Secrets for the Composition of Varnishes, etc.

Main Title, Index and Introduction

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I.  A gold varnish.
    Take karabe, or amber, eight ounces, and two of gum-lac.  Melt first the karabe, in a varnished earthen pot, or in the retort of and alembic, over a very strong fire.  When this is melted, throw in the gum-lac, and let this melt in the same manner.  Then take some of the fire off, and let it cool; observing with a stick, whether the matter has got all its fluidity.  Mix in it six or eight ounces of turpentine oil.  Keep stirring, in order to incorporate well this oil with the rest.  Add also a spoonful of lintseed oil, prepared with hepatica-aloes, which, in order to reduce to the thickness of a syrup, mix with a sufficient quantity of oil of turpentine, tinged with rocou.

II.  How to prepare the lintseed oil with the hepatica-aloea, for the above purpose.
    Prepare the lintseed oil with hepatica-aloes, by mixing four ounces of this in powder, with one pound of the said oil, over the fire. till it has acquired the consistence of a very thick syrup, and you see your oil beginning to scum, and to swell much.  Then pass it through a piece of linen, let it cool, and bottle it, to keep for the above mentioned use.

III.  To draw the tincture of rocou, used in the composition of the above varnish.
    In order to draw the tincture of rocou, put four ounces of it in oil of turpentine.  Set this over a gentle fire, in the retort of an alembic, and, as soon as the oil begins to boil, take it from the fire, stir well with a stick, and filter it through a paper, to use it as directed before.

IV.  A varnish for icing.
    Concoct some turpentine with water and white wine, or brandy,  When concocted, dissolve it in wine and oil of turpentine.

V.  An excellent varnish.
    Take what quantity you please of verdigrease, grind it with it with vinegar, put in a piece of dough, as you would an apple to make a dumpling.  Bake it in an oven as bread; then cut open your dumpling, and get the verdigrease out of it.  Mix it with wine, and use it.  Lay over it a coat of four ounces of gum arabic, then polish as usual.  You will find it will find it will answer your expectation, and be a very fine varnish.

VI.  For colouring and preserving gates, poles, barns, etc.
    Melt twelve ounces of rosin into an iron pot of kettle:  add three gallons of train oil, and three or four rolls of brimstone.  When the rosin and brimstone are melted and become thin, add as much Spanish brown, or red or yellow oker (or any other colour you want, ground fine, as usual with oil,) as will give the whole as deep a shade as you like.  Then lay it on a brush as hot and as thin as you can.  Some days after the first coat is dried, give it a second.  It is well attested that this will preserve plank for ages.

VII.  A red varnish.
    1.  Take three ounces of gum lac, half an ounce of sandarak, as much of mastich in drop, and a pint of French spirit of wine.  Put all in a matrass, which you must take care to lute well with potter's clay, and stop with paper.  Have a large iron kettle, two parts of which shall be filled with sand.  Place the kettle over the coals, and lay the matrass on the sand.-- Get the composition to boil in that situation for three hours.  Strain it through a sheercloth, bottle and stop it well, and keep it for use.
    2.  To make this varnish red, you put one ounce of vermilion to six of the said varnish.  But to dilute the vermilion, you must begin by pouring, first, some oil of aspic over it, and then the six ounces of varnish, which will take near a quarter of an hour to mix well together.
    3.  Observe that the wood on which you want to lay it, has been first well polished.  Rub it again besides with a pounce stone and vinegar, that all the pores may be well filled, and should appear no more.  Then lay with a brush, first a coat of simple varnish, without vermilion.  Let this dry; put on next your second coat, of that which is prepared with the vermilion; then a third and a fourth, according as you want it of a more or less deep red.

VIII.  A black varnish.
    1.  Take gum-lac, four ounces; sandarak and black rosin, equal quantities, one ounce of each.  Pulverise all separately, and keep them distinct, to proceed afterwards in their mixture according to the following directions.  Dissolve the rosin over the fire in a sufficient quantity of spirit of wine, then add the sandarak to it.  As soon as this is also dissolved, add the powder of gum-lac, and stir well till all is melted together.-- Strain it, while warm, through a cloth.  If any thing remain in the linen afterwards, add some more spirit of wine, to dissolve it as before, and strain it again.
    2.  The black colour is given to it by means of two drachms only of ivory black to every two ounces.

