taken, out of every grain would be formed a little fly, which would skip and fly about for a day or two, and at last, changing its colour, would fall down dead.

The grain being quite emptied of its pulp, or red powder, is washed in wine, and then exposed to the sun; after this, 'tis put up in small bags, putting along with it the proportion of red dust that the grain had afforded.

According to M. Marsilli's experiments made at Montpellier, the grain of Kermes has the effect of galls, when mixed with vitriol, and makes a good ink.

Mix'd with oil of tartar or lime-water, its colour turns from a vermilion to a crimson colour.

In a decoction of turnsol-flowers it retains its proper colour.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum. Containing. Polygraphick Dictionary. I. Indian Red. Indian Wood. Black ivory. To dye ivory white.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum: Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested. Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV. 1735INDIAN RED, is a colour of a body; yet is useful for a back-ground for flowers, at a distance, being used with gumwater.
There is also an earth brought from the Isle of Wight, which has been found to mix extremely well with gum-water; tho' it being of a viscous nature, it requires less gum than most other colours, and as it is naturally fit for use, without grinding, and is viscous, so' it will, without doubt, mix with oil, as well as with water.
There is one thing very extraordinary in this earth, i. e. that if you rub a deal-board with it, it makes it exactly of the colour of mahogany wood, and stains it so deep, and with so much strength, that it is hard to get it out with washing.
And tho' the earth is very dry, yet it has not been able to be got out of papers, in which it has been carried in a pocket.

INDIAN WOOD, call'd also Jamaica and Campeche wood, is taken out of the heart of a large tree, growing plentifully in the isles of Jamaica, Campeche, &c. Itis used in dying; its decoction is very red: and it has been observ'd, that putting some of this decoction into 2 bottles, and mixing a little powder of Alum with the one, it will become of a very beautiful red, which will hold; the other in a day's time becoming yellow, [] both bottles were stopp'd from the air alike; and if a little of the same decoction were expos'd to the air, it would become as black as ink, in the same space of time.

BLACK IVORY, is only Ivory burnt, and drawn into a leaf when it is become black. It is ground with water, and made up into little cakes, or troches, and is used by the painters.

To dye IVORY white. If Ivory be yellow, spotted or coloured, lay it in quick lime, and pour a little water over it, letting it lie for 24 hours, and it will be fair and white.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To gild iron...

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
To gild iron or steel.
Take tartar 2 ounces, vermilion 6 ounces, bole-armeniack and aqua-vita, of each 4 ounces, grind them together with linseed-oil, and put to them the quantity of 2 hazle-nuts of lapis calaminaris, and grind therewith in the end a sew drops of varnish; take it off the stone, strain it through a linnen cloth, (for it must be as thick as honey) then strike it over Iron or steel, and let it dry; so lay on your silver or gold, and burnish it.

To gild IRON with water.
Take spring-water 3 pound, as many ounces of roch-alum, Roman vitriol and orpiment of each 1 ounce, verdigrease 24 grains, sal gemma 3 ounces, boil all together, and when it begins to boil, put in tartar and bay-salt, of each half an ounce; continue the boiling a good while, then take it from the fire, and strike the iron over with it, dry it against the fire, and burnish it.

To lay gold on IRON or other metals.
Take of liquid varnish 2 pound, linseed-oil and turpentine, of each 2 ounces, mix them well together, and strike them over Iron or any other metal, and afterward lay on leaf-gold or silver, and when it is dry polish it. A water for gilding Iron, steel, knives, swords, and armour. Reduce fire-stone to powder, put it into a strong red wine vinegar, for 24 hours, boil it in a glaz'd pot, adding more vinegar as it evaporates or boils away, dip iron, steel,&c. into this water, and it will come out black; then polish it, and you will have a gold colour underneath.

Another way.
Take salt-petre, roch-alum burnt, of each an ounce, sal-armoniack 2 ounces, powder them fine, and boil them with strong vinegar in a copper-vessel, with this wet the Iron, and lay on leaf-gold.

Another way.
Grind roch-alum with the urine of a boy, 'till it is well dislblv'd, heat the Iron red-hot, in a fire of woodcoals, and anoint the Iron with the liquor, and it will look like gold.

Another way of gilding Iron.
Take of water a pound and a half, of alum one ounce, sal gemma an ounce and a half, of Roman vitriol, and orpiment, of each half an ounce, of flos æris 12 grains; boil all with tartar and salt, as in the first prescription.

To make Iron of the colour of gold.
Take linseed-oil 6 ounces, tartar 4 ounces, yolks of eggs boil'd hard and beaten 4 ounces, aloes 1 ounce, saffron 10 grains, turmerick 4 grains; boil all together in an earthen vessel, and anoint the Iron with the oil, and it will look like gold.
If there be not linseed-tit enough, you may put in more;

A golden liquor to colour Iron, wood, glass, Or bones.
Take a new-laid egg, make a hole at one end, and take out the white, and fill it up with 2 parts of quicksilver, and one part of sal-armoniac finely powdered, mix all together with a wire or little stick, then stop the hole with melted wax, over which put an half egg-shell, digest them in horse-dung for a month, and it will be a fine golden coloured liquor.


To gild IRON and STEEL.
You must first give to the Iron and steel the colour of brass by the following method.
Polish the Iron or steel, and then rub it with aqua-fortis, in which filings of brass have been dissolv'd: the same is to be done as to silver.

2. An amalgama of gold and mercury, with which silver-gilders gild silver, brass, and copper, will not gild Iron and steel; but by the following method it may be done.
First coat the Iron or steel with copper, by dissolving very good vitriol of copper in warm water, 'till the liquor be satiated with the vitriol; then immerse the Iron or steel several times in the dissolution (but having first secured it bright) and suffering it to dry each time of itself; for by this immersion being often enough repeated, enough of the copperous particles will precipitate upon the Iron to fill the superficial pores of the Iron.

3. By this safe and easy way, having overlaid the Iron with copper, you may gild it as copper, either by the aforesaid amalgama, or by the method of whitening copper or brass artificially, (which see in the articles of COPPER and BRASS.)


To make IRON of a gold colour.
Take alum of melanty in powder, and mix it with sea-water; then heat the Iron red-hot, and quench it with the water.

To make IRON of a silver colour.
Mix powder of sal-armoniack with unflack'd lime in cold water, heat the Iron redhot, and quench it in it, and it will be as white as silver.

[---]

To tinge IRON with a gold colour.
Lay plates of Iron and' brimstone in a crucible, layer upon layer, cover it, and lute it weli and calcine it in a furnace; then take out the plates, and they will be brittle; put them into a pot with a large mouth, and put in sharp distilled vinegar, digesting over a gentle heat till they wax red; then decant the vinegar, and add new, doing this till all the iron be dissolved; then evaporate the moisture in a glass retort or vestca, and cast the remaining powd;r on silver or other white metal, and it will look like gold.

To whiten IRON.
First purge the Iron, by heating it redhot, and quenching it in water made of lye and vinegar, boiled with salt and alum, doing this so often till it becomes whitish.
Pound the fragments of iron in a mortar, till the salt is quite changed, and that there is no blackness left in its liquor, and till the iron is cleansed from its dross.
Then amalgamate lead and quicksilver together, and reduce them into a powder: then lay the prepared plates of iron and this powder layer upon layer in a crucible; cover it, and lure it all over very strongly, that the least fume may not issue forth, and set it into the fire for a day; at length increase the fire, so as it may melt the Iron (which will be done very quickly) and repeat this operation till it is white enough.
It is whitened also by melting with lead the marcasite or firestone and arsenick.
If you mix with it a little silver (with which it readily unites) it gives a wonderful whiteness, scarcely ever to be changed any more by any art whatsoever.

