compo," is a mixture of fine
glue, white resin, and linseed oil well boiled together, with as much
rolled and sifted whiting added as makes the whole into a doughy mass
while hot. This composition is worked in a hot state into moulds of
boxwood, and so pressed in as to take up every ornamental detail. On its
removal from the mould all superfluous matter is trimmed away, and the
ornament, while yet soft and plastic, is laid on the moulding, and
fitting into all the curves, &c., is fixed with glue. The ornamental
surface so prepared quickly sets and becomes very hard and brittle. When
very large bold ornaments are wanted for frames of unusual size they are
moulded in _papier mache._ Two methods of laying on gold--oil-gilding
and water-gilding--are practised, the former being used for frames
broken up with enrichments. For oil-gilding the moulding is prepared
with two coats of fine thin size to fill the pores of the wood, and
afterwards it receives a coat of oil gold-size, which consists of a
mixture of boiled linseed oil and ochre. When this gold-size is in a
"tacky" or "sticky" condition, gold-leaf is laid on and carefully
pressed over and into all parts of the surface; and when covered with a
coat of finish-size the gilding is complete. Water-gilding is applied to
plain mouldings and all considerable unbroken surfaces, and is finished
either "matt" or burnished. For these styles of work the mouldings are
properly sized, and after the size (which for "matt" is red in colour
and for burnish blue) is dry the gold is laid on with water. Matt-work
is protected with one or two coats of finish-size; but burnished gold is
finished only by polishing with an agate burnisher--no size or water
being allowed to touch such surfaces. The mitring up of frames, the
mounting and fitting up of paintings, engravings, &c., involve too many
minor operations to be noticed here in detail; but these, with the
cutting and fitting of glass, cleaning and repairing pictures and
prints, and similar operations, all occupy the attention of the carver
and gilder.

CARY, ALICE (1820-1871), and PHOEBE (1824-1871), American poets, were
born at Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati, Ohio, respectively on the 26th
of April 1820 and the 4th of September 1824. Their education was largely
self-acquired, and their work in literature was always done in unbroken
companionship. Their poems were first collected in a volume entitled
_Poems of Alice and Phoebe Carey_