Chapter II (1)

Bismuth 5
Lead 3
Tin 2

A METALLIC-GLASS SOLDER:--

Lead 30
Tin 20
Bismuth 25

The lead is first carefully melted, then the tin added, and the melted mixture carefully stirred; the bismuth is put in last of all.

CEMENT FOR IRON STOVES:--

Wood-ashes 10
Clay 10
Calcined lime 4

To be mixed with water to form a firm paste. Also applicable to holes in trees. Clay mixed with waste-paper is also applicable for the latter purpose (LEHNER). (Glue may be added to it.) This mixture of clay and paper should be well mixed with sour milk.

CLAUS’S CEMENT FOR METAL AND GLASS:--40 grammes of starch and 320 grammes purified chalk are dissolved in 2 quarts water, into which is stirred ½ pint solution of caustic soda.

The most important part of mending broken metal-work is _soldering_, and this is so difficult to practically teach by mere _writing_, while it can be so easily learned from any tinsmith, or even tinker, that I deem it common-sensibly best to acquire it from the latter. Those who would study it in all its details, scientific or technological, may do so in _Das Löthen und die Bearbeitung der Metalle_, by Edmund Schlosser; Vienna, A. Hartleben, price 3s.

REPAIRING LEATHER-WORK

TRUNKS, SHOES, OR IN ANY OTHER FORMS--JOINING STRAPS--MAKING CHEAP SHOES

Leather-work when much worn is seldom restored, and, except by a few experts, it is generally regarded as incurable. That is to say, that leather-work is only repaired by the same method in which it is made--that is, by sewing--when in fact a great deal is lost which might be saved, and much imperfectly repaired which might seem like new by resorting to a more scientific process. And therefore, having devoted much attention to it, I am persuaded that the worst cases may be mended. Within a week I purchased two small folio volumes which had been beautifully bound in black leather, embossed in deep relief, about 1520, in a style which was then becoming antiquated. The pattern had been cut in a wooden mould, stamped on the wet leather, and then completely worked over by hand with tracers and matted or stamped in the ground. But the black colour had been worn away from the relief and turned brown, and it was otherwise dilapidated at the edges.

I took a volume and where the surface was ragged moistened it, applied gum-arabic in solution, and smoothed it down with an agate burnisher. Leather treated in this way soon becomes like a paste. When it was all even I painted it over with strong liquid Indian ink. Common ink would have done as well. Then I varnished it over lightly with the admirable _vernis à retoucher_, No. 3, of SOEHNÉE, which is flexible, preservative, and does not crack. I may add for ladies that it smells like _eau de cologne_. This dries almost immediately. It may be had at all artists’ material shops. Finally, I rubbed it for some time by hand. Then the binding was as good as new, yet not too new. It was simply perfectly restored.

I have in the introduction mentioned another work which I also restored. This was a Madonna in high relief, very much dilapidated; that is to say, it was of thin leather, which had been originally made in a mould, and was accordingly puffed out, so to speak, like a pie-crust. On the mould there had been laid a coat of muslin or cotton fabric; this, when dry, had been very thinly covered with _gesso_ or plaster of Paris, and on this, when dry, a thin wet leather had been pressed. I may here note that very often the _gesso_ was then blackened without any leather being applied, and that when thus blackened, covered, and varnished it looked exactly like leather--an easy art, which may be practised to profit by any one who can carve or buy moulds.

On examining this, I found that it would be very difficult to repair it with good leather. I found in a shop some thin black sham-leather, such as the Japanese apparently manufacture from leather dust, made by grinding up all kinds of leather waste to a powder. It was wretched, rotten stuff as leather, but all the better suited to my purpose. Some of this I cut into small bits, and with a knife soon mashed it, mixed with gum-arabic and water, into a very smooth paste. With such a paste one can repair any tear, roughening, or imperfection, care being taken that the paste and leather be alike in colour. With this I filled the hollows at the back, making the work solid; and having wetted all the ragged edges and fractured or torn places, smoothed them down with gum and a pen or paper knife, supplying deficiencies with the black paste. When all was smooth and dry I applied a coat of SOEHNÉE’S varnish, and then rubbed it well down by hand. It was quite restored.

As this varnishing leather may sound like a heresy to artistic leather-workers, I would ask them if they would consider an application of tannin in solution--which is the preservative principle of leather itself--as “inartistic.” Certainly it is not, nor is the application of SOEHNÉE (which is more of a simple preservative than a glaze) a mere finish for show.

The leather-paste of which I speak has certain qualities of its own which make it quite different from any other substance. We may include in leather “paste” not only the mere dust made from the dried substance, but all scraps, and also any thin leather, thoroughly softened or macerated. Even in the latter form it is, combined with a binder, really a plastic substance, since it can be worked into any form with ease. Mixed with caoutchouc or indiarubber in solution, and then dried, it is invaluable for mending boots and making waterproof soles. As I have indicated, it is excellent for mending old books. And here I may mention that if you have, let us say, one cover of a book in high relief, and the other, it may be, lost or worn plain, you can supply or make the duplicate very easily, very cheaply, and in a short time as follows:--Take a sheet of soft, white newspaper, dampen it, and press it on the relief. As soon as possible, taking care not to wet the book, fill in the back of the _squeeze_ either with other coats of wet paper, melted wax, or liquid plaster of Paris. When this is dry, wax or oil carefully the face of the squeeze, wipe it dry, and make a cast from it in _leather-paste_. Thus you will have a facsimile of the relief. From a solid plaster mould, well oiled or boiled in wax, a cast may be taken in softened or wet leather, which is even better; it sets hard and tough.