To render IRON of a brass colour.
Take flowers of brass, vitriol, and sal armoniac in fine powder, of each a like quantity; boil it half an hour in strong vinegar; take it off, and put in either iron or silver, covering the vessel till it is cold, and the metal will be like to brass, and fit to be gilded; or rub polished iron with aquafortis, in which filings of brass have been dissolved.

To tinge IRON of a brass colour.
Melt the iron in a crucible casting sulphur vivum upon it; then cast it into small rods, and beat it into pieces; (for it will be very brittle:) then dissolve it in aquafortis, and evaporate the menstruum, reducing the powder by a strong fire into a body again, and it will be good brass.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Ink.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
INK, a very good Black for Writing. Take rain water two quarts, nut galls only broken into bits half a pound, copperas 4 ounces, alum 4 ounces; infuse all in a gentle heat for a month, add gum Arabick 4 ounces, which dissolve in it, and keep the mixture for use.


Another black writing INK.
Take rain-water 2 quarts, nut galls broken into little bits 4 ounces; digest them in a sand-heat for a week: then dissolve 2 ounces and a half of vitriol or copperas in a pint of rain water by boiling it gently; adding in the dissolution a little gum Arabick: being dissolved, mix it with the water and galls; digest in a sand-heat for a week; and keep the clear for use.


Another very good INK for writing.
Take ponderous galls, 3 ounces, reduce them to powder, infuse them in 3 pinrs of rain-water, setting it in the sun or a gentle heat for 2 days; then take common or Roman vitriol 3 ounces, powder it, put it in, and set it in the fun for 2 days more, shake it well, and add an ounce of good gum Arabick.


Another good black INK.
Take 3 pints of rain-water, 3 ounces of nut-galls broken into little bits, digest them in a sandheat for a week, then add 2 ounces ot copperas or vitriol to a pint of rain-water, boil it gently till it is dissolved, adding to the dissolution a little gum Arabick, which, when it is dissolved, mix it with the water and galls; digest it for a week in a sand-heat, and keep the clear for use.


Another black writing INK.
Take white wine 2 quarts, log-wood ground, or shavings of it, one pound: boil them till a quart is consumed; then strain the liquor from the wood, and put into it 8 ounces of nut-galls bruised, pomegranate peels 4 ounces; mix and digest in a sand-heat for a week, shaking it 4 or 5 times a day: then add to it 4 ounces, of roman vitriol or green copperas, and digest it 2 days more; after which, add gum Arabick 4 ounces; digest 24 Hours, and strain all out into another vessel, and keep the Ink for use.
Note, 1. That the fæces will serve again for the same quantity of liquor or logwood Infusion.
2. That rain-water seems to be better for this purpose than white wine.
3. That probably the quantity of gum Arabick is too much.


Another very good black writing INK.
Take strong stale beer half a gallon (or white or red wine the same quantity) old nails 3 or 4 pounds; digest in a cold place for 8, 10, or 12 months; then decant off the clear liquor or tincture. Take Catechu in fine powder 3 ounces, common brandy half a pint, mix, and in a sand-heat make a strong tincture, which decant: mix this with the former tincture, and it becomes a black Ink.


Another very excellent black writing INK.
Take water in which a large quantity of old nails has lain for a year or two, a gallon, nut-galls broken into little bits a pound; common vitriol or copperas 4 ounces; infuse all together for a month, stirring or shaking the vessel very well 5 or 6 times every day. Then add gum Arabick cut into bits 2 ounces; dissolve and keep it continually stirring once or twice every day.
Note, When you use it, you may put in a little white sugarcandy, and dissolve it, so will your writing shine; but it ought not to be put in, but as you have occasion for it; for after 3 or 4 days it spoils the Ink.


Another very good black INK.
Take Thames or rain-water 2 quarts, nut-galls only broken into small bits half a pound; copperas 2 ounces; infuse all in a gentle sand-heat for 6 weeks shaking the bottle 4 or 5 times every day; then dissolve in it
4 ounces of gum arabick, (or less may be better) and let it stand upon the fæces for use.


To make the London Powder INK.
Take 10 ounces of the clearest nut-galls, bruise them and sift the powder very fine; then add 2 ounces of white copperas, 4 ounces of Roman vitriol, gum Arabick or sandarach an ounce; pound and sift them very fine, so that though they appear white, a little of it being put into water, it will in a little time turn black; and an ounce of powder will make a pint of very black Ink.


To make Japan, or shining INK.
Take gum Arabick and Roman vitriol of each an ounce, galls well bruised a pound, put them into rape vinegar, or vinegar made of clear small beer; set them in a warm place; stir them often till the liquor be comes black; then add to a gallon an ounce of ivory black, and a quarter of a pint of seed-lac varnish, and it will be a curious black shining Ink.


To make a POWDER INK, to rub on Paper.
Take about 20 nut-galls, reduce them to a very fine powder; take half an ounce of Roman vitriol, and as much gum Arabick and gum sandarach, powder and lift them very fine, then mingle them together, and rub the paper hard with a piece of cotton, and polish it with a piece of ivory; write with water, and in a little time the letters you write will appear a fine black, as if written with the best Ink.


To make China INK.
Take lamp-black purified 8 ounces, indigo 2 ounces, ivory black one ounce, peach-stone black half an ounce: beat all together, and make a mass; make it into a paste with water in which a very little gum Arabick has been dissolved; and so form them into long square tablets.


A shining Japan or China INK.
Take an ounce of lamp black, and clarify it in an earthen pipkin to take out the dross, 2 drams of indigo, half a dram of peach black, one dram of black endive burnt; reduce them to a very fine powder, and then with a moiery of fig-leaf water, and another part of milk, and a very little gum Arabick, when they are well mixed, make them up for use.


To make Indian INK.
Take horse-beans, burn them till they are perfectly black, grind them to a fine powder, and with a weak gum arabick water snake it into a paste, which form into long square cakes.


A black INK which vanishes in 24 hours.
Boil or digest nut-galls 24 hours, in gross powder, in aquafortis, add to them vitriol or copperas and a little sal armoniack, and it is done: what is written with this will vanish in 24 hours.


To make Red writing INK.
Take raspings of Brazil one ounce, white lead and alum of each 2 drams; grind and mingle them, infuse them in urine one pound, with 2 scruples of gum Arabick, or a dram at most.


Another Red INK.
Take wine vinegar a pint, raspings of Brazil 1 ounce, alum half an ounce, infuse all for 10 days; then boil it gently, and add to it 5 drams of gum arabick; dissolve the gum, strain and keep it for use.
Note, that 2 drams of gum in some cases may be enough.


To make Red writing INK with Vermilion.
Grind vermilion well upon a porphyry stone with common water; dry it and put it into a glass vessel, to which put urine; shake it, let it settle, then pour off the urine, and put on more urine: repeat this changing the urine 8 or 10 times; so will the vermilion be well cleansed; to which put glair of eggs to swim on it above a finger's breadth; stir them together, and when well settled, abstract the glair: then put on more glair of eggs, repeating the same operation 8 or 10 times also, to takeaway the scent of the urine; lastly, mix it with fresh glair, and keep it in a glass vessel close stopped for use; and when you use it, mix it with water or vinegar.


