INDIAN ORNAMENTAL WORK

69. SCREEN.

Beautiful cabinets, work-boxes, work-tables, fire-screens, &c., may be
painted in imitation of ebony inlaid with ivory by the following
means:--Let your screen be made of an elegant form, but merely of common
white wood or deal, prepared as below.


_Composition for the Surface of Wood_.--Steep one ounce of glue in a
pint of cold water all night; throw off the water in the morning. Take
six ounces of finest white lead in powder, mix it by degrees in a
mortar, with about half a pint of cold water, till it is perfectly
smooth, then place it, along with the glue, in a clean pan. Add half a
pint more water; set it on the fire, stirring constantly till it boils.
Let it boil three minutes; take it off, and pour it into a stone jar,
and continue to stir it occasionally till cold. When cold, but before it
congeals, take a clean paint-brush, and paint your screen with the
composition. When it is quite dry, rub it over with sand-paper, to make
it quite smooth; then give it another coat of the white composition,
repeating the rubbing with sand-paper as before. Repeat this same
process five or six times, until you obtain a smooth, equal, white
surface. When that is accomplished, dissolve the fourth of an ounce of
isinglass in a quarter of a pint of water; when cold, but liquid, give
the screen a coat of it with a clean brush, and do not use the
sand-paper after it.

_To Ornament the Screen_.--Lay a sheet of black tracing-paper on the