I may here mention that it is very unusual to see books bound in deep relief with _hand-worked_, black, or black and gold, antique patterns, and that such a cover, say of eight by ten inches, would probably cost at least a pound, and be cheap at that. And yet any girl of ordinary capacity with, let us say, fifty shillings’ worth of moulds, and two weeks’ practice in tracing and stamping grounds, could produce from two to four such book-covers as those before me in a day.

There is now generally sold in furnishing or chemists’ shops a good waterproof glue. Leather softened and then well incorporated with this is also waterproof, and may be used to mend trunks. I have known a torn boot to be mended in this manner, and that so well that it lasted for a long time. Even a leather strap which is subjected to great tugging may be restored, if cut or broken in two, by shaving the edges obliquely, so as to sharpen them.

Then apply glue with acid, and before it is quite dry apply pressure, though not so great as to squeeze the glue out. Shaving across the edges, judicious pressing together, and final smoothing are of the greatest importance in all leather patching and piecing, because it depends on these to make the juncture imperceptible. Very few persons--even shoemakers--are at all aware of the degree of perfection to which mending rents in foot-covering can be carried by the use of waterproof glue, such as is sold by many chemists. I have worn such a patch for months, and it was hardly perceptible. But, like every art, it requires some practice to apply such patches properly, and I cannot promise to any lady that she can perfectly and neatly patch a boot by simply daubing on a piece of leather at a first trial.

It may be noted that in such strap-joining as that which I have described, the repair will be greatly strengthened by pasting very thin bits of leather, or even of muslin, over the edges and pressing them in. It is true that this cover will soon wear away, but meanwhile the mended leather is all the while growing stronger and uniting more perfectly. Even paper, glued and pressed on, materially aids to make the exposed joint unite.

And here I may say that many a lady and youth would do well to take a few practical lessons from any shoemaker in the noble art of cobbling; that is to say, of heeling, soleing, and patching, all of which are as easy to learn as steps in dancing, and are even more interesting or amusing when once mastered. It is, moreover, an art which will be of use through life. Those who can do this will probably, if ambitious by nature, progress to making slippers, it may be shoes; and he who can do this may be assured that he never need quite starve to death while human beings go shod. It is not so difficult as many think, for I have known shoemakers of very ordinary minds, and I also once knew a mechanical artist who learned to make a fine pair of shoes in a few weeks. In fact, there is a living in a great many things for those who have once learned to use their fingers.

Few people are aware of the extraordinary durability of leather-work of certain kinds. There are in the British Museum Roman sandals, probably made of raw hide, but cut into pretty form, which were found in the Thames, and which look as new as if recently made. I have seen within a day as I write a gracefully formed pitcher of the early fifteenth century of very solid black leather, like the old blackjacks once common in England, which has probably passed through centuries of use, and is as perfect as ever. Wood splits, earthenware breaks, and metal rusts, but raw hide, or _cuir bouilli_, as set forth in the old song of the “Leather Bottél,” seems to endure every trial. As the man commemorated in “Æsop’s Fables” declared, “After all, there is nothing like leather.” The reader who may be especially interested in this easiest of all the minor arts may consult on this subject my _Manual of Leather-Work_ (5s.); Whittaker & Co., 2 White Hart Street, Paternoster Square, London, E.C.

Strips of raw hide are without equal for repairing broken vehicles, wheels, saddles, and similar articles, because they shrink while drying, drawing everything tight, and set so hard when once dry that what is mended is often stronger than before. I have elsewhere mentioned that the strongest trunks in the world are made in America from it, as they had need to be, since there is no country in the world where the “baggage-smasher,” figurative or literal, is so much to be feared.

The reader who has occasion to repair anything in leather should study the chapter of this book which treats of indiarubber and gutta-percha, the subjects being in many respects the same.

A strong cement for leather is made by combining gutta-percha and _Schwefelkohlenstoff_, or bisulphide of carbon, with petroleum to a syrupy consistency. A very good cement specially adapted to joining leather straps is as follows:--

Asphalt 12
Resin 10
Gutta-percha 40
Bisulphide of carbon 150
Petroleum 60

The materials, excepting the _Schwefelkohlenstoff_, are put together in a bottle which stands in hot water for several hours; when the mass has grown thick with the petroleum add the rest, and let the whole stand for several days, shaking it very often. If the pieces of leather to be united are first heated and then pressed very tightly together, the adhesion will be increased. This cement is as well adapted for glass, crockery, horn, ivory, wood, or metal as for leather. It is admirable for mending trunks, whether made of leather, wood, or pasteboard.