To make Red Printing INK.
Grind vermilion very well with liquid varnish or linseed oil.


To make a Blue INK.
Grind Indigo with honey mixed with glair of eggs, or glue- water made of ismg-glass, dissolved in water and strained.


To make Green INK to write withal.
Make fine Verdigrease into paste with strong vinegar, and infusion of green galls, in which a little gum arabick has been dissolved; let it dry, and when you would write with it, temper it with infusion of green galls, &c.


Another Green INK.
Dissolve verdigrease in vinegar, then strain it, and grind it with a little honey and mucilage of gum tragacanth upon a porphyry stone.


Another Green INK.
Boil verdigrease with argol in fair water, and then dissolve in it a little gum Arabick, and it will be good.


A Green Printing INK.
Grind Spanish green with liquid varnish, or linseed oil; and after the same manner you may make a Printer's Blue, by grinding azure with linseed oil.


An INK to write upon black paper.
Dissolve Tin-glass, or spelter, in aqua fortis made of nitre and alum; precipitate with oil of tartar; edulcorate perfectly with fair water, and dry it in a glass Bason; mix this powder with gum water, and it will be white, with which you may write on black paper: and with pure white flowers of antimony you may do the same.

To take INK out of printed books or pictures.
Wet a little aquafortis upon it, and it will be speedily out; then wash it over with a little alum water or vinegar, and it will kill the aqua fortis, which otherwise will either eat the paper, or make it yellow. Spirt of vitriol will do the same.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To prepare for the Indigo Dye.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
You must first have the ground of a dye, which is to be put into the kettle, and made as Warm as you can bear it; and afterwards prepare a lye of pot-ashes.

The kettle must be first fill'd with water and made to boil, then the pot-ashes are to be put in; boil them, and then put in a bowl-full of bran, and three handfulsof madder; boil them all fora quarter of an hour; then remove the fire, and pound the Indigo in a mortar to an impalpable powder, and pour some of the lye upon it. Let it stand to settle, and then pour some of the Indigo dye into the blue dye copper, and proceed thus, till the proper quantity of Indigo is turn'd into the dye; then beat what remains a second time, and let it stand to settle, and pour the lye into the blue copper, repeating this till you have turn'd a proper quantity of Indigo to lye, which must all bepoured into the copper, then you must proceed to dye your stuffs, &c.

The Indigo dye. Allow to every quarter of a pound of Indigo a pound and a half of pot-ashes, and a quarter of a pound of madder, 3 handfuls of wheaten bran, boil these for 7 or 8 minutes, and then let it stand to settle; pour off the clear part of the suds or liquor, and pound the Indigo very fine, and mix it with a sufficient quantity of fresh woad, or stale Indigo, and then pour the fads upon it, and let it boil for 24 hours, and it will be ready to dye withal.

To prepare the dye copper. First throw in a pint of wheaten tran, next to that the woad, and after that, 2 pound of madder, then fill the copper with water, and make it boil for 3 hours; then pour it off into the vat, and let it stand till it is of a due consistence; then boil the copper full of water, and pour it into the dye suds, and cover it up warm; let it stand 2 hours to settle, and look upon it every hour, till it becomes blue.

Then, according to the quantity of stuffs to he dyed, put in 3 or 4 pound of Indigo, and 3 pound of pot-ashes, let it stand to settle and dye with this liquor; taking care always to stir it; cover it close, and let it stand 2 hours after every time you have dyed with it: after which time you may dye with it again, adding a sufficient quantity of lime, if you use it often, always let ting it stand 2 hours, and then adding lime and stirririg it.


How to prepare the INDIGO dye for the lye, in conjunction with the Provence BLUE, and make it lasting for stuffs, silks, woollen, and linnen.

If the ware is to have a deep dye, you must first prepare it in tartar and vitriol; but if of a light dye, in alum and tartar.

Boil 3 pound of brown wood in a bag, in a kettle of water, for half an hour, then take it out and dry it, and let the dye grow cool enough for you to bear your hand in it; then make use of your Indigo and Ashes (as in the direction for the blue dye) with all the rest of the useful and remedying drugs, from beginning to the end, as there directed.

When the blue dye has stood 24 hours, and the Indigo his come to its perfect strength, and begins to be blue, first dye what you would have of a deep blue, and the lightest last: and having work'd the dye half an hour, let it rest for an hour, and so on as lone as you work it.

If the lye be too weak, you may strengthen it at pleasure.



The way of mixing the Provence blue with woad for silk, woollen, and linnen ware; and to improve the BLUE.

It requires 3 waters to prepare the woad, and if you would use the Provence blue with woad and indigo, no brown wood is to be put in the first water, and then you must consider how the woad comes from the lye.

For the second water; boil a pound of brown wood in a bag; to be sure taking care that there be no bran in the water.

For the third water, use 2 pound of brown wood, but if you would have the dye deeper, then make your dye deeper in the first operation.



To dye linnen thread BLUE.

For every 6 pound of thread, take half a pound of Alum, 5 ounces of tartar, 2 quarts of sharp lye, set it over in the fire, and as soon as it boils, put in the thread, and let it soak there for 4 hours; then rinse or pass it through fresh water.

And afterwards dye it blue.

Take a pound of boiled brown wood, 3 quarters of an ounce of verdigrease powdered, one quart of sharp lye, the galls of 2 oxen or cows, half an ounce of calcin'd tartar, half an ounce of calcin'd white vitriol; put in the thread af twice, so that you may dye it light or deep at pleasure; and then the thread having first lain two hours in the woad lye, must be rinsed clean out.

If it be put into this lye when it is cold, it becomes much brighter and bluer, than if put in when boiling hot; but the most lasting dye for thread is perform'd with woad.

But if you would dye in the Indigo copper, you are not to use the same preparation suds, as in this dye, and the colour will be durable.

And lastly, the thread dyed with Indigo, ought to be rinsed through warm water, in order to give it the better lustre.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Indigo.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
INDIGO, a drug of a deep blue colour, brought hither from the West-Indies.

It is made of the leaves of a plant, call'd by the spaniards Anil, and by us Indigo.

The method of preparing it is as follows;

When the plant has grown to a certain height, and its leaves are in a good condition, they cut down, and throw it into a kind of vat, putting to them as much water as will cover them.

These are boil'd together for the space of 24 hours; and at the top swims a scum, with all the different colours of the rainbow.

Then the water is let off into another vessel, where they agitate it, and stir it about laboriously, with five or six poles fitted for that purpose. This they do till the water becomes of a deep green, and till the grain (as they call it) forms itself; which they discover, by taking a little of it out into another vessel, and spitting in it; for if then they perceive a blueish dreg subsiding, they cease beating it. The matter then precipitates of itself, to the bottom of the vessel; and when it is well settled, they pour off the water.

After this, they takeoff the Indigo, and put it into little linnen bags, and let it drain; this done, they put it into shallow wooden boxes, and when it begins to dry, they cut it into slices, and sec them to dry and harden in the sun.

here are several sorts of Indigo, the best is that call'd Serquisse, after the name of a village where it is prepar'd.

We chuse it in flat pieces of a moderate thickness, pretty hard, clean, light enough to swim in the water, inflammable, of a fine blue colour, marked a little on the inside with silver streaks, and appearing reddish when rubb'd on the nail.

Indigo is us'd by Painters, who grind and mix it with white to make a blue colour; for without that mixture, it would paint blackish.

