2. The edges should be evenly cut by an apparatus like the bookbinder’s
press.
3. The ends of each of the 24 sheets which form a piece, should be
nicely pasted together; or a Fourdrinier web of paper should be taken.
4. Laying the grounds, is done with earthy colours or coloured lakes
thickened with size, and applied with brushes.
An expert workman, with one or two children, can lay the grounds of 300
pieces in a day. The pieces are now suspended upon poles near the
ceiling, in order to be dried. They are then rolled up and carried to
the apartment where they are polished, by being laid upon a smooth
table, with the painted side undermost, and rubbed with the polisher.
Pieces intended to be satined, are grounded with fine Paris plaster,
instead of Spanish white; and are not smoothed with a brass polisher,
but with a hard brush attached to the lower end of the swing polishing
rod. After spreading the piece upon the table with the grounded side
undermost, the paper-stainer dusts the upper surface with finely
powdered chalk of Briançon, commonly called talc, and rubs it strongly
with the brush. In this way the satiny lustre is produced.