When a trunk is made of any of these, and a hole is broken through the side or top, take a newspaper and coat it with this cement, applying another, till there are a dozen or more thicknesses. If, as it gradually dries, this be pressed and hardened with a roller, or even a round ruler, it will be much improved. Glue this into or upon the fracture. In most cases with care it can be made as strong as ever. Where a rib is broken it should be promptly replaced. (_Vide_ Metal-Work.) All trunks should be covered with waterproof glue or varnish, as it effectually protects them from exposure to the rain. This is very rarely done, however, the result being an immense amount of loss to all travellers. In any town where there is a chemist’s shop, and where a bit of indiarubber is to be had, even at the stationer’s, a waterproof cement can be at once manufactured. The easiest of these to prepare is the following:--

Gutta-percha 100
Pine resin 200

The resin is first melted in a pan, the gutta-percha, in very small bits, being gradually stirred in till all is amalgamated. When used it must be warmed again. This cement can be used for as many different articles as the preceding.

It may here be noted that vast quantities of waste leather from shoemakers and bookbinders, which sell for a mere trifle, can be utilised to make admirable waterproof carpets and wall-covers. The leather is first soaked till soft, then smoothed out and mixed with waterproof cement, and rolled into one flat piece. This makes a very cheap sub-carpet for winter--better than oil-cloth, being softer. For walls it can be pressed in moulds, gilded, or painted. If varnished there is no unpleasant smell from it. The harder it is compressed or rolled the more will all smell disappear. Even with rolling by hand with a bread-roller almost all substances--for instance, paper, cloth-rags, sawdust, leather, clay, wool, cotton-wool, when combined with any fit adhesive or cement--can be made very hard or tough; and it is remarkable, considering the cheapness of the materials, how little this principle is as yet applied.

It may be remarked that there are many people who do not know what to do when the sole of a boot splits off or wears away and there is no shoemaker at hand. If the heel is lost and no leather can be had, a very good substitute can be cut from wood and cemented on. A few tacks will make it last as long almost as leather. If a piece of sole leather can be got, even from another old shoe, one or two layers can be cemented on to make a sole. A short screw or nail through three-quarters of the heel greatly aids in making the layers adhere. This may also be done with a vice.

In the town of Bagni di Lucca, where I now am, a pair of leather shoes with wooden soles, such as are commonly worn by women and children, cost only fivepence. They are, of course, rough, but still far better than none. The sole is rudely and very easily cut, with a high heel, from white pine or larch wood. The upper is a single piece of leather, which only covers the front half of the foot. It is moistened and bent into shape, and then tacked or glued on. Many people simply buy the soles, then the leather, and make the shoes for themselves, in which case the expense does not amount to more than twopence. In Florence there is often added to this the back, or heel-piece, which costs twopence more, and makes an almost perfect shoe. This art would be worth knowing in a wild country.

LEHNER (_vide_ Indiarubber and Gutta-percha) specially commends for mending soles the composition of--Gutta-percha, 10; benzine, 100; linseed-oil varnish, 100. It is extremely elastic and tough, and therefore suitable to soles. Mixed with black dye, or made with japan, it forms patent leather or polished leather. It should for this purpose be applied with a broad brush in _thin_ successive coats, and well dried before applying a new one. This is far superior to ordinary blacking; it is more easily applied, and does not injure the leather so much, because the latter is often made with vitriol, which, while it promptly gives a shine, eats away the fibre. Boots and shoes will, in fact, wear much longer with this coating than without it.

This is even more applicable to a great deal of harness, saddle, and bridle mending, and restoring sheet leather in every form; as, for instance, waggon curtains, when worn and dry. First soften the leather, then restore its quality, if required, with tannin or indiarubber in solution. If very dry and exhausted, it may first be treated with neat’s-foot oil for several days. Then sew it up, if a seam, or mend by applying leather and the cement. If all persons who own much harness would carefully study this subject, they would be astonished to find what economy could be effected by judicious mending.

It may happen that the reader may have occasion to wish to renew black, glazed leather-work, or to make a brilliant black pattern on a brown ground in stamped leather. I have often executed it with success. In such a case it suffices to simply blacken the leather with ink or dye, and then coat it with any flexible varnish; that is, one into which glycerine or gutta-percha has been infused. Any one who can draw can in this manner execute very beautiful work for covering walls, panels, chests, or doors. Or flexible black varnish can be directly applied.

LEHNER gives a recipe for attaching leather to metal, which may also be applied to any other substance:--Cover the leather with a thin and very hot coating of glue, press it on the metal, and then wet the other side with a strong solution of gall-apples or tannin (_Lohe_, extract of oak-bark) till it is thoroughly-penetrated. The tannin combines with the glue, and attaches the leather with extreme tenacity to the metal, &c. It is advisable to roughen the metallic surface to facilitate adhesion.

By combining glue (and many other adhesives) directly with the tannin or gall nut astringent we obtain _a waterproof cement_ of great strength, which is very useful for shoes. It is, in fact, not at all a difficult matter, where other appliances are wanting, to make from leather, without sewing, a soled shoe when tannin and glue are obtainable. The same can be done with canvas.

During the great wars in America thousands of soldiers often went barefoot in winter-time, with abundance of horses or cattle killed all round them, because they did not know that a strong moccasin can be made by cutting out a piece of raw hide, piercing holes in it, and drawing it up like a bag round the ankles, as is so commonly done here in the mountain districts in Italy. I once astonished a soldier in the war by suggesting this, and he declared he must try it. It is remarkable how rarely man in an uneducated state ever _invents_ anything, be it a myth, a tale, or a practical invention.