It is also mix'd with yellow, to make a green colour. It is also us'd by dyers.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. How to draw with Indian ink.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
This is to be done after the manner of washing, or instead of Indian, you may temper lamp-black or burnt bread.

Temper either of these in fair water, in a shell, or upon your hand; and the out-lines having been first drawn with a coal or black lead, dip the point of an indifferent sharp pencil into fair water, and then into the indian ink, and draw all the oudines of your picture very faintly.

2. Take notice, that all the temperature of Indian Ink must be very thin, waterish, and not too black.

3. When it is dry, rub out the out-lines, which you drew with the coal, with a bit of stale white bread; if too black, then dash on your shadows very faintly, and deepen by degrees, at pleasure; and finish it with stipples, it being most advantageous to any one who shall practise limning.

4. Be sure not to take too much ink in your pencil, which you may prevent by drawing it thro' your lips.

5. Never lay your shadows on too deep, but deepen them down by degrees; for if they are too deep, they cannot be heightened again.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Jeat

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Jeat, sometimes called black amber, is a mineral, or a fossilc stone, extremely black, formed of a lapidific, or bituminous juice in the earth, in the manner of coal: it works like amber, and has most of its qualities.

It abounds in Dauphins; but the best in the world, is said to be produc'd in some of the northern parts of England.

There is also a factitious jeat made of glass, in imitation of the mineral jeat.

This is drawn out into long hollow strings, which are cut, and form'd at pleasure. It is much us'd in embroideries, and in the trimmings of mourning, and may be made of any colour, tho' they are usually black and white.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. To japan brass...

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
To japan brass, such as is us'd to gild brass buttons, or make them look like gold.

This may be us'd upon leaf-gold, or upon what is called the German leaf-gold, or upon brass, or upon Bath metal, which, are design'd to imitate gold.

Take a pint of spirit os wine, and put it into a retort-glass, then add a quarter of an ounce of gamboge, half an ounce of lake, and half an ounce of gum-mastick; let this in a sand-heat for 6 days, or near the fire, or put the body of the retort frequently in warm water, shaking it twice or thrice a day; then let it over a pan of warm small-coal dust; and having first well-clean'd the metal, do it over thinly with this varnish, and it will appear of the colour of gold; it may be dried in a de clining oven, and it will not rub off.

N. B. This is a gcod varnish to mix with any colours that incline to red, and the white varnish to mix with those colours, that are pale, or of any other sort.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Of japanning metals with gum-water.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
You are to take notice, that it is only to be done with these colours, which have a body; not with transparent colours.

1. Take gum-water, put it into a muscle. Shell, with which mix so much of your metal or colour, as may make it neither too thick nor too thin, but that it may run fine and smooth from the pencil.

2. Mix no more at a time than is sufficient for your present use; for they will spoil by being kept mixt.

3. And for your colours, your shells must be often shifted and changed; for otherwise the colours and gums will become knobby, thick, and out of order.

4. Having prepar'd and well-mixt your metals and colours, lay on your design with a hog's-brush pencil, with a smooth and even hand, drawing the pencil on the side of the shell, that it may not be overcharg'd with the colour or metal, when you are about to draw small lines or strokes.

5. But where you draw broad things, as leaves or other large works, then you may charge your pencil-full, but yet not so as to drop.

6. Now here it is to be noted;
- 1. That the practice of gum-water is useless and unnecessary in the use of gold iize.
- 2. That your gum-work being thoroughly dry'd, you are to run it over 8 or 10 times with your fine seed-lac varnish, or best white varnish; and afterwards polish it and clear it.

7. The black or ground on which your draught is to be made, when clear'd up, will be sq glossy, as if it were greasy, so that the metal or colour will not easily stick on; and for this reason you ought to rub it with a Tripoli cloth, and suffer it to dry; and so will the draught of the pencil be smooth, and stick on as you would have it.

8. If your work with gum-water should not succeed to your satisfaction, as not being even and regular, or the lines at a true distance, (as it may sometimes happen to young beginners) you may with the Tripoli cloth wipe out all, or any part of that, which you think unhandsome, or unfit to stand, and then immediately make a new draught.

9. And so by this method you may mend, alter, add, take from, blot out, change, and varioutly contribute to your design, 'till the whole piece is as perfect as you would have it.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. The way of Japanning wood or paper.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
The people of Japan have a method of making plates, bowls, and other vessels of brown paper, and sometimes of fine saw-dust.

These vessels are very light and strong, after they have been varnished.

The method os making them is as follows:

Boil a good quantity of flips or pieces of brown-paper in common water; mashing them with a stick, while it is boiling, till it is almost become a paste; then take it out of the water, and pound it well in a mortar, till it is come to a Pumice, like rags pounded in the trough of a paper-mill.

Then take gum-arabtek, and make very strong gum-water with common water, a quantity sufficient to cover the paper paste an inch thick: put these together into a large glaz'd pipkin and let them boil, stirring them very well together, 'till you think the paper paste is impregnated with the gum; then having a mould ready to give the paste the form or shape you design it, put it into it.

The mould is made as follows:

As for example, suppose you design to make a thing in the form of a pewter or earthen plate, you must procure a hard piece of wood to be turn'd by a Turner, on one lide of such a form, (i. e. like the back of a plate) and a hole or two made in the middle quite through the wood.

And besides this, another hard piece of wood must be turned, much of the same figure, about the eighth part of an inch less than the former; and, if you please, you may have some little ornament carved or engraven on the wood. Oil these Moulds very well on the sides that are turn'd, continuing to oil them, 'till they are well soaked with oil, then they will be sit for use.

When you are about to make a plate of the paper-paste, take that mould that has the hole in it, and having oil'd it again, set it even upon a strong table, and spread over it some of your paste, as equally as possible, so as to be every where a quarter of an inch thick; then oil the other upper mould very well, and set it as exactly a; may be on your paste, and press it hard down; then set a great weight upon it, and let it stand for 24 hours.

N. B. The hole at the bottom is for the water to pass through, that is press'd or squeez'd out of the paste; and the oiling of the moulds is to prevent the gummed paste from sticking to the wood.

When the paste is dry, it will be as hard as a board, and be sit to lay a ground upon, made with strong size and lamp-black; then let it stand to dry leisurely, and when it is thoroughly dry, then mix ivory black finely ground with the following varnish.


To make the strong JAPAN varnish.
Take an ounce of colophony, and having melted it in a glaz'd pipkin, and having ready 3 ounces of amber, redue'd to a fine powder, sprinkle by little and little into it, adding now and then some spirit of turpentine; when this is melted, sprinkle in 3 ounces of sarcocolla finely powdered, stirring it all the while, and putting in frequently more spirit of turpentine, 'till all is melted; then pour it through a coarse hair-bag, placed between 2 hot boards, and press it gently 'till the clear is receiv'd into a warm glaz'd vessel. Mix ground ivory black with this varnish, and having first warm'd your paper plate, print it in a warm room before the fire, as equally as you can, and let it into a gentle oven, and the next day put it into a hotter oven, and on the third day into one very hot, and let it stand in it 'till the oven is quite cold, and then it will be fit for any use, either for containing liquors cold or hot, and will never change; nor can these sort of vessels be broke without great difficulty.
It is highly probable, that if the moulds were cast of any bard metal, they might do better than if turn'd in wood.



The method of making them of the colour of gold.