IX.  To make ivory black for the above purpose.
    Burn any quantity of ivory as you please in the fire till it is black.  Put it into powder on a stone of porphyry.  Add some water to it, and make a paste, which you let dry.  Then grind it again, as before, with spirit of wine.

X.  A varnish for floors.
    Put a little petroly or rock oil with varnish and turpentine, and stir well.  Lay it on your floors with an old hair broom, after having mixed in it the colour you want them to be.

XI.  A varnish from Flanders.
    Take aethereal oil of turpentine, and Venice turpentine, equal parts.  Mix them over a moderate fire, and use this boiling.

XII.  A varnish to lay on canvas sashes.
    Take fine and clear turpentine, four ounces; oil of nuts, two.  Melt all together over a fire, and when it begins to boil, scum it, and use it hot with a brush.

XIII.  A varnish of shell lac for pictures.
    1.  Take spirit of wine, one pound; pickled shell lack, five ounces; sandarak, two and a half; white karabe and mastich, equal parts, two drachms of each.
    2.  First boil and skim the shell-lac and sandarak together, to have them the whiter.  Then add the mastich and karabe to that, and put all in a matrass over a sand fire, to digest and concoct together by a gentle heat.

XIV.  Another varnish for pictures.
    Take four ounces of gum arabic, the clearest and whitest you can find.  Put it to infuse in a pound of water, over ember ashes, for one night.  Strain it in the morning through a cloth, having added the bulk of a nut of Narbonne-honey, and half that quantity of sugar candy.  It is not to be used with a brush.

XV.  Another sort.
    Take aquavitae, sugar-candy, and white of eggs, a reasonable quantity of each.  Beat all well together to a froth.  Underneath is a liquor, that is your varnish.  You may lay it with a soft brush on any sort of picture.

XVI.  The Chinese varnish.
    1.  Take pulverised and sifted sealing wax, two ounces.  Put it in a matrass, with four ounces of turpentine oil.  Give a gentle fire that all may melt.  If the wax be red, you need add nothing but the oil.  If black, some lamp black is requisite to be added still.  And with this first composition, you lay on the first coat.
    2.  Next to this have aloes and karabe, of each two ounces.  Dissolve this in a varnished pipkin, along with twelve ounces of lintseed oil, till all is well incorporated.  There will fall a ground to the bottom, over which will swim a very fine and transparent liquor.  Of this you are to make your second coat of varnish, laying it over the other after it is dry.

XVII.  To imitate jasper, or variegated black marble.
    Take sulphur-vivum, quick lime, aquafortis, and the green rind of walnuts, one ounce of each.  Dilute all together, then lay it with a brush on what you want to be jaspered, whether a column, a table, or any thing else.  This done, put your table or column, etc. thus blackened, in a dunghill for the space of twelve days, and then take it out again, you will find it will veined and variegated.  To give it a fine gloss, rub it with a varnish composed as prescribed hereafter.  See Art. XIX.

XVIII.  Another way.
    Make a large ball, with the drugs prescribed in the above receipt, to compose your black.  Lay it for a week in a dunghill.  When by that means it is well variegated, rub your intended piece of furniture with it.

XIX.  An excellent varnish to give a fine gloss to jasper, or variegated black marble.
    Take oil of spikenard, three ounces; sandarak, well picked and clean, two.  Have a new earthen pot well glazed.  Set it before the fire a warming, without any thing in it.  When hot, throw in it one half of he sandarak, and one half of the oil.  Stir it well, lest it should burn, or stick to the pot.-- When it is nearly melted, throw in the remainder of the oil and sandarak.  When all is well dissolved and mixed, add a piece of camphire, to take away the smell of this composition, and let it dissolve; then bottle and stop it for use.  It requires to be used hot.

XX.  A varnish which dries in two hours time.
    Melt four ounces of yellow amber, in a new earthen pan, over kindled coals. Take care, in that operation, that the first should but just reach and touch the bottom of the pan, and none should rise along the sides.  Never cease to stir, from the moment it is melted, with a deal stick, add directly one ounce of sealing wax.  As soon as this is also melted, add half an ounce of lintseed oil, previously thickened with a little gold litharge, then take it off from the fire, and stir it as before.-- When the matter begins to be a little cold, then is the time of adding what quantity of turpentine oil you find necessary.

