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588 SWEDENBORG AS A MAN OF SCIENCE. [Doc. 202.
There are four fundamental colours which are mixed in
the various compositions in order to impart the proper tints
to them , and this, as said above, is done in the hands by
means of the little trowel. The first of these colours is lamp
black for black ; the second, vermilion or cinnabar for red ;
the third orpiment for yellow ; and the fourth, indigo for blue.
All intermediate colours are obtained by a mixture of these,
and they are heightened according to the quantity of the
colours used: for instance, green is obtained by mixing blue
and yellow; the colours in that case are laid upon the hand
and mixed with the fine powder which has been passed twice
through the fine sieve, and then moistened with lime-water
in order to produce the requisite hardness. When indigo and
lake * are to be used, small pieces of them must be soaked in
water for a day, as they will not otherwise become hard upon
drying on account of the salt they contain.
The black mixture or composition, when black is required,
is first inlaid ; afterwards the red, yellow, green, and blue,
and finally the white : for as a rule white does not injure any
colour. If the colours are not inlaid in the order here stated,
and thus allowed to dry, the colours which are first inlaid,
are affected and injured by those that follow and by their
compositions ; wherefore it is important that this order should
be observed ,—if it is, this additional advantage is obtained,
that it does not matter if any of the succeeding colours
should cover any of the preceding ones ; for when the surface
is polished and made even with that of the table the excess
of colour is rubbed off.
As the first inlaying is generally a little porous, on the
following day it receives another coating of the same com
position ; but the finer the powder in the composition the less
porous it will be, and the finer the gloss it will receive. The
white composition must consist of the finest lime powder. The
whole of it is then polished with pumice -stone and sepia,
it being sponged immediately afterwards with water, until
finally it is as smooth as the marble-slab or the table itself.
* Whiting or chalk saturated with vegetable or animal dyes, such as
carmine, madder, &c.
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