If the upper leather of a slipper or shoe be cut out, it can, if wet, be easily made to assume the form of a foot by drying it on a last, or even on another shoe. Let the seam of the back jut or flap over the edge, and allow full selvage for the rest to turn under the sole. The latter may be of sole leather. If there is none, glue two or three pieces of the leather together with the tannin cement, and roll them over strongly. Then glue the back and the under-lap with great care. With a little practice a fairly good shoe can be thus made. Canvas can be used in the same way. To dwellers in the wilderness this may be valuable information. But very pretty ornamental slippers can be made by young ladies out of scraps of gaily coloured leather. They can buy a pair of soles, and get the leather at a leather-dealer’s. This is all simply substituting glueing for sewing, and strong tannin-glue holds _quite_ as strongly as a great deal of the sewing of cheap, machine-made shoes. It would, indeed, not be a very difficult or expensive thing to shoe or clothe all mankind comfortably, were it not for the fashions followed by the wealthy.

These very cheap shoes, made with either wooden or leather soles, and that so easily that a child can learn to manufacture them in an hour, can be easily ornamented so as to be really attractive. Take the leather, moisten it with a sponge, and then with a tracer, which is like the end of a screw-driver--_i.e._--

draw a pattern in the damp, soft leather. When it dries the pattern will remain. Then with a point or stamp, dot or roughen the ground. Finally, when dry, paint the pattern black, and then varnish it. Anybody with the least knowledge of drawing can make and sell such ornamented shoes for a good profit, as they are as yet hardly known to anybody. Other colours may be substituted for black, or gilding applied.

I have in another place shown (_vide_ Papier-Mâché) how good artificial leather can be made by combining paper--best in pulp--with indiarubber and benzole fluid solution. Also how soles can be made by steeping pasteboard in the same, and how these, which are very easily and cheaply made, can be glued on to the leather so as to protect the latter from wearing out, for ever, if renewed. A bottle of this cement, combined with Diamond or Turkish Cement, will in like manner repair boots when the sole begins to split or part; and if applied when it begins to gape, it will be closed for a long time. This is such a practical, cheap, and easy method of making boots and shoes last, that my wonder is that every man who goes shod, and especially every traveller, has not a bottle of it by him. Observe that the two edges should be well pinched or screwed together (a six-penny vice will answer for this), and the leather first heated, though all this is not a _sine quâ non_, but only an improvement.

Leather thus attached by a very strong cement is quite as durable and much pleasanter to wear than “copper toes” or iron heels, which assimilate their wearers to horses. And it takes no longer to make and attach a heel or a sole in this manner than to black a pair of boots, as I have myself verified within a few hours.

Where seams _rip out_, the best repairing is by sewing as shoemakers do, which is not hard to learn, and I advise all young people to learn it. But where sewing cannot be resorted to, the cement, well applied and compressed till dry, will hold almost any break for a long time.

I urge ladies of all classes and conditions to carefully consider this chapter. They are more accustomed to repairing than men, and will take to it more intelligently. As their _chaussures_ are made of thinner leather than ours, they need repair oftener, but are, on the other hand, so much the easier to repair. Every mother of a family will at least profit by studying this book.

Shoemakers’ paste, much used for shoes, belongs properly to leather-work. It is made by boiling crushed barley to a thick mess, the water being kept extremely hot. It is then set aside till fermentation begins, which announces itself by an extremely offensive smell. Thence it passes to a stage in which it is a brownish syrupy mass, possessing great power as an adhesive. It is now taken from the fire and a little carbolic acid added to arrest fermentation. This can be used by itself for an adhesive; it also combines well with _indifferent_ substances, such as powdered lime, or chalk, white zinc, ochre, clay, or umber. It may be as well used for binding books.

I have already given a very good recipe for reuniting broken leather straps. I here add another from LEHNER. It is very good, but hardly worth the very considerable extra trouble and expense as compared to the former:--

Gilders’ glue 250
Sturgeon’s bladder 60
Gum-arabic 60

Reduce to bits and boil in water to a solution, to which add:--

Venice turpentine 5
Oil of turpentine 6
Spirits of wine 10

The strap-ends, or pieces of leather, having been thoroughly cleaned, are now covered with the adhesive and pressed together between hot plates, where the work must remain till cold.

A very good artificial leather, perfectly waterproof, may be made by covering a strip of strong paper, or, better still, one of glazed muslin, with the gutta-percha cement. Add to this fresh layers of cement and paper, till the requisite thickness is obtained. This is useful for mending soles. Where the gutta-percha or indiarubber cement is not to be had, substitute copal varnish and glycerine, or thick turpentine varnish and a little glycerine.

TO MEND HATS, BLANKETS, AND SIMILAR FABRICS BY FELTING

Wool, as is well known, if put into a pair of shoes, will pack or settle into a solid felt sole if the shoes are worn. This felt is like cloth. The same can be done by rolling it like dough on a board with a roller. Lay the cloth or hat to be mended so that the felt to be made can be worked into it. Then take fine wool and clean and roll it thoroughly, working it into the edges. It may happen many a time to a man without a needle to succeed in mending garments in this manner.

