MARBLING. There are many processes in the Arts by which an attempt is made to imitate the veins and markings of marble. Marble itself may he stained or dyed of any required colour. Litmus or indigo for blue; logwood for brown ; alkanet root for crimson ; alkanet and wax for flesh colour ; sal ammo niac, verdigris, and white vitriol, for gold colour; sap green or verdigris for green ; dragon's blood or cochineal for red ; gamboge, turmeric, or saffron for yellow—these are the colouring matters employed, used when hot.
The marbling of books or papers is effected by applying to them a coloured preparation of the required tint. The pigments employed are Prussian blue, indigo, rose pink, or any of the well known colours, chiefly mineral. These are ground up with a little ox-gall and small beer to a proper consistence. Linseed and water are boiled in a copper pan to a mucilaginous consistence, and are poured into a trough to cool. The colours are then suc
cessively sprinkled on the surface of the muci lage in the trough with a brush, and are waved or drawn about with a quill or stick, according to taste. When the design is thus formed, the book, tied tightly together between cutting boards of the same size, is lightly pressed with its edge on the surface of the liquid pattern, and then withdrawn and dried. It will be found to have taken up a thin layer of colour. This illustrates ono only among many ways of marbling paper. Ordinary book edges are simply sprinkled with colours, from a brush dipped into it.
The marbling of wood is simply an attempt to imitate the tints and markings of marble by ordinary painters' colours.