XLIII. To render silk stuffs transparent, after the Chinese manner; and paint them with transparent colors likewise, in imitation of the India manufactured silks.XLIV. To make a transparent blue hue, for the above purpose.XLV. To make a transparent yellow hue, for the same use.XLVI. To make a transparent green.XLVII. To give the aforementioned painted silks, all the smell, and fragrancy, of the India ones.

Valuable Secrets concerning Arts and Trades:
or Approved Directions, from the best Artists, for the Various Methods...
Printed by Thomas Hubbard,
Norwich, 1795Chap. III. Secrets for the composition of Varnishes, &c.

XLIII. To render silk stuffs transparent, after the Chinese manner; and paint them with transparent colors likewise, in imitation of the India manufactured silks.

Take two pounds of oil of turpentine, very clear; add to it two ounces of mastich in grain, and the bulk of a filbert of camphire. Let this dissolve by a gentle heat; then strain it through a cloth. Of this oil lay one coat, or two, on both sides of your stuff. Allow, however, a sufficient time, between each coat, for each to dry, and let the second lie two days on, before you touch the stuff again. When that time is over, draw the outlines of your design, and flowers, &c; cover this with a preparation of lamp-black and gum-water. Then fill the intervals with the intended and proper colours, suitable to the purpose, and which ought to be all transparent colours, diluted with a clear varnish. When this is done, and dry, lay on both the right and wrong sides of the stuff another coat of clear varnish.


XLIV. To make a transparent blue hue, for the above purpose.

Take nine drachms of ammoniac salt; six of verdigrise, distilled and exsiccated. Put both these into powder. Dilute these powders with tortoise oil. Put this on a very thick glass, which you stop well and set over hot ashes for a week. After that time your colour will be fit for use, and make your drawings with the clear varnish, as directed in the preceding article.


XLV. To make a transparent yellow hue, for the same use.

Take a new-laid egg of that very day, make a hole in the shell, to draw the white out of it. Replace, by the same hole, with the yolk, two drachms of quick silver, and as much of ammoniac salt; then stop the hole with wax. Set that egg in hot dung, or over a lamp fire, for four or five and twenty days. When that time is over, break the egg, and you will find a very fine transparent yellow, fit for the use above mentioned.


XLVI. To make a transparent green.

Take verdigrise, gold litharge, and quicksilver, equal parts. Grind the whole in a mortar, with the urine of a child. Put it next into a bottle, and set it over a gentle and slow fire, for the space of seven, or eight, days. This composition will give a very fine transparent green, for the above purpose.

Note. We have given, in the Sixth Chapter, several receipts for the composition of sundry transparent colours. We shall therefore take the liberty thither to refer the reader, for more ample satisfaction, and the completion of the above mentioned operation.


XLVII. To give the aforementioned painted silks, all the smell, and fragrancy, of the India ones.

It is well known, that the silks, and other things, we receive from India, are all tainted with a certain particular smell, and agreeable fragrancy, which, being their peculiar, distinctivee, and most obvious character, if not imitated also, would help not a little in ruining the deception intended by the above labor. To imitate, therefore, even this, you must observe the following direction. - Have a small closet, if it be for works at large; or, only a fine basket with a top to it playing upon hinges, stuffed and lined all over in the inside, if it be for one single piece of silk. Put, in either of them, and according to their extent, a proportionable quantity of cloves, whole pepper, mace, nutmeg all-spice, at your works among these ingredients, and keep eitger the closet, or the basket, perfectly close shut, till you see they have received a full impression from the odour of those ingredients.

N. B. With the various compositions of varnishes, and preparations of colours, we have just given, there is almost no sort of works, coming from the Indies, but can be performed and imitated.