A Chat about French Polishing.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 1, 1 November 1910, Page 453

A Chat about French Polishing.

(By W. J. Mosley.)

There is an indefinable something about the finish of most of our household furniture, interior fitments of the larger houses, and furnishings of public buildings which, so long as it is clean and reflects through a bright, transparent film the beauties of the figure or markings of the woods, prompt most people to say, "It is French polished." The term, though a common one, does not imply that the finish we so much admire has been brought about by workmen hailing from France. On the contrary, it simply means that we are merely copyistscopying, as far as we know how, a process of finishing woodwork that had its origin in France.

The process was originally known as “Verms Martin,” which means “'Martin’s Varnish.” For the use of this and the method of its application a monopoly was granted to the Brothers Martin in 1730 for a period of four years, which is equivalent to saying that they secured for that length of time a patent right for their process. After this it apparently became public property, or at least as much of it as its inventors cared to reveal. At this time the varnish or polish, lay on the surface of the wood, without any successful attempt at filling up the open grain, and was mostly of a yellowish or golden colour. But as the process became more universally adopted efforts were made to build up a more solid surface by working it well into the grain efforts ■ which were crowned with success about 1823, as described in “The Mechanics’ Magazine” for November 22, 1823, where it says:— “The Parisians have now introduced an entirely new mode of polishing, which is called

plaque, and is t 6 wood precisely what plating is to metal. The wood by some process is made to resemble marble, and has all the beauty of that article with much of its solidity. It is even asserted by persons who have made trial of the new mode, that water may be spilled upon it without staining it. As already explained, the finish up to this time was mostly of a golden hue, owing no doubt to the fact that the oldest known recipe of its chief ingredients, “shellac, the yellow the better.” As _ time went on, and perfection in building up a solid surface was assured, this golden hue on everything thus treated was objected to, and a finish free from colouring matter was sought afte£ In 1827 the French Society of Arts offered a prize “for a polish or varnish made from shellac or seedlae, equally hard, and as fit for use in the arts as that prepared from the above substance, but deprived of its colouring matter.” The result of this was the production of what 'is now commonly called white shellac, which, is used mainly on light coloured woods that are

The residence designed and carried out by the architect, Mr, B. Hooper, A.R.1.8.A., for'himself at Roslyn Dunedin. The joists and beams are all solid and genuine parts of the construction of the building. Oregon timber, stained and oiled, has been used for interior finish, while the walls have been treated with two shades of Hall's " Distemper." We illustrate the dining-room.

desired in their original colour, and on work that contains marqueterie or inlaid woods. I can find no record as to who actually secured the prize thus offered, but the general principle of refining shellac as now used was that propounded by Elgar Andes, of Vienna. {To be continued