ANTIQUITY OF VARNISH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 343, 2 May 1928, Page 6

ANTIQUITY OF VARNISH

ITS USE FOR PRESERVATION The effectiveness of varnish as a protective coating is well illustrated by the state of preservation in which we find the objects of art of previous centuries that were protected from the elements by this clear liquid, which resists alike the effects of time and atmosphere. Varnish, of course, is used to a degree to-day hundreds of times greater than in those ages when it was a product whose cost placed it beyond use on ordinary things. The manner of making the liner grades of varnish to-day, however, varies in few essentials from that of the times when its formula was a closely guarded secret. The processes are more closely controlled, and the supply is more reliable, but the essential constituents are still mainly the New Zealand kauri gum and China wood oil. These materials, intensely interesting in themselves because of the remoteness of the districts in which they are gathered, have their origins and discoveries rooted deep in antiquity. Historic lore is full of references to the magic properties and rarity of the fossilised gum which forms the base of varnish. The actual work of manufacture requires ertrenie skill in the mixing and cooking, and involves an exact knowledge of the t>roper time in the process at which to mix in the China wood oil with the heated kauri gum.