Art & Restoration « Country House Essays

The Basics of Painting in the Building Trade

May 7th, 2021

PAINTER-WORK, in the building trade. When work is painted one or both of two distinct ends is achieved, namely the preservation and the coloration of the material painted. The compounds used for painting—taking the word as meaning a thin protective or decorative coat—are very numerous, including oil-paint of many kinds, distemper, whitewash, […]

Carpenters’ Furniture

May 7th, 2021

IT requires a far search to gather up examples of furniture really representative in this kind, and thus to gain a point of view for a prospect into the more ideal where furniture no longer is bought to look expensively useless in a boudoir, but serves everyday and commonplace need, such as […]

Of Decorated Furniture

May 7th, 2021

DECORATED or “sumptuous” furniture is not merely furniture that is expensive to buy, but that which has been elaborated with much thought, knowledge, and skill. Such furniture cannot be cheap, certainly, but the real cost of it is sometimes borne by the artist who produces rather than by the man who may […]

The English Tradition of Woodworking

May 7th, 2021

Petworth House – Carving by Grinling Gibbons

THE sense of a consecutive tradition has so completely faded out of English art that it has become difficult to realise the meaning of tradition, or the possibility of its ever again reviving; and this state of things is not improved by the fact […]

Of the Room and Furniture

May 7th, 2021

THE transient tenure that most of us have in our dwellings, and the absorbing nature of the struggle that most of us have to make to win the necessary provisions of life, prevent our encouraging the manufacture of well-wrought furniture.

We mean to outgrow our houses—our lease expires after […]

On Bernini’s Bust of a Stewart King

May 8th, 2021

As reported in the The Colac Herald on Friday July 17, 1903 Pg. 8 under Art Appreciation as a reprint from the Westminster Gazette

ART APPRECIATION IN THE COMMONS.

The appreciation of art as well as of history which is entertained by the average member of the […]

Sir Joshua Reynolds – Notes from Rome

August 8th, 2020

Equestrian Portrait of Charles V by Titian – 1548

“The Leda, in the Colonna palace, by Correggio, is dead-coloured white and black, with ultramarine in the shadow ; and over that is scumbled, thinly and smooth, a warmer tint,—I believe caput mortuum. The lights are mellow ; the shadows blueish, but […]

Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Memoranda on Painting – December 1755

August 8th, 2020

Sir Joshua Reynolds by Gilber Stuart0-1784

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS‘ WORKING COLOURS, WITH

THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE ARRANGED

ON HIS PALLETTE.

“For painting the flesh, black, blue black, white, lake, carmine, orpiment, yellow ochre, ultramarine, and varnish.

“To lay the […]

Method of Restoration for Ancient Bronzes and other Alloys

August 8th, 2020

Cannone nel castello di Haut-Koenigsbourg, photo by Gita Colmar

Without any preliminary cleaning the bronze object to be treated is hung as cathode into the 2 per cent. caustic soda solution and a low amperage direct current is applied. The object is suspended with soft copper wires and is completely immersed […]

Artist Methods

August 6th, 2020

Como dome facade – Pliny the Elder – Photo by Wolfgang Sauber

Work in Progress…

THE VARNISHES.

Every substance may be considered as a varnish, which, when applied to the surface of a solid body, gives it a permanent lustre. Drying oil, thickened by exposure to the sun’s heat […]

Books of Use to the International Art Collector

August 5th, 2020

Before meeting with an untimely death at the hand of an unknown assassin in Rome on January 11th, 1996, master forger Eric Hebborn put down on paper a wealth of knowledge about the art of forgery. In a book published posthumously in 1997, titled The Art Forger’s Handbook, Hebborn suggests the following […]

Cleaning Watch Chains

August 4th, 2020

To Clean Watch Chains.

Gold or silver watch chains can be cleaned with a very excellent result, no matter whether they may be matt or polished, by laying them for a few seconds in pure aqua ammonia; they are then rinsed in alcohol, and finally. shaken in clean sawdust, free from sand. […]

Furniture Polishing Cream

August 4th, 2020

Furniture Polishing Cream.

Animal oil soap…………………….1 onuce Solution of potassium hydroxide…. .5 ounces Beeswax……………………………1 pound Oil of turpentine…………………..3 pints Water, enough to make……………..5 pints

Dissolve the soap in the lye with the aid of heat; add this solution all at once to the warm solution of the wax in the oil. Beat […]

Cleaner for Gilt Picture Frames

August 4th, 2020

Cleaner for Gilt Frames.

Calcium hypochlorite…………..7 oz. Sodium bicarbonate……………7 oz. Sodium chloride………………. 2 oz. Distilled water…………………12 oz.

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Carpet Cleaner Formulae

April 17th, 2020

Carpet Cleaners.

Powder Form

Sal soda…8 ounces av. (hydrated sodium carbonate)( Na2CO3∙10H2O) or soda ash. Borax…….4 ounces av. Both should be in powder.

In using, this amount of material is to be dissolved in a gallon of water, then mix this with a solution of a pound of soap (any […]

British Craftsmanship is Alive and Well

March 10th, 2021

The Queen Elizabeth Trust, or QEST, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of British craftsmanship through the funding of scholarships and educational endeavours to include apprenticeships, trade schools, and traditional university classwork. The work of QEST is instrumental in keeping alive age old arts and crafts such as masonry, glassblowing, shoemaking, […]

Cleaning Oil Paint Brushes with Linseed Oil and Yardley of London Shea Butter Soap

July 17th, 2019

Linseed oil is readily available in many oil painters’ studios. Yardley London Shea Butter Soap can be purchased from a dollar store or pound shop on the cheap. These two ingredients make for the basis of an excellent cleaning system for cleaning oil painting brushes.

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