Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/342

 318 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 637. Chairs may be classed as suitable for the lobby, kitchen, parlour, and bed-room. 6,38. Lobby Chairs, being seldom moved, may be made of heavy massive forms in timber, or of cast iron, so as to have a decidedly architectural character. Fig. 640 is a lobby chair of cast iron, suitable for a porch. The Design is Etruscan ; and Mr. Mal- let, to whom we are indebted for it, says that it may be cast in two pieces. It would, therefore, come cheap, and would look exceedingly well in the porch of a cottage in the Italian style. Mr. Mallet observes, that " where carved work, or much or- nament, is to be executed in fur- niture, cast iron will always be found cheaper than wood, even though a small number oidy of the article were wanting." We hope that this hint will not be lost on Architects, who might thus introduce a style of highly improved design in all the principal articles of furniture, at a moderate cost. Chairs of this de- scription, whether made of iron or wood, may be painted in imitation of Oiik in the following manner; — Give two coats of white lead in the usual mode ; add a third coat of a pale yellow, as near as possible to the lightest part of the oak board to be imitated. Yellow ochre is rather too deep for most varieties of oak board ; but stone ochre and white may be mixed together, till the exact shade oe produced. When this coat is dry, thj graining colour is to be laid on. This colour is not fluid like common oil paints, but is a mixture about the consistence of thick treacle, composed of various ingredients, and technically called meglip. The recipes given for making meglip are various ; but the following are the articles principally used: sugar of lead, rotten stone, linseed oil, white wax, and spirits of turpentine. These are all ground up together, and immediately after the colour they produce is laid on, the graining is made by passing horn combs over it before it is dry. These combs have their teeth of different widths and lengths, and may be had of every combmaker. Fig. 642 is a lobby chair of wood in the Grecian style, which may be made of deal, with the exception of the legs, which, being turned, should be of beech or some fine-grained wood suitable for that operation. This chair may be painted of the colour of the wall against which it is to stand. Fig. 641 is a lobby chair in the Gothic style, which may be made entirely of deal, or of any other common wood, and painted and grained in imitation of oak. '