Waterproof glue or adhesive, such as is fully described in the chapter on Indiarubber, may be added to facilitate the adhesion of the felt to the cloth or felt ground. There is a peculiar art or knack of working moistened felt into the edges of cloth, and of ironing or pressing them down so as not to show, which can, however, be soon acquired. In this way cloth may be glued upon cloth with very good effect. The extraordinary tenacity and fineness of the adhesives now made, be it specially observed, renders mending of this kind (which was impossible a generation ago) now perfectly possible. I advise those who doubt this to get a piece of cloth and experiment for themselves. The patch may not be invisible, but it will look better than if botched with a needle. Felt, however, can easily be repaired to perfection.

Large pieces of stuff can be made by rolling slightly gummed wool, which fact many men do not know, even when living in the wilderness, where wool or hair may be abundant. Nothing is so common as to see shepherds in utter raggedness where the very shreds of wool left by their sheep on the thorns would clothe them, with a little industry. The quality, durability, and fineness of felt depend on the quality of the wool, and the care and skill of the operator. Many of the cheap cloths known as shoddy are really felts.

Felt is easily formed, because under certain conditions it seems to have a strange tendency to form itself. The reader knows that a string in the pocket, subjected to our every movement, will inevitably tangle and knot itself up in the most mysterious manner; and so the fibres of wool, if rubbed together, twine and bind themselves into most intimate union. I earnestly advise all who expect to live where sheep are plenty, and tailors or seamstresses few and far between, to experiment in felt-making, and, if possible, learn from a hatmaker how it is done. There was at one time in New York a factory where strong, serviceable suits of felt cloth were made, and these, consisting of coat, waistcoat, and trousers, were sold at retail for five dollars, or one pound--I myself having seen them.

When a piece of cloth is thus adjusted or applied to fill a hole or mend a rent, the edges may be either simply gummed and adjusted, or they may be treated with a mixture of felt or cloth-dust and gum. In this case, before the adhesive is _quite_ hard, yet after it has ceased to be soft, lay over the patch a piece of cloth of exactly the same kind, and press it with a warm flat-iron. (_Vide_ Invisible Mending of Garments, Laces, or Embroideries.)

In most cases a torn woollen garment may be very well restored by carefully sewing a piece into the hole, or by uniting the edges with long stitches. Then make a paste of felt or dust, or short, fine threads of the same cloth, with indiarubber cement, and work it over the surface. With practice this can be done so neatly as to quite conceal the mending. Pass an iron over the whole. When indiarubber cement cannot be obtained, glue mixed with one-fourth glycerine can be used.

Ammonia combined with wool forms a solvent which is also a cement. I have not experimented with it.

INVISIBLE MENDING OF GARMENTS, LACES, OR EMBROIDERIES

Most people are aware that there are tailors or others who are such artists in mending that they can sew up a rent “in almost anything” so skilfully that the tear cannot be perceived. I have myself seen this done so admirably in fine black cloth that not only was there no sign of a tear perceptible, but none was manifest after long wearing the garment. This nicety is partly due to skill, but there is also a method in it. Such mending is specially shown in Italy by Jewesses in repairing valuable old laces, embroideries, and the like. As a very large proportion of those who buy and sell such goods are Jews, it is but natural that their wives and female friends should be specially employed in mending. The process which they employ is as follows:--

“Thread a needle with one of your own hairs, then draw the edge of the rent or tear together in this manner, darning it, as it were, very finely and carefully, for it is in this that the whole art consists.

“After this take a piece of cloth as near like to the stuff you wish to mend as you can obtain. Lay this piece on the rent so as to cover it, then damp it slightly, and press it down with a hot iron until the surface looks quite even.”

It may here be observed that, firstly, the _thinner_ the thread used, so that it be only strong enough to hold, the less probability is there that the repair will show. For this purpose, for extremely delicate mending a human hair is almost invisible; for most work silk thread will answer. It is, however, more likely to cut through the edge than a hair, because the hair is more elastic.

Secondly, it may be observed that the so-called darning is really a kind of invisible weaving, and not a sewing together or a stitching close of edges, which latter, as it always puckers up or rises, must show the line of repair. The darning has its strength of attachment afar off, not close to the edges; it makes, as it were, a kind of network or a weaving together of the cloth--that is, the cloth is woven again into one piece by an invisible thread which hides itself in the thicker fabric. The laying down of a cloth of _precisely the same texture_ as that mended, and then ironing it, is very ingenious, because one of a different kind would produce a different impression.

The friend from whom I received the above, Miss ROMA LISTER, adds that the Jewesses do this kind of work very well, but ask a franc or twenty-five sous for mending the smallest rent. However, when the torn shawl is once finished you cannot see where the hole has been.

Somewhat allied to this is the patient German method of mending stockings by reknitting; also that of spreading strong flexible glue on a patch of chamois. This is laid under the rent, the edges being carefully reunited over it. I would here suggest that if the tear be first carefully darned, even with human hair or finest silk, and the gummed leather then applied to the reverse, the mending would endure for a much longer time.

There is a stitch known in Germany as _Kettenstich_, or chain-stitch--though it is _not_ that which is generally known among us as the “German chain-stitch.” It is peculiarly long and strong, and will hold together the edges of even soft leather, for which reason it is generally used in Turkey and Russia to sew together the many-coloured pieces of leather such as we see in Kasan work--slippers and boots--and cushions from Constantinople. This is a valuable stitch for close, invisible mending. It is allied to the lock-stitch of the sewing-machine.

