PART III.
THE TEETH.
That "The Pearls of the Mouth," according to an Eastern expression, are a great adjunct to the beauty of the face nobody will dispute. But that the irregular, saw-edged series of half-decayed stumps that not uncommonly take their place are disfiguring, every woman who possesses them knows to her cost.
Naturally the teeth form an almost even edge. There is no appreciable space between them. They are of a pure ivory white colour, and they are thirty-two in number. Very few of us, unfortunately, have our teeth in the natural condition. Too often, alas, do we lose one or two before growth is completed, and how few of us keep a respectable complement of teeth to the end of our three-score years and ten?
The reason why our teeth are so bad is partly due to our own faults and partly due to our civilisation.
You never saw a savage whose teeth were either decayed or missing. Yet, as far as I know, no uncivilised person ever used a toothbrush. But, with ourselves, unless we use a toothbrush our teeth rapidly decay. What is the cause of this? It must be something in our civilisation. This we cannot alter. But we can preserve our teeth in face of their tendency to decay by a little care.
There is not one person in ten who knows how to keep her teeth really clean. You get up in the morning, and when you have dressed yourself you scrub your teeth with a hard brush, using some indifferent powder. This you consider is sufficient attention to the teeth for the day. Suppose that your work consisted of handling greasy bones all day, do you think your hands would remain clean if you only washed them once a day? The teeth have very dirty work to do, and they will not remain clean if only washed once a day. As a matter of fact your teeth will only remain clean till you have had breakfast—about ten minutes during the twenty-four hours.
This system of looking after the teeth is radically wrong. The teeth must be washed more than once a day. It is better to clean your teeth after every meal. This is often inconvenient, but they should certainly be cleaned at least twice a day, and always before going to bed. If the teeth are cleaned before going to sleep, they will remain clean throughout the night.
How any person can use a stiff toothbrush is beyond my comprehension. "Oh, but I cannot get my teeth clean if I use a soft brush!" Of course you cannot get your teeth clean if you only wash them once a day. Use the softest badger brush you can get, and gently wash your teeth twice or thrice a day instead of tearing your gums once a day with a hard brush. You must never make your teeth bleed. If you tear your gums every morning, can you wonder that your teeth get loose and decay? Whenever blood comes from the gum surrounding a tooth, it comes from a tear. That tear must be repaired by inflammation of the gum, and all inflammation around a tooth tends to loosen the tooth and causes it to die.
Any good tooth-powder may be used. A powder containing an antiseptic is better than any other. Carbolic acid toothpowder is the best of all. The powder should also contain some grit to give it a good "grip." Precipitated chalk alone is not a good powder, but it is an excellent basis for an antiseptic.
Sometimes the teeth get coated with "tartar." As the deposit gets thicker it tends to lever the tooth out of its socket. It has also an unsightly appearance and often gives the breath a bad smell, from particles of food getting beneath it and decomposing. If there is a considerable amount of tartar on your teeth, have the teeth scaled; it is not an expensive business, and well repays the fee and few minutes discomfort that it costs.
If it were only for their nasty appearance, decayed teeth should be treated at once. But besides being unsightly, they are a real danger to health. Have them stopped or extracted.
When a tooth falls out or is extracted, it leaves a gap. This gap gets smaller in time because the other teeth fall together to fill up the space. This causes a most disfiguring condition by leaving a small space between each tooth. When you have had a tooth extracted, have it replaced immediately by a false one, so that your teeth may form an even line without any gap between them.
Sugar, very hot and very cold drinks, tea and sweets, are great enemies to the teeth. How many girls have lost their teeth from eating chocolates!
Some drugs have a deleterious influence upon the teeth. Iron causes them to become a dirty transparent brown. It is only temporary, however, and if the teeth are well cared for during a course of iron, no permanent damage will ensue.
Calomel is supposed by nearly everybody to be a great enemy to the teeth, but given as it is now, in small doses, it in no way affects them.
(To be continued.)
[SILVER POINT DRAWING.]
So light and airy, dainty and delicate, is this delightful process, that it may well be called the fairy queen of the graphic arts. So white is the paper or card on which it is produced, and so beautiful the chemical changes of colour it undergoes when first produced, that no process of reproduction can give more than a faint idea of the beauty of an original silver point drawing.
Many times have I been told, "Oh, I have a silver point drawing by So-and-so," but on nearly every occasion, when inspected, the treasure has turned out to be merely a photographic reproduction, giving, it is true, the form of the original, but without a particle of its colour or daintiness of appearance.
Under these circumstances it will be well to commence by stating what a silver point drawing is, and how to tell an original from a reproduction.
TWO OF THE QUEEN'S PETS.
