ART.
Nineteen will find the china sold at Doulton’s, Mortlock’s, and other well-known firms, the most satisfactory for painting upon. The faults she names arise more from the firing and the application of the colour than the foundation.
Adah.—Bronze painting materials are sold at most artist colourmen’s, and are always procurable if not in stock when required. Each bottle of colour costs from sixpence to a shilling, and the price of a bracket depends on the number of colours used.
S. K. C.—The best apparatus for setting crayon drawings is called Rouget’s fixative. A thin spray of the fixative is dispersed over the surface of the completed work in the same way that scent is thrown about a room.
Alice.—1. A crayon copy is not eligible for exhibition at the Royal Academy. 2. A little ammonia will clean gilt picture frames and restore their brightness.
Perseverance.—With regard to the circular you have enclosed to us, it appears to be the same as many others which we have seen, and we should recommend caution regarding it. Many ladies have spent money and time over similar advertisements, and have got nothing by so doing.
P. Z.—Pencil drawings are set by milk and water being poured over their surfaces. The milk used is skim milk largely diluted by water. A dinner dish or large tray is used in which to immerse the drawing by some people; others pour the water over them, and hang the drawings over the back of a wooden chair to drip dry.
Lady Olive.—To cover table-tops with Christmas cards, the wood should be first sized with strong size, and when dry the cards affixed to the surface with strong gum. Then re-size and varnish with white hard varnish. The cards should be arranged on the table first with pins.
Kinder Gartner.—We think that you might extract the grease stains from the paper by covering it with blotting-paper and holding a hot flat-iron near it. But you must do it gradually and watchfully, or you may curl up the tinted paper. You had better lay the blotting-paper at the back of the embossing.
Mrs. Wainwright.—In former times surnames were variously spelt by members of the same families owning them. That of the famous Flemish painter, Sir Anthony Vandyck, or Vandyke, is an exemplification of this fact. In Benjamin Vincent’s “Dictionary of Biography,” in Gorton’s “Biographical Dictionary,” the “Student’s Encyclopædia,” and in Phillip’s “Dictionary of Biographical Reference,” Sir Anthony’s name is spelt with a “c”. So also is that of Daniel Vandyck, a French painter of the seventeenth century, and Philippus Vandyck, a Dutch painter, 1680-1752. A good connoisseur would be able to tell you to which of these masters your picture may be attributed.
Ashe Ingen Court.—Rosenburg’s “Guide to Flower Painting,” published by Rowney, is a good shilling manual. Noble’s “Guide to Water-colours,” also published by the same, and Green’s “Sketching from Nature,” three volumes, one shilling each, are all satisfactory, and would fulfil your requirements.
Mittie Smith.—To transfer prints to glass you must lay a thin coating of Venice turpentine over the face of the print, and then proceed as if you were doing decalcomanie.