Having prepared plates, bowls, or any other vessels, according to the method before directed, or according to this that follows;

Take fine saw-dust, and having dry'd it well, pour on it some turpentine, mix'd with an equal quantity of rosin, and half as much bees-wax: mix them well, and put them to your dry sawfost, stirring all together, 'till the mixture becomes as thick as a paste; then take it off the fire, and having warmed the moulds, spread some of your mixture on that which has a hole in the middle, as equally as possibly can be, and press down the tipper mould upon it; then set it by, let it stand 'till it is cold, and the vessel will be fit for painting.

You may, when the turpentine is melted, put in some sarcocolla finely powdered, to the quantity of half the turpentine, stirring it well, and this will harden it. This composition ought to be made in the open air; because being apt to take fire, it will endanger the house.

But which-ever of the mixtures you make use of, if you would have them look like gold, do them over with size; and when that begins to stick a little to the finger, lay on leaf-gold, tidier pure or the German sort; do this as is directed for GILDing, &c., which see.

But the German gold indeed is apt to turn green, as most of preparations of brass will do; such as those of Bath-metal, and others of the like sort, which look like gold when they are fresh polished, or clean'd every day.

But as they being expos'd to the air, will change or alter to an ugly colour, gold is rather to be chosen; and is durable, 'ever changing, and of a much finer colour than any of the former for a continuance.

And altho' the leaf-gold is tender, and may be subject to rub off; yet the varnish; with which it is covered, will keep it bright and entire.

After the gold has been laid on, and the gold size is dry, and the loose flying pieces brush'd off, then lay on the following varnish to brighten the gold, and preserve it from rubbing.



Varnish for gold and such leaf of metals as imitates gold.

Melt some colophony, and then put in 2 ounces of amber well-pulveriz'd, with some turpentine, as the amber thickens, stirring 't well; then add an ounce of gum-elemi well-powdcred, and some more spirit of turpentine; still keeping the liquor stirring, 'till it is all well mix'd: but take care to use as little spirit of turpentine as you can, because the thicker the varnish is, the harder will it be.

Let this operation be perform'd over a sand-heat in an open glass, and strain it as directed tor the former varnish.

Use this varnish alone, first warming your vessels, made of the paper paste, and lay it on with a painting-brush before the fire; and afterwards harden it by degrees at 3 several times in ovens 1 the first being a flow heat, the next a warmer oven, and the third a very hot one: and these vessels will look like polish'd gold.

You must observe, that those vessels, that are made with saw-dust and the gums, you may for them use a varnish, made of the same ingredients as above, excepting only the gum elemi; and this will dry in the fun, or in a very gentle warmth.



To make these paper, &c. vessels of a red colour with gilded figures on them.

The vessels being prepared as before directed, with broun-paper paste, and after they are dried, &c. as directed for the first, mix some vermilion with the varnish first directed, and use it warm; then stove it, or harden it by degrees in an oven, and it will be extremely bright; or else lay on the first ground with size and vermilion, and with gum-arabick water stick on in proper places some figures, cut out of prints, as little sprigs of flowers, or such like; and when they are dry, do them over with gold size, and let them remain 'till it is a little sticking to the touch. Then lay on the gold, and let that be well clos'd to the gold size, and dried; then if you have a mind to shade any part of the flower, trace over the shady parts on the leaf gold with a fine camel's-hair pencil, and some ox-gall, and then paint upon that with deep Dutch pink; and when that is dry, use the varnish in a warm place, (i. e. that varnish directed for the covering of gold) and when you have done, set it to harden by degrees in an oven.This varnish will secure the leaf gold, or German metal from changing, by keeping the air from it.



The method of silvering these JAPAN vessels.

After the vessels have been made, and are thoroughly dried, do them over with size, and with ground chalk or whiting; let them stand by 'till they are very dry, and then paint them over again with the brightest gold size you can get, (for there is a'great deal of difference in the colour of it; some of it is almost white, and other yellow; the latter is proper for gold, and the former for silver.) When this size is almost dry, lay on the leaf silver, and close it well to the size, brushing off the loose parts, when 'tis dry, with some cotton.

When you lay on your leaf-silver or leaf-gold, keep it free from the air; for the least motion of the air will rumple the leaves, and they will not lie smooth, then use the following varnish to cover the silver.



To make the varnish to cover the silver.

Melt some fine turpentine in a well-glaz'd pipkin, then take an ounce and half of white amber well-pulverizd, put it by degrees into the turpentiie, stirring it well, 'till the amber is all dislblv'd, then put to it half an ounce of sarcocolla powdered, and half an ounce of gum elemi well levigated; pouring in at times more of the turpentine spirit, 'till all is dissolved. Let it be done over a gentle fire, and keep stirring the mixture continually, while it is on the fire.

This varnish will be as white and strong as the former, and must be us'd warm, and is as strong as that which is laid upon gold; and is to be afterwards hardened by degrees in an oven, is the gold varnish, and the vessel will look like polished silver.



Directions in colouring draughts or prints of birds, flowers, &c. in japanning these vessels.

If the prints or drawings of flowers be in black and white, if the center of the flower is rising, you must touch the edges of the lights with a thin tincture of gamboge, and lay on some Dutch pink or gall-stone, over the shades, so as to run into the lights a very little.

This is to be done because the thrums in the middle of flowers are generally yellow; but if of any other colour, as sometimes blue, &c. Sometimes lighter, and sometimes darker; then touch the verges of the lights with a little ultramarine blue, and over the shades either some sanders blue, to run a little into the ultramarine, or else shade with indigo; and some of the white of the print being left void of colour, will then give life and spirit to the colours so dispos'd.

All flowers should be tenderly touch'd in the light, just to give a little glare into the light parts of the colour you would give to the flower-leaves; and if you paint by a natural flower, you will presently see, that on the shady side, you must lay on the most shady part, such a colour as will force the rest to appear forward: but do not daub over the shades with too heavy a colour; let it be such as may be transparent, if possible, and scumble it into the light colour, that was laid on before. On this occasion the pencil must be us'd but lightly, with a very little gum-water in it, and it must be us'd before the colours are quite dry.

In painting the leaves of plants and herbs, regard must be had to the colours of the greens; that sometimes being the chief distinguishing character.

Of greens, verdigrease is the lightest; therefore that colour should be touch'd into the light parts of the leaf, from the place where the lighter parts of the shades end: and then on the shady parts, lay on some sap-green, so as to unite with the verdigrease green; and if the natural leaf should be of a darkish colour, touch the lighter sides of the leaves with a little verdigrease green, and Dutch yellow pink, mixt together, or with a tincture of French berries, but so as to let the verdigrease shine more than the pink.

The leaving the lights in colouring a print, has two advantages, viz.

If the lights be left on this occasion, the whiteness of the paper serves instead of the use of white paint, which is an heavy colour, and would rather confound those that have been prescrib'd to be laid on, than do them any service; but the colours before directed, where there is no white laid on, will shine agree ably into the white of the paper.

I am the more particular in this, because some persons will lay a blue flower, all over with one colour, tho' it be thick enough to hide both the lights and the shades; and then it will look like a penny picture, where there is nothing but a jumble of reds, blues, and greens.

In such pieces of work, be sure to scumble the lights into the shades of every colour, and leave the middle of the lights open on the papers; for as the paper is white of itself, it makes a light.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Japanning with gold size.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
1. When your work is wrought, and you would decypher on it, draw the gold size (see GOLD SIZE) all over that part, and that part only, which you intend to gild or adorn with gold, omitting those places where you intend to lay your metals and other colours, as silver, topper, brass, &c.