XXI.  A varnish for copperplate prints.
    Prepare water with some isinglass.  Lay, with a very soft brush, a coat of this on the print.  Next to this, lay another of the following varnish-- True French spirit of wine, half a pound; gum elemi, two drachms, and sandarak,  three.

XXII.  An admirable varnish.
    Take white mastich and lintseed oil, what quantity you please; a little turpentine, pounded glass, burnt verdigrease and pounded amber.  Boil and melt all together in a new earthen pot.  When done you will find it to be an admirable varnish.

XXIII.  A varnish fit to lay on all sorts of colours.
    Take one ounce of white amber, half an ounce of spirit of turpentine, four ounces of rectified spirit of wine, (the true French sort) one drachm of mastich, and as much of juniper gum.  Put all together to infuse for eight days.  Evaporate two parts of it over a gentle fire.  What remains is a varnish fit for laying on all sorts of colours, and which will hurt, spoil or damage none.

XXIV.  A varnish known under the appellation of Beaumeblanc, or white balm.
    Take spirit of wine, four ounces; gum lac, half and ounce; sandarak, two drachms; mastich, one.  Pulverise the ingredients, and put them, with the spirit of wine, in a square bottle, large enough to be but half full, after the whole is in it.--Dissolve this over a slow fire, and take care the bottle be well stopped.

XXV.  A varnish to be used on plaister, and any sort of materials.
    To the varnish of copal and spirit of wine, only add some calcined talc.

XXVI.  An excellent varnish, in which may be put, and diluted, whatever colour you like.-- It suits equally well goldsmiths and limmers.
    Take aspic and turpentine oils, of each one ounce; clean picked sandarak pulverised, four drachms; gum copal, two.  The whole being well pulverised, put it along with your oils in a matrass, with the addition of half a pound of spirit of wine; and set it in a balneo mariae.  When the matter is disolved, strain and keep it for use, in a glass bottle well stopped.

XXVII.  A Chinese varnish suitable to all the sorts of colours.
    1.  Take one ounce of white amber, one quarter of an ounce of sandarak, as much of gum copal.  Pound these together, and put them in a matrass, perfectly dry.  To every ounce pounded and mixed this together, put three ounces of spirit of wine.  Stop well the matrass with a rag, some paste made with flour, and then another rag well tied over.  Boil the varnish thus, over ember ashes, till the whole is dissolved: apply it as follows:
    2.  The piece intended for varnishing being previously well polished, you lay on it the proposed colour of colours, diluted in aqua vitae, with some isinglass.  When these are dry, pass on them two or three coats, according to discretion; allowing proper time between each coat of varnish to dry; and, when dry, polish it with olive oil and tripoly, then rub the oil with a rag.
    Note.  If you intend this varnish for miniature pictures, you are to make an addition of equal parts of gum copal and white amber.

XXVIII.  Chinese varnish, particularly calculated for miniature painting.
    Take one ounce of white karabe, or amber; and one drachm of camphire, reduced into a subtile powder, and put in a matrass, with five ounces of spirit of wine.  Set it in the sun to infuse, during the hottest days, stir it two or three time a day.  After a fortnight's infusing this, put the matrass, for one hour, over hot ashes;  then pass all through a cloth, and keep it in a bottle well corked.

XXIX.  How to make a red with varnish, of a much higher hue than coral itself.
   Take Spanish vermilion, grind it on a marble with brandy, and add to it the sixth or eighth part of lac.  When done, mix this composition with as much varnish as you may find it requisite to apply.

XXX.  To make it gridelin colour.
    Dilute with your varnish some blue verditure, lake, and whitening.

XXXI.  To make it green.
    Substitute for the above ingredients, German green verditure, pewter in grain, and white lead.

XXXII.  Another way for the same.
    Grind, with water, on a marble stone, the finest opine you can find, and a little indigo.  Let it dry, then pound and mix it with varnish.

