In the next step, the cup receives a second coat of varnish, and is quite black and glossy, but not even on the surface. Thus far all the Burmese ware goes through the Ramo processes, whatever may be the style in which they are to be finished, whether black or red, plain or figured.
In the ninth part of the process, the cup is simply polished in the lathe. This is performed by turning first against a piece of smooth stone as in No. 7, then by moistened rico husks held in the hollow of the left band against the cup while turning ; thirdly, by a rag dipped in well-pul verized teak wood ; and lastly, by the hand smeared with a peculiar polishing powder, said to,be made of tho petrified wood of a tree. The ware thus furnished is like the black japanned ware used in Britain.
In red colour ware, the colour used is said to be superior to the best Chinese vermilion • it is moistened with an oil called shazi, extraeted from the kunyen (Dipterocarpus turbinatus); and then mixed with thit-tsi varnish. The mixture is laid upon the cup after it has gone through the two first operations, and nothing more is required than giving it a polish with the hand, unless extra ordinary lustre is desired, when a mixture of shazi and. thit-tsi is applied.
Siamese.—In cups executed in Shan or Siamese style, the engraving is done with great ingenuity and rapidity, although the only tool is a needle tied to a stick and whetted on a bit of slate. The artist holds the cup on his knees with his left band, and keeps his graver almost motionless in his right; he then dexterously turns the cup by the help of his knees to meet the graver. The Shau style consists in engraving a. piece of black ware, and filling up the hollows with vermilion ; if any figures are represented, they are left in relief, in the manner of wood engraving. The vermilion is laid on, and after drying several days is rubbed off on the lathe with wet bran held in the hollow of tho hand. The operation is generally repeated to ensure a complete filling up of all hollows, and the cup is afterwards varnished and polished.
A more expeditious method, called the Bur man style, consists iu engraving upon a red cup, and filling up the hollows with different colours, usually yellow or green. Some spechnens are engraved with grotesque Chinese-looking figures, and with the lines filled with yellow or primrose. The engraving is first prepared by being varnished over, and the colour is imme diately rubbed in with the finger until it is quite dry. When the cup is finished, sometimes a small quantity of indigo us mixed with the orpiment, which produces a green colour. The beauty of the engraving consists chiefly in the contrast of bright colours, and the regular interlacing of minute lines, in which some specimens resemble our engine-turning ; taste in drawing is totally out of the question.
Other modes of preparing the varnished ware are followed. The finer sorts are sometimes finished with gilding or with raised figures or mouldings.
These are formed of teak-wood paste, which is pressed when soft into tin moulds, and when dry it becomes as hard as the wood of which it was originally made. Europeans have found this paste an excellent material for making the raised work on picture frames and similar objects. Some articles are diversified by leaving portions of the basket-work uncovered by the varnish ; in this case the weaving is of the finest quality, and the open part,s being of different patterns, the effect is very good. Larger works are made of wood joined together with teak paste, and after wards covered in the same way as the basket work, the only difference between the processes being that in the wood-work the first varnishing is omitted, the solid and flat surface of the wood taking the paste at once without preparation.
Chinese.-7-Mr. Williams says that the beautiful appearance of the lacquered ware of China owes its lustrous colouring to a composition of lamp-black and the clarified juice obtained from a species of sumach called Rhus vernix or R. vernicia. Wood oils are obtained from other plants of the same family, and the different qualities of lacquered ware are owing to the use of these inferior in gredients. The real varnish tree. is about 15 feet hi height, and when seven years old furnishes the sap, which is carefully collected from incisions in the trunk opened in summer nights. The body of the ware is wood partially smoothed, or pasteboard, upon which two or three coats of a composition of lime, paper, and gums are first laid, and thoroughly dried and rubbed. The surface of the wood is also hardened by rubbing coarse clay upon it, and afterwards scraping it off when dry. Two coatings of lamp-black and wood oil, or, in the finer articles, of lamp-black and varnish, 'are laid upon the prepared wood, and after drying the clear varnish is brushed on, one coating after another, with the uttnost care, in close and darkened rooms, allowing it to dry well between the several coats. The articles are then laid by to be painted and gilded according to the fancy of customers, after which a last coating is given them. The varnish is brought to market in brownish cakes, and reduced to its proper fluidity by boiling ; it is applied to many purposes both as a varnish and paint, when it is commonly mixed with a, red or brown colour. A beautiful fabric of lacquered ware is made by inlaying the nacre of fresh and salt-water shells in a rough mosaic of flowers, animals, etc., into the com position, and then varnishing it. Another kind, highly prized by the Chinese, is made by covering the wood with a coating of red varnish three or four lines in thickness, and then carving figures upon it in relief. The great labour necessary to produce this ware renders it expensive. A common substitute for the true varnish are the oils of the dryandra, jatropha, croton, and other members of the euphorbiaceous family, expressed from their seeds.
In Peninsular India, the varnish used by moo chee. men for palanquins, etc., is prepared by melting sandarus (a kind of copal or anime, called by. Dr. Ainslie sandarach), anyixing it with boiled linseed oil, rendered dry b. litharge'; they do not usually add spirits of tu pentine in the way prescribed for making copal varnish in Eng land. Co. ndapilly moochees, for ornamenting boxes, palanquins, etc., dissolve a little aloes in the varnish which is laid over it. A very good var nish is prepared by moochees with shell-lac and wood-oil heated in small quantities.
TVood varnish for teak and Chittagong wood may be prepared by melting three or four bits of sandarus of the size of a walnut or small egg, and pouring upon it a bottleful of boiling linseed oil previously rendered dry by boiling litharge or other drier, and after boiling them together for an hour, gently adding, while cooling, a, teaspoonful of Venice turpentine. If too thick, it may be thinned with spirits of turpentine. It should be rubbed on the furniture, and after a little time, during which it may be exposed in the sun, rubbed off ; the rubbing should be continued daily, and the polish should not be again applied for eight or ten days, after which it may be slightly applied every one or two months. Water does not injure this polish, and any stain or scratch may be rubbed over with the polish, which cannot be done with French polish.—llohde, MSS.; Fortune's • Residence, p. 146 ; Williams' Middle Kingdom, i. p. 121 ; Journal Royal Asiatic Society.