2. The size being thus wrought for the gold, let it remain 'till it is so dry, that when you put your finger upon it, it must be glutinous and clammy, and stick a little, but not so moist, that the least particle of it should come off with your fingers; but that it may be much like to thick glue, when it is half dry.

3. When it is in this temper, it is the very nick of time, when the gold is to be apply'd; then take a piece of soft washleather, or the like, and wrap about your fore-finger; dip it in your gold dust, and rub it where your gold size is laid, for it will stick on the size, and no where else.

4. If any gold dust lies scattered about your work, brush it all away into your paper, in which your gold is, with a fine varnishing brush, which has not been us'd.

5. Then with your pencil draw that part with gold size also, which is design'd for your copper; and let it dry, as has been directed for the former, and then cover it with copper dust, after the same manner as you did with the gold dust.

6. Having done this, lay your silver size, and when it is dry as before, lay on your silver dust, as you did the two former.

7. But this is always to be observ'd, that the metalline colours are to be laid, successively one after another, letting each be covered, and thoroughly dry, before you enter upon a distinct colour.

8. After all these, the other colours (which are not metalline) are to be laid on, with gum-water, reserving the rocks, &c. for the last part of the work.

9. If you have mix'd more gold size than you have occasion for at one time, or if you are hindred from finishing it in one day, (you will observe that your size, in 5 or 6 hours time, will have a skin upon it:) in order to this, put the pencils into a gallipot of water, and pour fair water over your pot of gold size; and if your size should grow too thick, you may thin it with Venice Turpentine; but you are to take notice, that doing this oftener than once will spoil the size.

10. Let your size be of a due consistence, neither too thick nor too thin, that it may run smooth and clear, and that your strokes may be fine and even, so that you may be able to draw the most fine hair strokes.

11. If you would imitate Japan-work exactly, avoid filling and thronging your black with draughts. In the true Indian work the ground is never crouded up with many figures, houses, or trees; but a great space is allow'd to a little work, for the black adds lustre to trie gold; and the gold adds an excellency to the black.

12. Sn these works you may use some variety of metals, but in a very slender proportion to that of gold, which is the general ornament and characteristick of the genuine or true Japan work.

13. Be very exact in tracing or drawing out your design in vermilion or gold, to do it with an even hand: then your gold size being ready prepar'd, make with a small pencil the outward lines; ths boundaries of the rocks, and those things that seem to lie beyond the buildings.

14. Begin those parts of the work that are most distant from you; because then you will not be liable to rub or deface any thing while it is wet.

15. When you have done the farthest parts, work just according to your pattern (if you have any) and draw the gold size on the places, answering to the black lines of your print or pattern, and no where else, leaving the white for the black Japan, or ground of the work.

16. And in all respectt use your size, at is you were to copy the print or patternon white paper with ink or black lead; only you must take care, that while you are working on one part, you don't suffer that which is already done with size, to grow to dry, that it will not hold the metals; and for that reason you must often try in what case those parts of your work that are already siz'd are in.

17. And therefore you must sometimes be drawing, sometimes gilding; and then go to drawing again, and then to gilding; continuing this alternately 'till your whole work is quite finish'd.

18. If you find it troublesome to draw the white, and over pass the black, or on the contrary to draw the black and omft the white; on the tops of houses, foldage of figures, faces, or the like; then for your ease overlay all those parts of buildings, foldages, faces, &c. with gold size, and lay the metals on them; and when they are well dried, wash over those places only which you design to set offwith black, with your securing varnish.

19. Tho' in some Japan-work, silver is sometimes made use of; yet it is but very seldom, except in some rais'd works, because the best and brightest silver is too splendid a metal for black Japan; and therefore we chuse instead of that a kind of dull or dirty silver, which is tin-powder.

20. And lastly, you may set off your plain metals, when rubbed on gold size, either with metals mix'd with gum-water or gold size, viz. when the plain metals are laid and thoroughly, dry, hatch or work in the size for setting off, as you would do with metals mixed with gum-water, and it is not to be doubted you would find the gold to be the best.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Marble and Tortoise Shell Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Your wood being prepared in all respects, as for white Japan, then lay it over with flake white or white lead; and if you design your work to be a white with some veins, use vine-black (made of the cuttings of vines, burnt and ground;) mix it with a very weak ising-glafs size, made warm, the said vine-black and white lead, making 2 or 3 degrees of it, till you have produc'd the intended colours for the clouds and veins of marble.

2. Then with a large, clean brush, wet the work over with water; and before it is dry, dip a camel's-hair pencil in the palest thin mixture, and so lay the faintest large clouds and veins, which being laid on while the work is wet, will lie soft and sweet, like that which is natural.

3. And before it is too dry, gently touch all the lesser veins, and variety of the marble, with a smaller pencil, and one degree darker; endeavouring, as much as may be, to imitate nature in ail its footsteps. 4. Then, with a small-pointed seather, touch and break all your smaller veins with the deepest colour, and making them it regular, wild, and confus'd, as they appear in the real stone: then set it by to dry for a day or two, and wash it over with ising-glas size or parchment size.

5. After it has stood for 2 or 3 days to dry, varnish it over 5 or 6 times with the best white varnish, letting it stand to be thoroughly dry between each time: then set it by again for a week, and afterwards polish it and clear it up, according as you are directed in varnishing other works.

6. If you would hive it represent either white or grey marble, you must use the best white varnish; but if yellowish, or of a parchment colour, you must use the best seed-lac varnish, either alone, or mix'd with the white varnish, as you please.


Another marble Japan.

1. Take of the best white varnish, or of the universal varnish, with which mix white lead, finely powdered, and lamp-black, or ivory black, in what proportion you shall think fit, makings degrees of it.

2. Go over the whole work with a brush pencil, with the first and lightest degree, clouding and marbling it in imitation of nature, going over it 4 times, letting it dry between every time.

3. Go over the work again with a second darker degree, and a fresh clean pencil, viz. Some of the clouds, and edges of the clouds, as also some of the greater and lesser veins, shadowing and making them something deeper; repeating this work in different places: in some, twice; in some, 3 times; and in some, 4 times.

4. With the third and darkest degree, go over the edges of some of the darker veins, and over all the lesser veins, repeating the work in spots and particular places 4 times, as before.

5. After you have done all this; let it stand by 2 or 3 days to dry, and strike it over 4 or 5 times or more, either with the best white varnish, or with the best seed-lac varnish, setting it by to dry between every time; then let it stand to dry for a week, and then polish it, and clear it as before directed for other japann'd works.



To make Tortoise-Shell Japan.

1. That which is here endeavoured to be imitated, is tortoise-shell laid upon silver foil, which gives it life and beauty; now to imitate this well, the wood must be close grain'd and smooth, and well wrought, as box, pear-tree, wallnut-tree, &c.

2. But if the wood be coarse-grain'd, as deal, oak, &c. it must be first prim'd with size and whiting, letting it dry between each time, and at last rush it smooth.

3. Then strike over the breadth of a leaf of silver with a fit varnishing pencil, and the thickest seed-lac varnish, then take up the silver leaf with a cotton, and lay it on your work while it is moist, dabbing it down close to the work, as is directed in gilding.

4. Then, in the like manner varnish another place, and lay on another leaf as before, doing this till the whole work is covered over with leaf silver, then let it stand to be thoroughly dry, and sweep off all the loose silver with a fine hair-brush.

