The kind of wood usually imitated in this way is oak, or wainscot, as it is more generally called. When this is imitated in oil, the last coat of paint previous to the graining is made of rotten stone, white lead, and linseed oil, and is of a light oak colour. On this is laid the graining colour, which painters call the megilp, and which is a thin paint composed of oil, rotten stone, sugar of lead, and white wax. When this has set a little, the painter draws over the surface the teeth of a kind of comb, called the graining comb, by which an imitation of the grain of oak is produced; these grained lines, to make the imitation more close, are drawn in a wavy direction. The workman then wraps a little piece of leather round the finger, and delicately wipes off the colour from small spots of various forms, by which the light parts of a piece of oak are imitated. In this state, the grain and the light parts have rather a harsh appearance, to remove which, a soft dry brush is worked over the whole in such a manner as to make the various parts blend with one another. A little Vandyke brown is then mixed up into a smooth paint, and with this the dark veins are imitated, by means of a small brush or pencil.
But in graining oak in distemper, the graining colour consists of other materials; many receipts are given, but one is Vandyke brown, burnt umber, and raw umber, mixed into a paint with beer or ale. This is laid on with a brush, and the subsequent processes of producing the grain, the light patches, the dark veins, &c., are much the same as in oil graining, with this exception, that the grain is produced by veining brushes, instead of graining combs. When the whole is dry, it receives one or two coats of varnish, to act as a preservative.
By processes very similar to that just described, mahogany, rose-wood, satin-wood, maple, pollard oak, zebra-wood, walnut-wood, elm, and other species of wood, are imitated. For mahogany, the ground is Venetian red and white lead, and the graining colour is Sienna, or Vandyke brown, ground in beer. For rose-wood, the ground is lake, vermilion, and flake white, and the graining colour Vandyke brown, ground in ale. For satin-wood, the ground is the same as for light oak, and the graining colour is Oxford ochre, ground in ale. The other kinds of wood are imitated by grounds and graining colours more or less resembling those now mentioned. The manual use of the tools is more difficult for the variegated woods than for oak. Satin-wood, and some other kinds, have large spots or patches of a lighter colour than the rest of the wood, and of a peculiarly soft appearance; these are imitated by letting a sponge fall on various parts of the wet graining colour, by which some is wiped off, and the edges of these parts are then softened by means of a badger-hair brush, called a soft even, which is drawn lightly across the light and dark parts, whereby the sharp edges are softened and blended.
The imitation of marble is effected in a similar manner to that of wood. For white marble, or rather, that which is slightly marked with dark veins, the walls are first whitewashed, and then washed with whiting and milk, to obtain a fine white surface. Lamp black, damp blue, Indian red, and some other colours, are then laid on with very fine pencils or brushes, in fine but irregular lines, so as to imitate the veins of the marble. Sienna marble has a ground of yellow ochre; Florentine marble, one of white, black, and Indian red; dove-coloured marble, one of light lead colour; and black and green marbles have the colours designated by their names. On these grounds are pencilled the light and delicate veins traversing the surface in every direction, according to the colour and character of the veins in the marble to be imitated. There are then various contrivances made use of, by which a softness is produced in all the veins; this is of more importance in marbling than in graining, since much of the beauty which we acknowledge to exist in marble is undoubtedly due to the exquisite softness with which its colours are blended. The kind of marble called porphyry is imitated in a singular manner. This marble is spotted all over in various colours; and the imitation is therefore spotted. A ground is laid on of the proper colour, and a brush is dipped into a mixture of vermilion and white, and after being allowed to drain nearly dry, is struck against a piece of wood, by which a sprinkling of small spots falls on the surface. The brush is then dipped into another colour, and a similar process gives a second sprinkling. This is done a third and sometimes a fourth time, according to the colours of the spots in the marble to be imitated. The mica, quartz, and feldspar, in granite, are sometimes roughly imitated by similar means.
Whatever be the kind of marble which is imitated, it is varnished after the marbling is completed, in order both to give it greater durability, and to imitate the beautiful polish which can be imparted to marble.
Gilding, as an Interior Decoration.
Supposing the internal decorations to have proceeded thus far, we may next say a few words about the costly material gold, as applied in furtherance of these embellishments. This is only of limited application, and in the better class of houses; but as gilt mouldings frequently form the finishing part of the papering of a room, and as the houses of most persons contain some articles which are gilt, we will give a slight description of the processes followed by the gilder, but without reference to any particular article of furniture, since that is a department into which we do not profess to enter.
A metal gilder, or water gilder, is a different workman from the carver and gilder, who gilds various articles of wood or composition. The former lays a thin coating of gold on articles of metal, by means of mercury and of heat, an employment of an extremely unhealthy character. The carver and gilder lays a surface of leaf-gold on ornaments, frames, or mouldings, made of wood, plaster of Paris, papier-maché, or composition.
If the gold were laid on the bare material by any sort of gum or cement, it would not adhere permanently, nor would it have that brilliancy of appearance which the natural lustre of the metal is calculated to produce; above all, that dazzling surface, known as burnished gold, could not be so produced. The gilder, therefore, lays on a certain thickness of such substances as experience has taught him will answer the proposed end. There are, doubtless, many substances which would answer for this purpose; but the course which is actually adopted we proceed to describe.