A great variety of fabrics can be carefully adjusted and drawn together over a piece of strong, glazed muslin (of the same colour) covered with waterproof glue--_e.g._, indiarubber or glue and rubber cement--so that the mending will not be apparent. This process is very applicable to loose skirts, or to any garments on which there is no such severe pull, as, _e.g._, trousers or coat-sleeves. To effect these as well as all other repairs perfectly it will be necessary to experiment a few times. Unfortunately nearly all amateurs without exception make no experiment till it is necessary to repair something, and then, because they very naturally botch it, find fault with the recipe. Yet, strangely as it may sound, there are many cases in which mending or making fabrics can be executed far more neatly with a very strong cement, such as that of mastic and sturgeon’s bladder, than with needle and thread, the former actually requiring less margin to hold than the average width of a seam, for the least possible overlap suffices to bind where the adhesive is strong. This process of mending is little known, probably because there has been hitherto very little general knowledge of the immense strength and tenacity of certain cements, which have, indeed, only been discovered of late. For all ordinary mending, in fact, glue with glycerine, or glue and indiarubber solution in benzole, will answer as well as the far more expensive Turkish or Diamond cement.

If the reader will only reflect that a large proportion of all black and glossy silks are heavily gummed, sometimes up to their own weight, it will be understood that there can be no substance with which they can be more appropriately mended than with cement--a fact well known to many who employ postage-stamps or black court-plaster to heal their rents; but as this is generally very expensive, and as any old silk and glue or gelatine, or dextrine, answer just as well, the latter had better be considered.

There is much weaving of the most exquisite fabrics done in the East, and even among savages, almost entirely by hand; that is to say, the threads are simply attached to a rod, while the woof is worked in with a needle. Most fabrics can be mended by an analogous process, which is a remaking the cloth. Much depends on the proper finishing or dressing the surface by laying on it a piece of cloth and ironing it.

MENDING MOTHER-OF-PEARL AND CORAL

Mother-of-Pearl is the shell of the pearl-oyster (_Avigula margaritifera_), much admired for its beautiful texture and white colour, in which there is a peculiar iridescence or rainbow play of colours. The best, and by far the principal portion in commerce, comes from the islands of the Pacific. It has risen immensely in value of late years. Almost, if not quite, equal to it is the East Indian, from the Sulu Islands, Ceylon, and Aden, or the Persian Gulf. An inferior kind comes from the Eastern Mediterranean, also another from America.

The iridescent glaze, accompanied with more or less of the mother or solid substance, is found in a very great number of shells; _e.g._, the Peter’s Ear (_Halyotis iris_) of the Pacific; also in common mussels, especially the _Unio_, found in most clear streams or brooks in Europe and America where there is not much lime. These often yield pearls of great value.

Mother-of-pearl can be sawed without any great difficulty into plates, which are polished with fine sand and then with tripoli. Of late a great deal of small furniture inlaid with squares and triangles of this material has found its way from Turkey and Persia to London. These pieces are simply attached with cement made of sturgeon’s bladder, mastic, salmiac, or even glue. They can generally be obtained from dealers in Oriental goods. ABRAHAM SASSOON, of Wardour Street, will supply them in any quantity.

LOUIS EDGAR ANDÉS and SIGMUND LEHNER, both experimental technologists, have given several curious recipes for imitating mother-of-pearl. From filing or grinding, the best mother-of-pearl shell becomes like a white metal, which can be combined with white of egg or pure white gelatine to a fine marble-like substance, which, however, lacks iridescence. Broken into very small pieces, which are set in a bed of glue and glycerine, and then covered, when dry, with another coating of the same, we have what its inventor, LEHNEr, assures us is a very good imitation of pearl-shell.

But there is scaled away from a variety of shells a coating of _nacre_, or coloured glaze, which when powdered still retains the pearly lustre. This may be taken even from the common American oyster or all mussels. According to ANDÉS, who refers, I think, to this, it can be laid on any substance and covered with a gum-glaze. He also informs us that the pearl-like inner layers of oyster-shells, or of any other kind, reduced to powder and mixed with sturgeon’s bladder and spirits, painted on grey paper in several coats, present the appearance of _nacre_. I have seen specimens of such painting which were indeed very pretty, but the pearly iridescence was rather faint. According to the author, the pearly brilliancy is much increased by an addition of silver-bronze powder.

I conclude from this, not having in this instance experimented personally, save in carving pearl, that coarse powders of the highly coloured greenish and other _nacres_ of tropical shells, as well as of the European mussel and some other shells, can be combined with binding-gums of a transparent nature so as to form a very admirable imitation of mother-of-pearl.

I may here remark, in connection with this, that the common American clam (_Venus mercernaria_) has a white shell of intense hardness, which, when polished, is as beautiful as porcelain or ivory; also that the purple spot in the American oyster-shell, from which the Indians made a very hard and beautiful bead, might easily be drilled out for buttons.

A very beautiful imitation of mother-of-pearl is made in Japan. It is not, however, iridescent. It is said to be made with rice. I conjecture that this is rice treated with diluted acid.

