POLLARD OAK.
This wood is a great favorite with British grainers, and is often
splendidly imitated by them. The wood itself is from old gnarled trees
or stumps and has a variety of grain almost equal to French walnut. It
may be represented in either oil or water color, or may be done
partially in both distemper and oil, which I think is the better way;
the best job I have ever seen was executed in this manner. It is first
done in oil; the colors necessary are raw and burnt sienna, burnt
umber, Vandyke brown, and sometimes a little ivory black or ultramarine
blue. The wood varies from pieces comparatively free from knots to
others almost filled with them, like the root of walnut, etc. The
grains are first done in oil, the knots, etc., being somewhat subdued;
and when this is dry, the whole is gone over in water color and left in
the color it is intended to have it remain. The knots and shadows are
touched up, etc. After the water color is dry the fine champs may be
put in by using a slice of raw potato in the same manner as that in
which the thumb-nail is used on larger work. A camel's-hair pencil is
needed properly to finish the work. A great deal of time may be spent
in representing this wood, and yet but few may succeed in faithfully
imitating it. Since the fashion has changed in Boston and its vicinity
from walnut and cherry front-doors to oak doors, we begin to see panels
of pollard oak; sometimes whole doors are veneered with it, and the
effect is superb.
CHERRY.
This wood is naturally but little darker than ash, yet the popular idea
of what its hue should be is of a color nearly as dark as that of
mahogany. Cherry is frequently misrepresented by staining whitewood or
pine with burnt sienna, etc., but, it being impossible to conceal the
_grain_ of the whitewood or the pine, the deception is easily
discoverable by any one at all familiar with the grains of different
woods. For this reason a much better imitation can be obtained by
graining to imitate cherry (or any other wood), rather than by
staining, as the grainer, if competent, can represent both the color
and the grain of the desired wood.
Cherry may be imitated in either oil color or water color, and an
excellent job can be done either way. My preference is for oil color.
The natural wood may be matched by employing raw and burnt sienna and
raw umber, but the stained cherry requires the use of burnt sienna,
burnt umber and Vandyke brown for the very dark veins, also, in some
cases, crimson lake, to be used as a glazing or shading-color. The
tools needed for oil color are the flat brush, combs, fitch tool or
fresco-liner, sash tool and a piped bristle overgrainer. When a piece
of work is rubbed in, it may lightly be stippled with the dry brush (or
the stippling may first be done in distemper before the oil color is
applied). It may be mottled by wiping off the color with a rag, or
by applying a little color with the sash tool and lifting the
color with the flat brush. The growth may then be put in with the fitch
tool, the flat brush being used as a blender. The growths are put in
across the mottled work previously done. The growths or hearts can also
be wiped out with the rag in the same manner as in imitating ash, and
the fitch used to interline the points of the hearts; but the growth of
cherry is seldom as bold as that of ash, and, to my mind, it can best
be imitated by the use of the fitch tool. Where the hearts have been
wiped out with the rag they should always be gone over with the fitch
tool and blended, as the effect is decidedly better than if they are
left without pencilling.
[Illustration: Plate 30.
CHERRY MOTTLED IN OIL BEFORE BEING OVERGRAINED.]
[Illustration: Plate 31.
CHERRY MOTTLED AND PENCILLED IN OIL.]
[Illustration: Plate 32.
CHERRY MOTTLED AND PENCILLED IN OIL.]
[Illustration: Plate 33.
CHERRY MOTTLED AND PENCILLED IN OIL AS FINISHED.]
Some grainers prefer to imitate cherry wholly in distemper, in which
case the tools used are much the same as those for oil, substituting
the badger blender for the flat brush in finishing the work. First
dampen the work with a sponge and rub in the color with a flat brush;
the mottled parts may be done light, with the sponge, or dark by using
the mottler or the sash tool. The hearts are put in with the fitch
after the mottling is dry, the overgrainer being used in same manner as
that in which the combs are used in oil color. The best vehicle for the
distemper color is stale beer; it may be diluted with one-half water,
and in cold weather a little alcohol may be added. The work may be
shaded or overgrained when dry, whether the graining has been done in
oil or in distemper. If done in oil, the shading color may be applied
in either oil or distemper; but if the work has been grained in
distemper, the shading color (if applied immediately to the work before
varnishing) must be in oil. In some cases the distemper color is
varnished before being overgrained; this, of course, necessitates
revarnishing.
The grains of cherry are apparently simple, but they will stand a large
amount of study, and good work is seldom done without taking pains to
represent the various characteristics of this at present fashionable
wood.
Sometimes glue size is used in the color for a distemper binder, but,
being of animal matter, it is seldom used by grainers. With the
addition of alcohol enough to make it smell strong, it passes for white
shellac among some cheap painters, and is used for first coats or stain
work. It will be found that the mottlings of cherry invariably run
across the grain, and this is the chief reason that stained whitewood
makes such a poor imitation, the reverse being the rule for whitewood.
One thing I wish to impress upon beginners: that is to keep the color
as nearly as possible like that of the natural wood, and to cater as
little as possible to the prevailing fashion of making the color of
cherry as dark as that of mahogany. If people want a mahogany color,
try and induce them to have also a mahogany grain. I know that
frequently some article of furniture made of stained cherry has to be
matched in color in graining a room, and in such cases there is no
resource but to imitate it. I once went to grain a chamber in imitation
of cherry, and the lady of the house requested me to observe the color
of her mahogany chamber-set, which color she desired to have on the
woodwork of the room. I found the "mahogany" to be cherry and whitewood
stained very deep, and so informed her. It was a perfectly new set, and
had been sold to her for mahogany by a respectable firm. I should judge
it to be worth one hundred dollars, so there is evidently "cheating in
all trades but ours."
The piped overgrainer for use in oil color will be found an excellent
help, both for continuing the lines of the pencilled work, and for
doing the straight or mottled combing so often observed in the natural
wood.
[Illustration: Plate 34.
CHERRY WIPED OUT AND PENCILLED IN OIL.]
[Illustration: Plate 35.
WALNUT STIPPLE.]
[Illustration: Plate 36.
BLACK WALNUT PENCILLED.]
[Illustration: Plate 37.
WALNUT WIPED OUT AND PENCILLED.]