XXXIII.  To make it yellow.
    Take some Naples yellow, and mix it well with your varnish; then use it.

XXXIV.  To make it blue.
    Take ultramarine, lake, and whitening, and proceed as ordered in the other receipts abovementioned.

XXXV.  Another sort of varnish.
    Take shell-lac in grains, two ounces; tow of sandarak; black rosin, tow drachms; and spirit of wine, one quarter.  Dissolve and prepare the whole as above.

XXXVI.  A transparent varnish fit for all sorts of colours.
    Take oil of nuts, and a little of the finest Venice turpentine.  Boil then together.  Add a little brandy to it, and boil it also.  Should the varnish prove too thick, thin it with and additional quantity of oil.  Make use of a very soft brush, and lay it carefully over the colours.

XXXII.  To make sashes with cloth which will be very transparent.
    Take fine white cloth; the finer, the more transparent the sashes will be.  Fix the cloth very tight on a frame.  Then make some starch with flour of rice, and lay a coat of it, as smooth as you can, on both sides your cloth, with a stiff brush; let it dry.  Then the following varnish, with a soft brush, having care to lay it on as equally as possible.

XXXIII.  The varnish fit for the above sashes.
    1.  Take of the finest and whitest wax you can find, six pounds; of the finest and clearest Venice turpentine, two; one and a half of the most perfect lintseed oil.  Have a new and varnished pipkin, larger, at least by one third, than is requisite to contain all these ingredients.  Put first, in this pot, the lintseed and turpentine oils together, and set it over a small charcoal fire.
    When this begins to be a little warm, put in the wax, cut in small bits, and take care to mix all well with a clean stick, till the wax is thoroughly incorporated with the rest.
    2.  Now take the pot off from the fire, and, while this composition is still a little warm, give a coat of it on both sides, prepared as before directed, and let it dry in the shade.
    Note.  You may render your sashes still more transparent, if, on both sides of them, you lay a smooth coat of the following varnish, with a soft brush.

XXXIX.  A fine white varnish.
    Take one pound of fine Venice turpentine, and as much of spirit of turpentine.  Put this in a glass matrass, larger, at least by a third than is wanted to contain the matter.  Stop this matrass with another smaller matrass.  The neck of which is to enter into that of the former.  Have care to lute well both necks together, with paste and paper; and when the luting has acquired a perfect dryness, set the first matrass on a sand bath, then set the varnish a-boiling for near an hour, after which take it off from the fire, and let it cool.  When cold, bottle and stop it for use.
    Note.  Turpentine well purified from all its greasy parts, is the best and fittest to make the varnish for sashes.

XL.  A varnish to prevent the rays of the sun from passing through the panes of window glasses.
    Pound gum adragant into powder, and put it to dissolve, for twenty-four hours, in whites of eggs, well beater.  Lay a coat of this on the panes of your windows, with a soft brush, and let it dry.

XLI.  To raise a relief on varnish.
    1.  Dissolve one ounce and a half of gum arabic in two pounds of water.  Grind with it bol armeniac and whitening, on a porphyry stone, till all is well united and incorporated.-- With this composition fill up the vacancies between the outlines of your design, and form, as it is proper, the various reliefs, with the suitable proportions, and according to the sorts of things you are to imitate of represent.  Then smooth the parts, and let it dry.
    2.  Next have ready prepared, in shells, the different sorts of metals which you want to use, diluted with gum-water; and, with a pencil, cover what places you are to cover.  When this is also dry, burnish it skillfully with an ivory tooth, and lay a coat of clear varnish over the whole.  A moderate heat is required for a moment, to help that varnish dry.

XLII.  To render silk stuff's transparent, after the Chinese manner; and paint them with transparent colours 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 his oil lay one coat, or two, on both sides of you 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, etc. cover this with a preparation of lampblack 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 the wrong sides of the stuff another coat of clear varnish.

XLIII.  To make a transparent blue hue, for the above purpose.
    Take none drachms of ammoniac salt; six of verdigrease, distilled and exficcated.  Put both these into powder.  Dilute these powders with tortoise oil.  Put this on a very thick glass, which 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.

XLIV.  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 quicksilver, 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 abovementioned.

XLV.  To make a transparent green.
    Take verdigrease, 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, the for 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 abovementioned operation.

