ons, between which the contrast is slight, may be made to match by
varnishing the former and darkening the latter with oil, which should
remain on it sufficiently long; by this means the different portions may
frequently be made to match without having recourse to bleaching or
staining.

=Painting.=--The next process is painting. It frequently happens in
cabinet work that a faulty place is not discovered until after the work
is cleaned off; the skill of the polisher is then required to paint it
to match the other. A box containing the following colours in powder
will be found of great utility, and when required for use they should be
mixed with French polish and applied with a brush. The pigments most
suitable are: drop black, raw sienna, raw and burnt umber, Vandyke
brown, French Naples yellow (bear in mind that this is a very opaque
pigment), cadmium yellow, madder carmine (these are expensive), flake
white, and light or Venetian red; before mixing, the colours should be
finely pounded. The above method of painting, however, has this
objection for the best class of furniture, that the effects of time will
darken the body of the piece of furniture, whilst the painted portion
will remain very nearly its original colour. In first-class work,
therefore, stained polishes or varnishes should be applied instead of
these pigments.

=Dyed Polishes.=--The methods of dyeing polish or
varnish are as follows: for a red, put a little alkanet-root or camwood
dust into a bottle containing polish or varnish; for a bright yellow, a
small piece of aloes; for a yellow, ground turmeric or gamboge; for a
brown, carbonate of soda and a very small quantity of dragon's blood;
and for a black, a few logwood chips, gall-nuts, and copperas, or by the
addition of gas-black.

The aniline dyes (black excepted) are very valuable for dyeing polishes,
the most useful being Turkey-red, sultan red, purple, and brown. A small
portion is put into the polish, which soon dissolves it, and no
straining is required. The cheapest way to purchase these dyes is by the
ounce or half-ounce. The penny packets sold by chemists are too
expensive, although a little goes a long way.

CHAPTER II.

_STAINS AND IMITATIONS._

In consequence of the high price demanded for furniture made of the
costly woods, the art of the chemist has been called into requisition to
produce upon the inferior woods an analogous effect at a trifling
expense. The materials e