I have before me now a string of 400 imitation red _coral_ beads, price twopence, such as are commonly sold everywhere. They are manufactured of vermilion powder, rice-flour, and gum, and, when they are carefully made, are extremely hard and durable, so much so that the composition may be used to mend broken articles made of red coral. Such objects in a fractured state are very common in curiosity shops, but the art of repairing them seems to be as yet unknown, though it is extremely profitable.

Of coral, LEHNER tells us that celluloid in combination with different substances--_e.g._, white zinc or cinnabar--can be coloured from delicate rose to fiery vermilion, and forms a very close imitation of coral. A very good and much cheaper imitation can be made by preparing perfectly white paper-paste (_vide_ Papier-Mâché), and combining it with vermilion, zinc, &c. From such artificial coral very beautiful cups, plates, and ornaments for inlaying, beads, pendants for jewellery, book-covers, &c., can easily be made. The colour can be varied to turquoise, emerald, ebony, ivory, &c., by simply changing the colouring-powders used.

There is a very cheap and common imitation of coral made by dipping vermicelli, twigs, &c., into a solution of red sealing-wax in spirits of wine. This is, however, extremely brittle. White marble-dust, or very fine white flint sand, combined with vermilion and silicate of soda, is said to produce a very admirable imitation of coral. The basis of levigated sand, or carbonate of lime, with silicate, can be varied with the dyes to imitate any gems, and is invaluable for mending pottery or stone-work.

Coral and several other substances are also imitated by combining about nine parts of very clear glue to one of glycerine. This is qualified with one equivalent of white zinc or dye-stuffs. Thus the glue basis is combined with colcothar, ochre-sepia, umber, ochre, or chrome. This is also a valuable cement for mending a great variety of objects.

Any fine white shells ground to powder may be combined with gum and a very little glycerine and vermilion to make artificial coral; also white glue or gelatine with glycerine. This may be made in quantity for casts of all kinds of objects, such as plates in inlaid work.

RESTORING AND REPAIRING PICTURES

“_The restoration of disfigured and decayed works of art is next in
importance to their production._”--Field, Chromatography.

I published in 1864 a work entitled _The Egyptian Sketch Book_, which began with the following abridged account of how oil pictures are cleaned:--

“Three young painters had often heard what the American PAGE has proved, that by carefully peeling the pictures of certain great artists, coat by coat, one may learn all their secrets of colour. So, having obtained an undoubted Titian, representing the Holy Virgin, they laid it on a table and proceeded to remove the outer varnish by means of friction with the fingers; which varnish very soon rose up in a cloud of white dust, and acted very much as a shower of snuff would have done.

“Then they arrived at the ‘naked colours,’ which had by this time assumed a very crude form, owing to the fact that a certain amount of liquorish tincture, as of Turkey rhubarb, or _tinct. rhabarbara_, had become incorporated with the varnish, and to which the colours had been indebted for their golden warmth.

“This brought them to the _glazing proper_, which had been deprived of the evidence of the age or antiquity by the removal of the _patinæ_, or little cups, which had formed in the canvas between the web and the woof.

“The next process was to remove the _glaze_ from the saffron robe, composed of yellow lake and burnt sienna. This brought them to a flame colour, in which the _modelling_ had been made. They next attacked the robe of the Virgin Mary, and having taken away the crimson lake, were astonished to find a greenish drab. When they had thus in turn removed every colour in the picture, dissecting every part by diligent care, loosening every glaze by solvents too numerous to mention--including alcohol and various adaptations of alkali--they had the ineffable satisfaction of seeing the _design_ in a condition of crude, blank chiaroscuro. Blinded by enthusiasm, having made careful notes of all they had done, they flew at the white and black with pumice-stone and potash; when, lo and behold! something very rubicund appeared, which further excavation declared was the tip of the red--nose of King George the Fourth! The Titian for which they had sacrificed so much was a false god.”

The foregoing extracts were dictated by the late HENRY MERRITT, a very distinguished restorer and artist, the author of _Pictures and Art separated in the Works of the Old Masters_, and other works of which I can truly say that the name MERRITT indicates that _nomen est omen_. I was often by him while at his work, and had the benefit of seeing the processes employed and the progress which he made in bringing to light the “buried beauties” of pictures by great artists. What I have since learned in addition will be found in the following pages.

Though it is simple and easy to describe the manner in which old pictures in general are restored, it must be borne in mind that, as regards a detailed and comprehensive description, the task would be the most difficult in the whole range of repairing; for when a picture has suffered so much that repainting is absolutely necessary, then nothing but the skill of the original artist himself would ever do full justice to it. In many cases we have pictures, like decayed works in wood, so far gone that only a mere hint or sketch of the original remains, so that they are generally deemed not worth keeping. In such cases the restorer or repairer may very well do his best. There is, and always will be, an immense field for every skilled repairer in this remaking of antiques, to great profit, because there is an unlimited supply of material, almost everywhere, wherewith to work.

To be a perfectly accomplished restorer of pictures one should be an expert in chemistry, and not only one very familiar with all the styles and schools of art, and gifted with great knowledge of the _technique_ of great artists, but also no mean painter oneself. There is a very general, but very vulgar and stupid, popular belief that the restoration and cleaning of old pictures is a merely mechanical art, about on a par with house-painting as regards skill or intelligence; but this I earnestly deny, having found, since I have practised it myself, that it affords a wide field to ingenuity, and that the greatest artists living--I care not who they may be--can find in restoration tasks which would fully tax all their skill, knowledge, or genius.