5. After this, take lamp-black, or rather Cologn's Earth, (which comes nearest to the colour of the shell,) as much as you please, and grind it with parchment size, or gum water, till it becomes very fine and impalpable; and when it has been ground very fine, mix it with more parchment size and gum water, agreeing with what you first ground withall.

6. Spot the darkest part of your shell-work with this mixture after a careless, cloudy manner, imitating nature as much as can ber letting a piece of true tortoise-shell lie by you for your imitation.

7. Grind fine sanguis draconis in gum water very soft; but some grind it dry, till it is very fine, and then mix it with fine seed-lac varnish, which is most proper and agreeable for this work, and not so apt to be polished off as size or gum water.

8. Now whereas there are several reds, lighter and darker, to be found on the edges of the blacker part, which sometimes lie in streaks and clouds on the transparent part of the lhell; these are to be imitated with one of the two former mixtures of dragons blood.

9. With a small pencil dipp'd in one of those mixtures, dash the said red streaks,&c. flushing them in and about the dark places, both thicker and thinner, fainter and lighter, and with less colour towards the lighter part; and afterwards sweeten it by degrees, that it may so lose its strength and redness, as to be quite lost in the silver, or more transparent parts of the work.

10. When you have done this, give it 6 or 7 washes of fine seed-lac varnish; and letting; it stand to dry for a day or two, rush it gently and very smooth, to render it fit for the next operation.

11. Take fine sanguis draconis and gamboge, of each a sufficient quantity, reduce them to a fine powder, mix these with as much fine seed-lac varnish as will varnish the piece 6 or 7 times over, and set it by to dry for 6 or 7 hours, or more.

12. Then give it another, or third varnishiug with the last mixture, going over it so often, till the silver seems to be chang'd to a gold-like colour.

13. And lastly, take care that your varnish be not too thick and high coloured with the sanguis and gamboges but rather heighten it by degrees, lest the silver be too high coloured, before it has had a sufficient body of varnish. Let it stand to dry 6 or 7 days, then polish and clear it up, as before directed.



Another tortoise-shell Japan.

1. First let your work be very well prim'd, as before directed, then lacker and size it in oil, as is taught in the art of gilding.

2. Lay on the leaf silver, and let it stand till it be very dry, and having the following colours ready, finely ground in oil, viz. red lake, cinnabar, brown pink, Cologn's earth, alias burnt umber; place them distinctly on your pallat.

3. Strike over the work with turpentine varnish, and while it is wet, mix lake and brown pink thin with varnish, and with it lay all your faintest clouds or spots, which, soften sweetly whilst the varnish is moist.

4. Let it stand 5 or 6 hours, and if the colours are dry, with a large soft pencil, pass it lightly over again; and again moistening it, put in more clouds, and darken them more and more, with umber and Cologne earth, before it is dry; always imitating the life, and sweetening your work, by blending and insensibly mixing the colours after they are laid, so that it cannot be perceiv'd where they begin or end.

5. If the clouds are not dark enough, repeat the clouding and varnishing once more, as you shall see occasion; when the work is well dry'd, glaze it over two or three times with brown pink, with a small tincture of verdigrease in it: or you may varnish it with a fine seed-lac varnish, and then finish it, as before.



Another tortoise-shell Japan.

First lay a white ground, as before taught: then, with proper colours, as vermilion, auripigment, &c. duly mix'd with common or turpentine varnish, streak and cloud, or shadow the white ground, with any irregular fancy at pleasure, imitating tortoise-shell as much as you can.

2. Let it stand to be thorough dry, and then strike it here and there with the reddish yellow varnish, mix'd with a little cinnabar or Indian lake, clouding the work up and down as nature requires, and touching it also up with varnish, mix'd with lamp or ivory-black.

3. Having done this, varnish it 5 or 6 times over with the finest white varnish, or the universal varnish, or with the finer seed-lac varnish, letting it stand to dry between every time.



Another tortoise-shell Japan.

1. Lay a white ground as before, and smear it over with vermilion, or some luch like, over which lay leaves of gold or silver, as before taught, with gum ammomacum, lacca, varnish, common varnish, size or glair.

2. Having done this, and it being thoroughly dry, shadow, cloud and stain it, according to some of the former directions, and in imitation of nature; striking it over here and there with yellow varnish, or reddish yellow varnish, and red varnish mix'd with yellow varnish in perfect imitation of the shell.

3. And lastly, then strike it 6 or 8 times over, either with the best white varnish, or with the fine seed-lac varnish, letting it stand to dry between every time; then let it stand to dry for a week, then polish and clear it as before.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Chestnut-coloured Japan. Olive-coloured Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
1. Take Indian Red, or Brow red oker, (which you please) grind them with Ising-glass, or parchment size, upon a Porphyry stone, till they are as and as fine as butter, then mix a little white Lead, which grind strongly, and lastly lamp-black in a due proportion, stirring, and mixing them well together.

2. If the mixture is too bright, darken it with lamp-black: if too dark, heighten it with white lead, varying the proportion till you have brought it to the colour you would have it: for what the colour is while it is wet, it will be exactly the same when it is varnished; tho' drying without varnish, it would look otherwise.

3. Take thick seed-lac varnish 6 ounces, of the former prepar'd colour, what quantity you please; mix them in a gallyport over a gentle fire for use.



Another Chestnut Japan.

1. Take thicksed-lac varnish, and mix it with the same colours as you did the size, lightening it with the white lead, if too dark, and darkening it with lamp-black, if too light, till you have brought it to be of the colour you would have it. This mixture will be much better with the seed-lac varnish.

2. The colours being thus mix'd, if you use the size mixture, put some of it in a gally-pot over a gentle fire to melt it, or give it a fit temper not too thick, nor too thin; then, with a hog s hairbrush, wash therewith your Piece smoothly over, and let it dry, which repeat so often, till your colour lies full and fair.

3. When it is thoroughly dry, rush it smooth; but not close to the wood, and so lec it rest a day or two: arid then wash it with seed-lac varnish 3 or 4 times, letting it stand to be thoroughly dry.

4. Or you may begin, or lay your ground-work, with the thickseed-lac varnish, going over the work as with the size mixture: afterwards, having let it stand to dry, and rush'd it, you may go over it 3 or 4 times again, with the seed-lac varnish alone, letting it dry as before.

5. When you have done this; either with the size-mixture, or the varnish-mixture, and they are grown thoroughly dry, then varnish it again up to a body, with fine white varnish, till it is fit to be polish'd; which perform with fine tripoli, and a rag and water, and then clear it with lamp-black and oil.



Olive-coloured Japan.

Take ising-glass, or parchment size, (see SIZE) what quantity you please; English pink, in fine powder, a sufficient quantity; grind them together, till they are of the consistence of butter: then mix it with lamp-black and white lead in a due proportion, which you may find by nuking several trials; adding white lead, if it be too dark, and lamp-black, if it be too light.

If it be too green, help it with a little raw umber ground very fine, for this will take away the greenness.


Another Olive-coloured Japan.

Take thick feed-lac varnish, 6 ounces; English pink in fine powder, mix'd with lamp-black, and white lead in due proportion, a sufficient quantity. If it be too light, help it with lamp-black; if toodark, with white lead; and if too green, wich umber ground fine. This is the best of the two, with either of these varnish over your piece, according to the rules prescrib'd for other colours, polishing and cleansing it as before directed.