XLVI.  To give the above mentioned 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, distinctive, and most obvious character, if not imitated also, would help not a little in ruining the deception intended by the above labour.  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, camphire, etc. etc.  Put your works among those ingredients, and keep either the closet or the  basket perfectly close shut, till you see they have received a full impression of 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.

XLVII. The true receipt of the English varnish, such as is laid on sticks and artificial made canes.
    Smoother and polish well your sticks; then rub them. or your artificial made canes, with a paste made of flour.  Then having diluted in water a discretional quantity of Flemish glue and red orpine, give one coat of this, very smooth and equal, to your sticks.  If, after this is dry, you do not think it sufficient, give them another, and let them dry.  Then, give them a third coat of clear varnish, mad with turpentine and spirit of wine.  After this is done, put a-soaking, in an equal quantity of water and chamber-lye, some turnsol, cut very small.  With this colour you touch your sticks, or canes, here and there, with a hair brush.  Then holding them perpendicular, on their small ends, between both your hands, you roll them quick and brisk, (as when you mill chocolate) in contrary senses.  This operation gives them a negligent and natural like marbling, over which you are to lay another coat of varnish, and set them to dry.

XLVIII.  A fine varnish for all sorts of colours.
    1.  Take two pounds of double rectified spirit of wine; seed lac, four ounces; sandarak, as much; com copal, one.  Set all a dissolving on hot ashes, in a matrass, or a vessel with a long neck.  When perfectly dissolved, strain it through a jelly bag, made of new cloth.  Mix with that which shall have strained out of the bag, one spoonful of oil of turpentine; then bottle and stop it well, and set it in the sun.  There will happen a separation, and a certain coarser part will shew itself at the bottom, while another more clear will appear swimming on the top.  Divide carefully, by inclination, the clearest from the thickest part.
    2.  This last you may use with fine lampblack, well picked, and free from all sorts of hard knows, to make a black colour varnish.  With it you rub whatever you want to be varnished, and lay one, two, or three coats of it, more of less, according as you think proper, letting it dry between each coat.  And, when this is done, you put of the first separated clear part of you varnish, as much as you find requisite to give your work a fine lustre.
    N. B. It is proper there should be some fire so near to the work, as it may receive from it some gentle heat while all this is performing; and when the whole is well executed, you must let dry in the shade what is varnished, and guard it against the dust.
    3.  If, instead of black, you want a red colour, you must, from the very beginning of the operation, join some tacamahaca gum with the spirit of wine of double rectification abovementioned; and, in lieu of lampblack, in the second part of the operation, you put some cinnabar in powder.  Then when you have done with the laying the several coats of varnish, on which the cinnabar is, you put in the clear varnish, which is destined to make the last coats, for lustring, some dragon's blood in tears.
    4.  You may put, in the same manner, whitening in your varnish, if you want it white; or verdigrease, if you want if green; and so on any other colour you want to to be, proceeding, in respect to each of them, as before directed for the others.
    N. B. These varnishes when dry, do all require to be polished.  For that purpose, take a cloth, dip it in tripoly, and rub, with moderation, over the last coat of varnish, till you find it has acquired a sufficient degree of lustre and equality.

XLIX.  A varnish to lay on, after the isinglass.
    Take spirit of wine, four pounds; white amber, fourteen ounces; mastich, one; Sandarak, seven.  Put all in digestion for twenty-four hours.  Then, set the matrass on the sand, and give the fire for three hour, till all is perfectly dissolved.  Add after four ounces of turpentine oil.

L.  A varnish to gild with, without gold.
    Take half a pint of spirit of wine, in which dissolve one dachm of saffron, and half a drachm of dragon's blood, both previously well pulverised together.  Add this to a certain quantity of shell-lac varnish, and set it on the fire, with tow drachms of soccotrine aloes.

