The moulding is now ready to receive the oil gold size, which is an exceedingly smooth mixture of ochre and oil. This is laid on in a stratum as thin and smooth as possible; and after being set aside for some hours, it acquires a peculiar degree of clamminess between wet and dry; when it is ready to receive the coating of gold. The gold is blown into the cushion, spread out, cut into slips, taken up by the tip, and applied to the work, in the same manner as in burnish-gilding; but the moulding is not wetted with water, the partially dry oil gold size serving that purpose. The gold is, in this case, pressed down into the hollows and crevices of the moulding, by means of a piece of cotton wool; and when the whole is gilt, a soft brush is lightly applied, by which the gold is worked into small depressions, which it would not otherwise have reached, and the superfluous gold is rubbed off. The gold is now left as it is, or is washed with transparent size, or receives a coat of varnish. In either case it becomes in a short time so far hardened as to be susceptible of washing without being rubbed off.
Gilding Enriched Ornaments.
The description which has been given of the process with reference to the mouldings used by the paper-hanger will also apply to most other articles with which the gilder is concerned. But in proportion to the elaborate nature of the article must be the care bestowed by the gilder. This particularly applies in the case of an elegant carved looking-glass frame.
The richly ornamented frames, window-cornices, mouldings, &c., which form a great part of the work of the gilder, are in general not carved in wood, but are cast in moulds, and are made of a tough and durable composition formed principally of glue and whiting. The ornaments, when cast, are fixed on wood frame-work or foundation, and in that state pass into the hands of the gilder. His mode of treating them is somewhat different from that required by a straight plain piece of moulding:—the material itself does not require so many layers of whiting and size as those articles which are made wholly of wood; and the difficulty of smoothing intricate and ornamental surfaces renders many precautions necessary.
Sometimes the cornice of a room, or a portion of it, and also the central ornament of the ceiling, are gilt. This is generally done in oil gold; and as the material of which they are made, viz., plaster of Paris, very much resembles whiting, scarcely any of the last-mentioned substance is required to be applied by the gilder.
We may here state, in connexion with what has been said about gilt mouldings for rooms, that the paper-hanger fixes them to the wall by means of broken needles, or headless brittle needles made for the purpose. The pieces of moulding are cut to the required length, and mitred, so as to join accurately at the corner; after which they are fastened to the wall by driving in some of the needles at distances of two or three feet.
Chapter XI.
A MODEL DWELLING-HOUSE.
The late Sir John Robison’s House at Edinburgh.
The various contrivances for rendering a dwelling-house complete in all that respects the comfort of the inmates, could not perhaps be better illustrated than by taking some actual instance, and showing what has really been effected. The late Sir John Robison, an enlightened man of science at Edinburgh, erected a house in the north-west part of that city, and fitted it up with a care which has been rarely observed in other places. So much has this house been regarded as a model, that a full description of it has been given in the Supplement to Loudon’s Encyclopædia of Cottage and Villa Architecture; and we propose to give an abstract of such portions of this description as can be understood without the aid of elaborate drawings.
The distribution of the internal space of the house is so managed, that, with the exception of two partitions in the first chamber-floor, which cross the floors without resting on them, all the internal walls reach from the foundation to the roof. The two partitions here mentioned are of stone, and are supported on cast-iron beams isolated from the floors, the joists of which are supported by wooden beams placed alongside, but not connected with the iron beam. The movements of the flooring, therefore, are not communicated to the partitions, and do not consequently affect them by vibration.