Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/197

Rh E N C E N 187 hour, after which he removed it from the fire and allowed it to cool. The wax floated on the surface of the liquor in the form of a white saponaceous matter ; and this being triturated with water produced a sort of emulsion, which he called wax milk, or encaustic wax. This preparation may be mixed with all kinds of colours, and consequently can be applied in a single operation. Mrs Hooker of Rottirigdean made, at the end of the last century, many experiments to establish a method of painting in wax, and received a gold palette from the Society of Arts for her investigations in this branch of art. Her account is printed in the tenth volume of the Society s Transaction-; (1792), under the name of Miss Emma Jane Greenland. Tha following is an abstract of her processes : Put into a glazed earthen vessel four ounces and a half of gum arable, and eight ounces or half a pint wine measure of cold spring water ; when the gum is dissolved, stir in, over alow fire, seven ounces of gum mastic, continually stirring and heating hard with a spoon, in order to dissolve the gum mastic. When sufficiently boiled the mixture will no longer appear transparent, but will become opaque and stilt like a paste. As soon as this is the case, and the gum water and mastic are quite boiling, without taking them off the fire, add five ounces of white wax, broken into small pieces; stir and beat till the wax is perfectly melted and boils ; then take the composition olF the fire, as boiling it longer than, necessary would harden the wax, and prevent it afterwards from mixing well with water. When the composition is taken off the fire, it should be beaten well whilst hot (but not boiling) in the glazed earthen vessel 5 mix with it by degrees a pint or sixteen ounces more of cold spring water, then strain the composition, and bottle it. The composition if properly made should be like cream, and the colours when mixed with it as smooth as with oil. Mix with the composition on a china palette any powder eoloiirs which may be required to the ;onsistency of oil colours : then paint with pure water. In painting with this composition the colours blend without difficulty when wet, and even when dry the tints may be easily united by means of a brush and a very small quantity of water. The painting being finished, heat some white wax in a glazed earthen vessel over a slow fire till melted, but not boilirrg ; then with a hard brush cover the painting with the wax ; when cold take a moderately hot iron, such as is used for ironing linen, and which will not &quot;hiss &quot; when put to the usual test, and draw it lightly over the wax. The painting will appear as if under a cloud, till the wax and the substance the picture is painted upon are perfectly cold ; but if then it should not appear sufficiently clear, the wax may be melted by holding a hot iron at a proper distance from it, especially before such portions of the picture as do not appear sufficiently transparent or brilliant ; for the oftener heat is applied to the picture the greater will be the transparency and the brilliancy of the colouring ; but the contrary effect would be the result were the heat applied too sud denly, in too great a degree, or for too long a time. AVhen the picture is cold, rub it with a fine linen cloth. Plaster surfaces re quire no other preparation than a coating of the composition. It would be equally practicable to paint with wax alone, dissolved in gum water. Take three quarters of a pint of cold spring water, and four ounces and a half of gum arable, put them into a glazed earthen vessel, and when the gum is dissolved, add eight ounces of white wax. Put the earthen vessel, with the gum water and wax, upon a slow fire, and stir them till the wax is dissolved, and when the mixture has boiled a few minutes, take it off the fire, and .throw it into a basin, as by remaining in the hot earthen vessel the wax would become rather hard ; beat the gum water and wax till quite cold. It is necessary to use some pure water in mixing this compo sition with the colours. If the ingredients should separate when bottled, they have only to be well shaken together. This composi tion may be kept for a long time, and be rendered fit for use by putting a little cold water upon it for a short time. The following is a recent receipt. Place in a large pipkin, lia.lt full of hot turpentine, as much gum dammar as will dissolve (h tb gum makes about 1^ pints varnish) ; melt from two to two and a half of the wax tablets sold by chemists in a pint of this varnish ; when cold the composition should just be consistent enough to stand up on the palette. If too thin, heat it again, and add wax ; if too thick add turpentine. This vehicle may be used with ordi nary oil colours. Before commencing your work heat the wall, and rub in as much vehicle as it will absorb ; after the work is finished it should be re-heated, to secure its adhesion to the wall. See Lorgna, Un discorso sulfa ccrd punica ; Pittore Vicenzo Re- queno, Saggi sul Ristabilimento delV anticaArte de Grcci e Romani, Parma, 1787 ; Phil. Tran., vol. xlix., part 2; Muntz on Encaustic Painting; Elmes s Dictionary of the Fiiie Arts;W. Cave Thomas, Methods of Mural Decoration, London, 1869. (W. C. T.) ENCAUSTIC TILES. The term &quot; encaustic&quot; as applied to tiles is of modern though somewhat doubtful origin. The art bears no resemblance to the &quot; encaustic painting &quot; mentioned by Pliny and other ancient writers, although the expression (which signifies executed by fire) is perhaps as correctly applied to this manufacture as to the wax- incised pictures of the ancients. The term is, strictly speaking, applied to tiles which are decorated with patterns formed with different coloured clays, inlaid in the tile, and fired with it. This art appears to have had its origin in the latter part of the 12th century, but the culminating point of its excellence and popularity was attained during the 13th ; and it was extensively used for the decoration of Gothic buildings in connection with each succeeding change in that style of architecture. In mediaeval times the manufacture appears to have been principally carried on in England and Normandy, but examples of ancient tile-pavements of this description are also to be found in Holland and other Continental countries. The greater number of ancient examples are in squares, varying from 4 to 9 inches, but some striking exceptions occur, from which it has been attempted to trace a connec tion between this art and that of Roman mosaics. Pave ments presenting a kind of connecting link between the two have been discovered at Fountains Abbey, and in Prior Crauden s chapel, Ely, in which the tiles are of great variety of form and size ; and, instead of the patterns being wholly inlaid in the tiles themselves, the design is, to a large extent, produced by the outlines of the individual pieces, which, in the latter example, are cut to the forms required to be represented, including the subject of the temptation of Adam and Eve, trees, lions, &c., the tesserse being also enriched with what may be more strictly called encaustic decoration. Encaustic tiles were almost exclusively used for pave ments, but an interesting instance of their employment for wall decoration occurs in the abbey church of Great Malvern, where these tiles have probably been originally used to form a reredos, and bear designs representing Gothic architecture in perspective, having introduced into them the sacred monogram &quot; I.H.S.,&quot; the crowned monogram of &quot; Maria,&quot; the symbols of the Passion, the Royal Arms, and other devices. This example is also interesting as bearing the date of its manufacture on the margin, &quot; Anno II. R, H. VI. XXXV J.,&quot; that is, the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Henry VI. (1457-8). Combinations of encaustic tiles forming a cross were frequently used as mortuary slabs ; and an example of this kind of monument is in Worcester cathedral in situ, whilst the detached component tiles are to be found in other ancient churches. Many interesting ancient inscriptions are found entering into the designs of encaustic tiles, amongst which is the following, from Great Malvern, which has been deciphered with some difficulty, and rendered into modern English thus Think, man, thy life May not ever endure ; That thou do st thy self Of that thou art sure ; But that thou keepest Unto thy executor s care, If ever it avail thee, It is but chance.&quot; A tile from the same place also bears the following quotation from the book of Job, curiously arranged, and beautifully combined with Gothic ornament : &quot; Miseremini mei, miseremini mei saltern, vos amici mei, quia maims Domini tetigit me.&quot; The border of this tile bears the names of the evangelists, with the date A.D. MCCCCLVI. The armorial bearings of noble benefactors, and the devices