A silver point is a drawing made with a stylus of pure silver on paper or card specially prepared for the purpose with a coating of chalk or china clay applied under heavy pressure. To tell a real silver point, hold the drawing to the light edgeways. You will then see in bright silver every stroke made by the stylus. Also you will find, when looking at the drawing in the ordinary manner, that its colour varies in different places; looking at one part a faint brown, another blue, another grey; in fact, assuming, where it has been much worked on, the appearance of the surface of a bright silver article which has been for some time exposed to atmospheric influence.
A SLEEPING BEAUTY AT SANDRINGHAM.
(By Ernest M. Jessop.)
Before the advent of lead pencils silver point was greatly in vogue with the old masters, and fine examples by some of the greatest of these are to be found in the national collections of England and France. Notable among them are drawings by Raphael, Perugino, Botticelli, Holbein and Albert Durer. The art, which had fallen into disuse, has of late been revived by many eminent artists. The late Sir Frederick Leighton was an ardent devotee of silver point, and has left many beautiful specimens of his own drawing.
Both the Prince and Princess of Wales are great admirers of the art and possess several specimens drawn by my friend Mrs. C. Sainton, R.I., and myself. The Princess, in the scant leisure allowed her by the cares of state, I have reason to believe, practises the art of silver point, as well as that of burnt wood work, a description of which will be given in these pages very shortly.
And now let me give a few hints on how to practise almost the most difficult of all the graphic arts. To begin with the tools. These are very simple. From a jeweller you may procure three pieces of round silver wire a few inches long. They should vary in thickness from that of the thinnest lead in an ordinary pencil to that found in a six B, and may be used similar to the leads in an ordinary pencil case or mounted in wooden handles of the thickness of a lead pencil. You can buy (although only of the largest artists' colourmen) both silver point paper and card; the latter is the best from its non-liability to cockle.
STUDY FROM LIFE IN SILVER POINT.
(By Ernest M. Jessop.)
The silver wires may be sharpened to any point desired on a piece of very fine emery cloth. Two sizes of round and one flat point are those usually used.
As to the card or paper. This, it must be at once understood, is one of the most delicate of substances. Its surface once soiled, it is absolutely useless. No mark of any nature can be erased from it. There is no rubbing out or slurring over to be practised. If you scratch its surface with an erasing knife it alters the colour and the stylus will no longer mark on the scratched surface. The same result occurs from the contact of a hot or greasy hand or the spilling of a spot of water no matter how quickly removed.
For these reasons no silver point can be entirely drawn direct from nature. A fairly finished sketch must first be made; from this it is advisable to take a careful tracing. Through this tracing bore very small holes with a broken etching-needle or small piercer at all the salient points and at short intervals along the outline of your subject. Then lay your tracing on the silver point paper in the position you intend it to occupy, secure it by weights, and with your smallest silver point make a tiny dot through each hole on to the paper. This is the only guide you can make to help you. Now lightly indicate your drawing with fine strokes made diagonally from right to left downwards, always remembering that the silver point cannot be rubbed backwards and forwards the same as a pencil without destroying the surface of the paper. All shadows should be put in very lightly at first, as lights cannot afterwards be added, although they may be taken away where not required. To get your deeper shades you may go over the same places many times with the silver point if you continue to work downwards. Either parallel or diagonally crossed lines may be used to shade. It is as well to avoid all firm hard outlines, as silver point mainly depends for its beauty on its misty and shadowy effects.
As in all classes of art work portraits, after having been fixed from a sketch, should be finished direct from nature. Without using this method you may preserve the features of your model, but soul and character will always be wanting. For land and seascape silver point is peculiarly adapted, as some of the most delicately beautiful aerial effects may be attained by its use. For foliage also, used with a careful knowledge, it is incomparable. To look its best no silver point drawing should occupy more than one-fourth of the paper on which it is drawn, and any attempt to finish square up to a mount or frame must be studiously avoided. In fact, the edges of the drawing should imperceptibly melt away into the paper. In very fine work, such as the face of a baby or young girl, a singularly beautiful effect may be produced by finishing the features through the aid of a magnifying glass, thereby removing all traces of lines, and then in the ordinary manner and with bolder lines adding hair, figure, costume, etc.
One last word on the choice of paper. This is made with two kinds of surface, dull and slightly glazed, like the backs of playing cards. The latter I have found to give the best effect in colour. All drawings after they are completed should be exposed to the atmosphere (but not to dust) for at least a week, it taking some time for them to acquire their beautiful colouring. After the period above mentioned the colour is absolutely permanent.
In framing the edges of the paper should be hermetically sealed to the glass so as to exclude dust.
Frames are always a matter of taste. Personally I have used with the happiest effect a wide flat frame of white enamelled wood with a very narrow pale gold Louis Seize edging to enrich the opening of it. A fine silver point in a well-made frame of this kind is indeed one of those things of beauty which are joys for ever.
Ernest M. Jessop.
⁂ The original drawings from which these illustrations are taken were recently exhibited by desire to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales at Marlborough House, and H.R.H. was pleased to say that she had derived great pleasure from her inspection of them.
(All copyrights of drawings reserved by the artist.)
