A USE FOR OLD PRINTS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 226, 1 March 1928, Page 8

A USE FOR OLD PRINTS.

(By M. Hamilton) 1 A copy o£ the mid-Victorian “Keepsake 77 has lain idle on a shelf for years. It is a production full of engravings of fine technique, but of no great interest so far as artist or subject is concerned*. One day, contemplating a most uninspired suite of white enamelled furniture belonging to a spare room, it suddenly struck me that some of these old prints, applied to its surface might enliven it! I therefore made a careful examination of the plates and found that most of them could bo cut in oval shape, a few oblong, and fewer still circular. The ovals would* fit in on either si.de of the dressing chest drawer-handles, wdiile the oblongs would go well on the top. The rounds were well suited to the j)ancls of the wardrobe, and there w*ere a numb, v -if quite t mall eixhirgs which would >o fitting for the ceilre of fi'i m chan back. Having cut out the prints, I decic.ed upon their positions and brusluvl over the back of each cut-out wit* gum. All drawers had to be taken out of their chest and stood on tsnd so that the gum would not collect at the base of the pictures in little drops. "Vyhile the gum w'as drying off, a careful watch was kept to see that tne edges of the prints di.d not turn up, a soft silk handkerchief being used to keep them well pressed down. When the whole was .dry, I S ave a c ° at of fine transparent varnish, and m tJic end the decorations looke*d as if etched. the wood itself, so well did the ground of the paper and the white of the wood blend.