However, those who formerly condemned the practice of japanning
water-coloured decorations allowed that amateurs, who practised
japanning for their amusement only and thus might not find it
convenient to stock the necessary preparations for the other methods,
might paint with water-colours. If the pigments are ground in an
aqueous vehicle of strong isinglass size and honey instead of gum
water the work would not be much inferior to that executed with other
vehicles. Water-colours are sometimes applied on a ground of gold
after the style of other paintings, and sometimes so as to produce an
embossed effect. The pigments in this style of painting are ground in
a vehicle of isinglass size corrected with honey or sugar-candy. The
body with which the embossed work is raised is best formed of strong
gum water thickened to a proper consistency with armenian bole and
whiting in equal parts, which, being laid on in the proper figures and
repaired when dry, may be then painted with the intended pigments in
the vehicle of isinglass size or in the general manner with shellac
varnish. As to the comparative value of pigments ground in water and
ground in oil, that is between oil-colours and water-colours in
enamelling and japanning, there seems to have been a change of opinion
for some time back, especially as regards the enamelling of slate. The
marbling of slate (to be enamelled) in water-colours is a process
which Mr. Dickson says well repays study. It is greatly developed in
France and Germany. The process is a quick one and the pigments are
said to stand well and to maintain their pristine hue, yet if many
strikingly natural effects result from the use of this process, its
use has not spread in Great Britain, being confined wholly and solely
to the marbling of slate (except in the case of wall-paper which is
water-marbled in a somewhat similar way).

"In painting in oil-colour," says Mr. Dickson, "the craftsman trusts