Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/142

138 need rubbing over two or three times with a solution of vitriol. A gloss can afterwards be given to this black leather by rubbing it over with a mixture of gum arabic and size melted in vinegar. Should the black produced by the vitriol not be deep enough, grind up some lamp black in linseed oil and rub it on before putting on the glazing. When small places in the painting require gilding, go over these parts with the white of an egg, and attach the gold leaf to them, having previously waxed a piece of tissue paper, taken up the gold leaf on it, and cut it to the size required. When a large surface requires gilding, take some brown red, grind it in a muller, and mix it with water and chalk, and when the chalk is dissolved, rub it over the leather until the whole surface has a whitish look. Attach whole sheets of gold leaf to the tissue paper, and lay them upon the leather before it is dry, taking care that the edges of the leaves overlap each other. Allow the leather to dry and harden, and then polish the gold well, but lightly rubbing it with an ivory polisher.—From the Art Interchange. HOW TO ORNAMENT HORNS. It is not generally known that common ox horns can be so worked and decorated as to make both useful and ornamental objects. The modern spelling of lantern is rather unfortunate, inasmuch as it loses sight of the origin of that extremely useful article, the lanthorn of King Alfred's invention, in which thin plates of translucent horn were used to guard that monarch's candle clocks from the wind.

Drinking horns in earlier days were often decorated profusely, and many fine specimens still exist. In the earlier part of the century, horns were constantly used as powder flasks, and much care was often bestowed on giving them a fine polish, in itself a great ornament, for