LI.  A varnish water-proof.
    1.  Take lintseed oil, the purest you can find, put it in a well glazed pipkin, over red hot charcoals, in a chafing dish.  With that oil, add, while a warming, about the fourth part of its weight of rosin.  Make all dissolve together, and boil gently, lest it should run over the pot.  At first the oil will turn all into a scum; but continuing to let it boil, that scum will insensible waste itself, and disappear at last.  Keep up the fire till taking a little of that oil with a stick, you see it draw to a thread, like as varnish does.  Then take it off from the fire.  But if, trying it this, it prove to thin, add some more rosin to it, and continue to boil it.
    2.  When it is come as it ought to be, varnish whatever you want with it, and set it in the sun to dry, or before the fire, for it cannot dry without the assistance of either of these.
    N. B. This composition of varnish has this particular property, viz. that if you lay it on wooden wares, hot water itself cannot hurt it, nor have the least power on it.  You may, therefore, make a very extensive use of it,  But you must take care to choose the finest and most perfect rosin, and to boil it well for a long time.
    Quere.  Would no such a varnish be extremely useful to preserve what is much exposed to the injuries of the weather, in gardens, and elsewhere, such as sashes, statues, frames, hothouses, etc.

LII.  Callot's varnish, mentioned in Chap. I p. 5.
    1.  Take tow ounces of the finest lintseed oil; benjamin, in drops, tow drachms; virgin wax, the bulk of a filbert.  Boil all this together, till it is reduced to one third; and, while it is a boiling, never cease to stir with a little stick.  When done, bottle, or put it in a large mouthed vessel.
      To use that varnish, warm a little the plate you intent to engrave upon; and taking a little of the varnish with the tip of your finger, spread it delicately over the plate.  Observe to put as little of it as you can, and to lay it on as smooth and equal as possible.  When done, smoke the plate on the varnished side, with a candle, passing and repassing it gently over the flame of it, till it is black every where.  Set it again, now, on the chafing-dish, wherein there are kindled charcoals; and when the plate has done fuming, then the varnish is sufficiently hardened.  You may then chalk, draw and etch, whatever you will on it.
    Such is the true receipt of the varnish, which the famous Callot made use of to engrave is most admired and truly admirable subjects.

LIII.  A varnish to lay on papier.
    Begin by laying on your paper one first coat of very clear and thin size.  This being dry, melt three parts of oil of spike and one of rosin together; and, when come to the consistence of a varnish, you lay one second and light coat of this over the first make with size.  This varnish is very fine, when very smoothly and equally laid on.

LIV.  Another varnish.
    Take mastich and sandarak, equal parts of each two ounces.  Pound them into a fine powder.  Have three ounces of lintseed oil, and as much of spirit of wine, in which, being mixed, you put your powders.  Set this in a well stopped matrass, in a balneo mariea, to boil and concoct together for one hour; and this varnish is done.

LV.  L'Abbe Mulot's varnish.
    Take of spike oil, one ounce, pulverised sandarak, half an ounce.  Put all in a bottle, and set it in the sun till perfectly dissolved.  This composition is particularly fit to varnish gold or silver, in shell, which has been laid with hair pencil.

LVI.  A varnish to lay over plaister works, of figures.
    Take fine white Alicante soap, rasp it fine, and put it in a glazed pipkin.  Dissolve that soap, in the pipkin, with your finger and a little water, added gradually, and little at a time, till it comes thick and milky.  Cover this, for fear dust should come to it, and let it rest so for seven or eight days.  Take, next, a soft and short hairy brush, dip it in this soapy preparation, and wash the plaister figure all over with it, then set it  a drying.  When dry, rub it gently with a piece of cloth, placing yourself between it and the light, that you may perceive better the places which take the polish; when done this every where, your statue will appear as white, shiny, and beautiful, as alabaster.

LVII.  A very fine red varnish.
    1.  Take oil of spike, one pound, and litharg as much.  Boil both together, for one quarter of an hour, in order to clairfy the oil, or, what is called, ungreasing it.  When this clairfied, take one pound of it, and six ounces of shell-lack, which melt together in a matrass, or a varnished pipkin.  Then, dilute it in some cinnabar, which had previously been grinded on a stone with, chamber-lye, and the varnish is done.
    2.  Of this composition, lay first three of four coats on your work, and allow time sufficient, between each coat, to dry, when the last is given, lay on another of pure and clear varnish, without cinnabar, made with one part spirit of wine, and four of oil of spike, and some shell lac.

