INLAYING. 



443 



593; Prohibition, 8,829; Greenback, 3,016; 

 Republican plurality, 3,323. The plurality for 

 the other officers was about the same, except 

 that for Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 which was about 9,000. The Republicans 

 elected Congressmen in the First, Sixth, Eighth, 

 Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Districts, 

 seven, and the Democrats in the other six. 

 The Legislature elected consisted of 31 Demo- 

 crats and 19 Republicans in the Senate, and 55 

 Republicans and 45 Democrats in the House. 

 Several of each party were Knights of Labor. 

 The Democrats after the election contested the 

 lieutenant-governorship on the ground that 

 there could be no legal election to fill a va- 

 cancy during a term, but only at the regular 

 quadriennial periods. The question had not 

 been set at rest at the close of the year. 



INLAYING. A paper on this subject might 

 properly include the arts of inlaying as prac- 

 ticed from time immemorial by skilled workers 

 in wood, metal, and stone the world over; but, 

 as these have been fully described in the stand- 

 ard technical works, they are omitted here. 

 The present article treats of inlaying as ap- 

 plied to engravings, drawings, manuscripts, 

 and the like, when they are to be preserved in 

 those superb sets of volumes that are among 

 the choicest treasures of modern collections. 

 Most of the larger libraries of the present 

 time contain inlaid editions of more or less 

 importance, none of which can be duplicated, 

 and some of which contain so much that is 

 rare that, when offered for sale, they command 

 fabulous prices. The process of collecting the 

 materials for such books often extends over 

 the better part of a lifetime, and involves a 

 large initial outlay of time and money. The 

 work of inlaying or mounting the engravings 

 calls for a high degree of mechanical skill, to 

 the end that the pages of the volume when 

 bound shall lie as flat as if each were a single 

 sheet of paper. An inlaid book, in short, is 

 an artistically constructed scrap-book ; but 

 whereas the leaves of the ordinary scrap-book 

 are crumpled and unsightly at the edges, those 

 that are skillfully inlaid are like the work of 

 the best book-binders. Usually the collector 

 procures an unbound copy of the work he in- 

 tends to illustrate, printed, with wide margins, 

 on heavy paper. He procures also a supply of 

 paper of like size and tint, upon which to 

 mount his engravings. 



Professional inlay ers are few, and many col- 

 lectors prefer to do the work themselves, ac- 

 quiring often a high degree of technical skill. 



The inlayer's tools include an assortment of 

 knives, a lithographer's stone, some sheets of 

 press-board, and an ordinary hand copying- 

 press large enough to receive the sheets of the 

 intended volume. 



No two inlayers agree about the best shape 

 of knife-blade, and only experience can deter- 

 mine what is best for each individual. Temper 

 and keenness of edge are, of course, essential. 

 Several knives are necessary one, namely, to 



make a clean, smooth cut through the paper, 

 and the others to bevel its edges. Dealers in 

 shoemakers' supplies keep in stock a very large 

 variety of knives of different shapes, and usu- 

 ally of excellent steel. An inlayer can often 

 find just what he wants in such an assortment ; 

 but fastidious workmen frequently have blades 

 specially shaped and tempered to suit their in- 

 dividual methods. 



The lithographer's stone should be nearly or 

 quite as large as the sheets of paper to be used. 

 It is well to have it set in a wooden frame, 

 making the total size somewhat larger than the 

 paper. 



The press-board should be of the dark, ma- 

 hogany-colored variety generally used by 

 book-binders to lay between the different sets 

 of sheets when piled up under their powerful 

 hydraulic presses. It is made of wood-fiber, 

 and is exceedingly hard, tough, and smooth. 

 For the inlayer it serves a double purpose: 

 one sheet of it he keeps for a cutting-board, 

 and the rest he lays between his inlaid sheets 

 while they are drying in the copying-press. 



With this equipment, a pot of rice-flour 

 paste, and a small, stiff brush an artist's bris- 

 tle-brush is best the inlayer is ready for 

 work. 



The first operation is to lay the engraving on 

 the cutting-board, and, with a sharp knife, cut 

 it out of the sheet upon which it is printed, 

 leaving a margin of about one eighth of an 

 inch around the print proper. Next lay a 

 sheet of mounting-paper upon the cutting- 

 board, and upon it place the engraving exactly 

 where it intended to stay. Of course, every 

 precaution must be taken to insure accurate 

 placing. To identify the top of the sheet, 

 press the point of a needle through one of its 

 upper corners, and to register the print make 

 two needle-holes, say one quarter of an inch 

 apart, passing at once through it and through 

 the mounting-sheet. These two holes serve 

 to identify the print and its particular sheet, 

 should a number of engravings be in hand at 

 once. Four more needle-holes through the 

 mounting-sheet, one at each corner of the 

 print, serve to fix the position of the "win- 

 dow " that is to be cut in the mounting-sheet. 

 The print is now laid aside, and the window 

 cut out on lines about one eighth of an inch 

 within the four needle-holes; this will make 

 an opening in the sheet a little smaller than 

 the print. 



The next operation calls for the nicest 

 manual skill. The paper frame or mat is laid 

 on the lithographic stone and its inner edges 

 are beveled with a sharp blade, so that the 

 paper is as thin as possible at the extreme in- 

 ner edge. Bevel the edges of the print in the 

 same way. Skill and certainty in beveling can 

 only be acquired by the greatest nicety of 

 manipulation, and it is only given to a few, 

 even among professionals, to attain something 

 like uniform perfection. 



Pasting comes next. Lay the print on a 