Where you are to take notice,
1. That no colours laid in size, will endure so strong a polish as those in varnish; but are more subject to be rubb'd off.
2. That the finishing varnish must be the best white varnish that the colours may nor tarnish.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Lapis Lazuli Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
1. Take Ising-glass size, or thick seed-lac varnish, and mix it with spodium, or white lead; and with this varnish your work 3 or 4 times over, laying it for a ground-work, letting it dry between each time.

2. Let it stand 2 or 3 days to be thoroughly dry, and then rush it, till it is very smooth, setting it by 2 or 3 days more after the rushing.

3. Then take thick seed-lac varnish at pleasure, mix it with fine pure blue smalt, with which varnish over your work 5 or 6 times, letting it dry between each time, then let it stand by for 2 days and rush it again.

4. When it has been rush'd smooth, varnish it twice over, once with the best white varnisb, and set it by to dry for 2 days more, then mix pure Ultramarine, or fine blue smalt, with the best white varnish, with which varnish it 6 or 7 times, till it comes to a full body, and a perfect likeness, letting it stand to dry between each varnishing.

5. At the last time of varnishing with the blue varnish, run all your work over stragglingly in wild, irregular streaks (in resemblance of nature) with liquid or shell Gold, filling the blue as you see occasion, and adding very small specks up and down, and such other various colours, as are usual to be seen upon the stone.

6. When this has been done, and the work is grown thoroughly dry, varnish it 3 or 4 times over with the best white varnish, letting it stand to dry between each time; afterwards let it stand 2 or 3 days, and then polish it with Tripoli, and clear it with lamp-black and oil.

7. You are to take notice of this, that by these methods you may make and use any colour you can fancy, or which reason and experience shall direct you to; but withall, that all colours that are light, and apt to tarnish and lose their beauty or gloss, with seed-lac varnish, must be covered and finish'd with the best white varnish, that of seed lac being prejudicial.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Blue Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
1. Take gum water, what quantity you please, and of white lead a sufficient quantity, grind them well upon a marble, take Ising-glass size, what quantity you please, and of the finest and best smalt a sufficient quantity; mix them well together, then add to them of the white lead ground (as before) to much as will give it a sufficient body, mix all together to the consistence of a paint.

2. Do your work over with this mixture 3 or 4 times, till you perceive the blue to lie with a good and fair body, letting it dry thoroughly between each time; if your blue is too pale, put more malt among your size, without any white lead.

3. Then rush it over smooth, and go over it again with a stronger blue, and when it is thoroughly dry, wash it 3 times over with the clearest ising-glass size alone; and let it stand for 2 days to dry, covering it.

4. Then warm your work gently at the fire, and with a pencil varnish your work over with the finest white varnish, repeating'it 7 or 8 times, letting it stand to dry 2 days, as before. After which, repeat again the third time the washes 7 or 8 times in like manner.

5. Let it now stand to dry for a Week, and then polish it as before directed, and clear it up with lamp-black and oil, to give it a polite and glossy appearance.

6. As to the colour, you must be guided by your reason and fancy, whether you will have it light or deep; for a small proportion of the lead makes it deep; a greater, light.
Also the size for laying whites, blues, or any other colour, ought not to be too strong, rather weaker, and just sufficient to bind the colours, and 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 tarpishing the colours; and in this case it ought to be of a strong and full body.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. Red Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Red Japan.
1. Take ising-glass size, or rather the thickest seed-lac varnish (as some advise, because it will not then break off in polishing, as that mix'd with size commonly does, besides it better helps to bear the body of varnish, which must afterwards be laid over it) as much as you please, fine pure vermilion a sufficient quantity, as discretion shall direct.
2. Warm your work by the fire, and with a brush varnish it with the former mixture, doing it over 4 times, and letting it dry between every time; after which, rush it smooth.
3. This being done, wash it over & times with ordinary seed-lac varnish and set it by for 12 hours and then rush it again but flightly, to make it look smooth.
4. And lastly, for an exquisite outward covering, wash it 10 times with the best seed-lac varnish; let it lie 7 days to dry, and then polish it with Tripoli, and clear it up with oil and lamp black.

Deeper or dark red Japan.
First lay on your common red, (as before directed) then take thick seed-lac varnish, what quantity you please, and fine sanguis draconis in fine powder, a sufficient quantity, mix it by little and linle with the varnish, and a very small matter of it will extremely heighten your colour, and every wash will render it deeper.
When the colour is almost as you design, forbear the using any more of the sanguis draconis because the after-layings, ot the feed-lac varnish will heighten it.
Then consider how many varnishings are still to be laid on, and accordingly use your sanguis draconis, finishing the work, as is directed in the former common red Japan.

A pale red Japan.
Use the following pale red Japan varnish.
Take vermilion, what quantity you please, mix it with so much white lead as to make it ot the degree of paleness you would have it, or rather paler, because the varnish will heighten it; mix this with seed-lac varnish, and wash your work over with it several times, letting it dry between every time, and proceed as you did before as to the common red varnish.
Where take notice, that in making this mixture, you must consider how many times you are to varnish after your red is laid on; for if there be many, then know, that they will increase and heighten the colour, for which reason you must make your colour os a degree ot paleness accordingly.

Dictionarium polygraphicum. White Japan.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
1. In doing this, great care must be taken that nothing may come near that will foul or soil it. In the first place, lay the ground with ising-glass size, (see ISING-GLASS and SIZE) mixc with as much Whiting scrap'd into it as will make it of a reasonable thickness, or so long, till that by a stroke your pencil being dipt into it, will whiten the Plain of your work; but let it be neither too thick nor too thin; let the whiting be well mix'd with your size, with your Hogs. Hair Brush.

2. Whiten your work once over with it, and when it is thoroughly dry, do it over again; and when dry, repeat it the third time, after which let it stand to dry for 12 or 24 Hours, covering it from dust.

3. Then with some Dutch rushes, let it be rush'd as near the grain of the Wood as you see fitting.

4. Take fresh ising-glass size what quantity you please, and flake white so much as will make the size be or a fair body, mix them well together, and with this go over your work 3 several times, letting it be thoroughly dry between each time, and af terwards rush it very smooth.

5. Then take white starch boil'd in fair water, till it is some what thick, and with it, almost blood-warm, wash over the whole work twice, letting it dry between each time, and so let it stand for a Day or two.

6. It being first wash'd with rectified spirit of wine, to clear it from the dust, dip a pure clean pencil into the finest white varnish, (sie WHITE VARNISH) and do over the work 6 or 7 times; and 2 days after, varnish it over again the same number of times; if this be well done, it will give it a finer gloss than if it were polish 'd; but if it be not cleanlily and nicely done, polishing will then be necessary, for which reason you must give it 5 or 6 varnishings more.

7. If this last is well done, it will not stand in need of polishing, and then 2 washes more will do: but if it requires polishing, you must give it 3, and allow it a week's time to dry in, before you begin to polish.

8. In Polishing you must make use of the finest Tripoli and rags, not too wet nor too dry, with a light and gentle hand, and in clearing (instead of lamp.black and oil) you must use putty and oil, and conclude with white starch mix'd with oil, to finish it.

9. But there are some persons, who wholly reject this work with size, liking that only which is perform'd with varnish, and therefore such may, if they please, use the White Japan Varnishes (see WHITE JAPAN VARNISH) exactly according to the method laid down for the black; and this will not be so ready to crack or peel off.