LVIII.  A varnish to gild certain parts of stamped leathers, silvered in some places with pewter leaves, and otherwise adorned with running stalks of flowers, various colours, figures, and other sorts of embellishments.
    1.  Take lintseed oil, three pounds; of that sort of varnish called Atabian sandarak, and rough pitch, equal quantities, one pound each; and saffron, half an ounce.  Instead of saffron, you had better, if you have that opportunity, make use of the stamens of lilies, which are infinitely preferable.  Put all into a varnished pipkin, and set it over the fire.  Take great care not to have it burn; and, to avoid it, keep continually stirring the matter with a spatula.  When you want to know whether it be or not sufficiently done, have a hen's feather, just dip it in, and off quickly.  If the feather be grizzled, at is a proof the matter has sufficiently boiled.  Therefore, take it off from the fire, and throw in one pound of well chosen and picked hepatica aloes, in powder.  Mix well this with the spatula, and set it again on the fire, to concoct well this addition with the rest.  If you see that your matter boils and swells, you must take it off, and let it rest awhile; during which time, take some of the coals away.  Set it now again upon this more moderate fire, stirring always well, that all may be perfectly incorporated.  As soon as this is done, take it off, lit it cool a little, and strain it through a strong coarse cloth, and keep it for the following use.
    2.  Apply the silver, or pewter leaves, on the leather, with the white of, and egg, or gum-water.  When these are properly laid on, give one coat of the above varnish, quite warm, on such places as you want to appear gilt, and set it in the sun.  When dry, it looks like gold.
    N. B. The Arabian sandarak, we have prescribed above, is known by some, under the denomination of Gum of Jupiter.

LIX.    An excellent varnish.
    Put in a glass bottle, one pound of white mastick.  Pour over it oil sufficient to cover it.  Place the bottle over the coals, or very hot ashes.  The mastick will melt.  Take the bottle off the fire and shake it well, to see that the whole be perfectly dissolved.  This varnish is very good to lay over prints, statues, columns, wood, etc.

LX.  A curious and easy varnish to engrave with aquafortis.
    Lay on a copper plate, as smooth and equal a coat as you can of Lintseed oil.  Set the plate on a chaffing dish in which there is a gentle heat of half consumed charcoal, that the out may congeal and dry itself gently on.  When it has acquired the consistence of a varnish, you may draw with a steel point in order to etch your copper, and put on the aquafortis afterwards.

LXI.  A most beautiful Chinese varnish.
    Take one ounce of the whitest amber, or instead of this, the same quantity of the whitest gum copal; four drachms of sandarak; two drachms of fine mastick in drops.  Put all this reduced into a powder, in a find glass mattrass; then pour over it one of the finest turpentine oil.  Stop the matrass first with a cork, then with a bladder wetted,  Set this to infuse over a slow fire for twelve hours.  After this uncork the matras and let it cool; then pour gently in it, six ounces of good spirits of wine, and stop it again as well as before.  In that situation set it on ember ashes, or rather in balnea marie.  In the space of another twelve hours, you will find that the spirit of wine will have dissolved all the gums,  The while the varnish is still quite warm strain it through a cloth; bottle and cork it, to keep it for use.

LXII.  A varnish to render transparent the impression of a print which has been glued on glass, and the paper scratched off.
    Take turpentine, and a very little oil of the same spirit.  Dilute all well together, and lay one coat on the strokes of engraving which are left fixed on the glass.

LXIII.  The varnish fit for Bronzing.
    Pound into subtile powder, one ounce of the finest shell-lac.  Put it into a glass mattrass of three half pints size.  Pour upon it half a pint of the best French spirit of wine.  Stop it well, and place it in the cool for four days, that the lac may have time to dissolve at leisure.  During that time shake the mattrass, as if your were washing it, four or five times a day, for fear that the lac should make a glutinous lump, and stick to the bottom.  Should your lac, at the end of these four days be yet undissolved, sit it on a gentle sand bath, to help finishing it; and when dissolved to perfection the varnish is done.
    Note.  Pour the spirit of wine on the lac gently, and a little at a time that it may penetrate the powder the better.  Also stop pouring by intervals, and shake the mattrass as it were for rinsing, in order to mix all well; this do till you have poured all the spirit of wine upon the lac.

 

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