A USE FOR OLD PRINTS

Shannon News, 13 March 1928, Page 4

A USE FOR OLD PRINTS

A copy of the mid-Victorian “Keepsake” 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 most of them could be cut-out in oval shape, a few oblong and a fewer still circular. The ovals would fit in on either side of the dressing chest drawer-handles, while the oblongs would go well on top. The rounds were well suited to the panels of the wardrobe, and there were a number of quite small etchings which would be fitting for the centre of each chair back.

Having cut out the prints, I decided upon their positions and brushed over the back of each cut-out with gum. All drawers had to be taken out of their chest and stood on end so that the gum would aot collect at the base of the pictures in little drops. While the gum was drying off, a careful watch was kept to see that the edges of the prints did not turn up, a soft silk handkerchief being used to keep them pressed down, When the whole was dry, I gave it a coat of fine transparent varnish, and in the end the decorations looked as if etched upon the wood itself, so well did the ground of the paper and the white of the wood blend.