The Artist's Assistant, In the Study and Practice of Mechanical Sciences: Calculated for the Improvement of Genius. Illustrated with Copper-Plates (Birmingham, [ca. 1785])

THE ARTIST'S ASSISTANT. 185

This (lain may be of different hues, as the natural
wood varies greatly, being of all the intermediate
teints betwixt the red brown and purple brown, ac-
cording to the age, or fometimes the original nature

of different nieces.

r

For the light red brown, ufe a decoftion of mad-
der and fuftic wood, ground in water; the pro-
portion may be half a pound of madder, and a quarter
of a pound of fuftic, to a gallon ; or in default of fuf-
tic an ounce of the yellow berries may be ufed. This
muft be brufhed over the wood to be ftained, while
boiling hot, till the due colour be obtained : and, if
the wood be kindly grained, it will have greatly the
appearance of new mahogany.

The fame effeft nearly may be produced by the
tincture of dragon's blood and turmeric root, in
fpirit of wine ; by increafmg or diminifhing the pro-
portion of each of which ingredients, the brown
flain may be varied to a more red or yellow caff at
pleafure. This fucceeds better upon wood, which
has already fome tinge of brown, than upon whiter.

For the dark mahogany, take the infufion of mad-
der made as above, except the exchanging the fuftic
for two ounces of logwood ; and when the wood to
be ftained has been feveral times brufhed over, and
is again dry, it muft be flightly brufhed over with
water in which pearl alhes have been diflblved, in the
proportion of about a quarter of an ounce to a quart.

Any ftains of the intermediate colours may be
made, by mixing thefe ingredients, or varying the
proportion of them.

Where thefe ftains are ufed for better kind of
work, the wood fhould be afterwards varnifhed
with three or four coats of feed-lac varnifh; but for

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