Japanning, as it is generally understood in Great Britain, is the art
of covering paper, wood, or metal with a more or less thick coating of
brilliant varnish, and hardening the same by baking it in an oven at a
suitable heat. It originated in Japan--hence its name--where the
natives use a natural varnish or lacquer which flows from a certain
kind of tree, and which on its issuing from the plant is of a creamy
tint, but becomes black on exposure to the air. It is mainly with the
application of "japan" to metallic surfaces that we are concerned in
these pages. Japanning may be said to occupy a position midway between
painting and porcelain enamelling, and a japanned surface differs from
an ordinary painted surface in being far more brilliant, smoother,
harder, and more durable, and also in retaining its gloss permanently,
in not being easily injured by hot water or by being placed near a
fire; while real good japanning is characterised by great lustre and
adhesiveness to the metal to which it has been applied, and its
non-liability to chipping--a fault which, as a rule, stamps the common
article.

If the English process of japanning be more simple and produces a
less durable, a less costly coating than the Japanese method, yet its
practice is not so injurious to the health. Indeed, it is a moot point
in how far the Japanese themselves now utilize their classical
process, as the coat of natural japan on all the articles exhibited at
the recent Vienna exhibition as being coated with the natural lacquer,
when recovered after six months' immersion in sea water through the
sinking of the ship, was destroyed, although it stood perfectly well
on the articles of some age. In the English method, where necessary, a
priming or undercoat is employed. It is customary to fill up any
uneven surface, any minute holes or pores, and to render the surface
to be japanned uniformly smooth. But such an undercoat or priming is