Before proceeding to clean or repair a picture it is often advisable for the artist to make an outline sketch of it with great care, in order to correct and guide him in details. To do this, take very transparent tracing-paper--the recipe for making which is elsewhere given--then with a soft crayon-pencil, or a very black lead-pencil (from 3 to 4 B), trace the whole. If the paper be not transparent enough, then use thin glass, or, what is far better, sheets of mica, gummed together at the edges, which will not break even if dropped. Trace the picture on this with a fine brush and black oil-colour, or any black paint which will hold. Then make a tracing from this on transparent paper. To transfer crayon or lead pencil drawing to wood or paper, very slightly dampen the surface of the latter, lay the tracing on it face down, and rub the back of the latter with a burnisher or ivory paper-knife. It will thus be perfectly transferred. This making preparatory sketches or copies will be found in many cases extremely useful, as training the eye carefully to the work to be done.

It is not _invariably_ true, though a great authority on picture-cleaning (HENRY MOGFORD) has declared the contrary--that “pictures ... unquestionably enjoy their highest perfection at the first moment of production.” Many artists recognise the truth that a year, or even years, are needed to give a certain delicate tone, which is like the ripeness of fruit, to certain pictures; and the same is true of certain artists, though by no means in the same degree of all. But there are many persons who can associate the mellowing tones of age or the venerable grey of antiquity with nothing but dirt, decay, and poverty; as was the case with an Italian marquis, who, having heard that a distinguished artist[4] had copied an old moss-grown wall or fragment of ruin on his estate, sent an apology to the latter, stating that if he had known that such a distinguished person intended to copy it he would have had it cleaned and lime-washed, not in glaring white (he knew better than that, he said), but in light blue! So I have known an American gentleman to be distressed at discovering the appearance of lichen on a corner of a “spick-and-span, brand-new villa,” which he at once declared must be cleaned and painted all over. People who suffer from this vulgar mania of over-scouring are apt to imagine that when they detect the least sign of age in a picture it suggests dirt and neglect, and hurry it off to the cleaner; unless, indeed (as is too often the case), they--with insufficient knowledge, and with “notions generally derived from guess-work, and suggested by the usual arrangements for taking care of other household objects”--attempt to restore the work themselves, which has been the cause of the ruin of thousands of great works of art.

It may here be observed that modern pictures, owing to the hurried processes of manufacture and the use of cheap materials in machinery-made paints, change so rapidly that many lose half their value in fifty years’ time. And, as if this were not enough, we have the sulphuric acids generated by coal-fires (especially that from anthracite coal in America, which even eats away the lime in chimneys), as well as the deleterious effects of gas, vapours from food, and, finally, the want of air and light in ever-curtained and shaded rooms.

The causes, in fact, which lead to deterioration in pictures are almost as many as those which produce diseases in man, and in not a few instances they will be found to be the same. These are, as I have said, foul air or malaria, or want of fresh air, dampness, the smoke of candles in churches, too long exposure to sunshine, the exhalations of charcoal, sulphur, sinks, &c.; “in short, all penetrating scents are injurious to painting, especially if it be new.” Owing to this prevalence of gas and coal smoke in houses, allied to the bad quality of paints, as now manufactured cheaply by machinery, it is, indeed, considered doubtful whether any of the pictures painted during the reign of Queen Victoria will exist in “half-visible” condition fifty or a hundred years hence. There is, as regards them, a grand future for the restorer. One need only look at most of Turner’s earlier pictures to fully verify what is here asserted.

The face of all old pictures long untouched will always be found covered more or less with what is simply dirt; that is, dust more or less dissolved by moisture. Now, dust consists simply of all kinds of substances, even invisible extinct animal organisms in vast numbers. The first step is simply to wash away this dirt with distilled or rain water and ox-gall. Use a very soft, clean sponge, and pass it over the picture many times. The last time wrap the sponge in a clean, white linen or muslin handkerchief to see whether the surface is quite clean. This and nothing more will often produce an astonishing improvement.

The next task will be to remove the varnish. _Hot_ water attacks any varnish, reducing it to a dry powder; but, as M. GOUPIL remarks, this is _très hasarde_, or is very risky, because it may also attack and dissolve anything like gum or glue in the colours. M. GOUPIL, however, sanctions the use of cold water in cleaning even to mere abuse, in which he is in contradiction to HENRY MOGFORD, whose work I regard as by far the best with which I am acquainted on the subject of cleaning and restoring pictures which I have read.[5] On this subject he says:--

* * * * *

“During all operations of lining, and of picture-cleaning generally, saturation by water is attended with disastrous effects, and the use of it should therefore be limited to application by means of a squeezed piece of sponge, or, what is better, a piece of buff leather, soaked and wrung out. Water is a most dangerous enemy to pictures; it penetrates to the priming or ground, loosens them by promoting decomposition of the size with which they are worked, and thus lays the foundation for their eventual disintegration and decay. Imbibed damp will sooner or later cause the destruction of every woven material, and while our daily experience shows its lamentable effects on the walls of our dwellings, it will be well for us to remember that it is no less destructive to the canvas of our pictures, and to the materials which form its priming.