444 



INLAYING. 



INSURANCE LEGISLATION. 



piece of clean waste-paper (which must never 

 be used a second time, for fear of accidents) 

 and upon it lay the "window" cut from the 

 mounting-sheet. The beveled edge alone will 

 remain in sight, and, holding the " window " 

 firmly in place, the rice-paste is rubbed upon 

 the bevel until it is uniformly covered and the 

 paste rubbed into its texture. The print is 

 now taken up carefully, laid upon its mat, 

 pressed firmly between flat surfaces, and al- 

 lowed to dry under the heaviest available 

 pressure. It will be seen that the reversed 

 bevels of print and mat are thus glued securely 

 together without increasing the thickness of 

 the sheet. 



When it is desired to inlay two prints that 

 are on opposite sides of the same sheet of pa- 

 per, it is necessary to split the paper. This 

 is easily done by taking two pieces of stout 

 cotton or linen sheeting at least as large as the 

 largest of the prints. Cover each of them 

 evenly with paste, lay the paper to be split 

 on one of them, and spread the other piece of 

 cloth over both. Smooth out all inequalities 

 and lumps, and let the paste become perfectly 

 dry. Then pull the two pieces of cloth care- 

 fully apart, and half of the paper will come 

 away with each piece. Soaking in lukewarm 

 water will dissolve the paste, and the prints can 

 be separately inlaid. In this case the prints 

 will not require beveling, unless the paper is 

 so thick as to render it desirable. The soak- 

 ing in paste and water will not affect old-fash- 

 ioned printer's ink, but some modern work is 

 done with ink that will not stand water. Com- 

 mon paper may be split by a skillful worker, 

 using simply a delicate knife and the fingers, 

 but such work requires a great deal of practice, 

 and is at best a slow operation. When the 

 engraving is backed by printed matter that 

 may show through, the paper may be split as 

 described, or it may be backed without split- 

 ting by a piece of black paper which will usu- 

 ally render invisible the reversed letters ; or, 

 the paper may be thoroughly wetted with wa- 

 ter and laid face down on the stone, when the 

 objectionable printed matter may easily be 

 rubbed off with the fingers, taking care to rub 

 across the grain of the paper, and being par- 

 ticularly careful about fraying the edges. 



"Laying-on" is included in the same cate- 

 gory with inlaying, as it is used for the same 

 purpose. It is simply pasting the paper on 

 the mounting-sheet without cutting a " win- 

 dow," or beveling, but this is not such an 

 easy operation as it would seem to a novice. 

 If ordinary calendered paper is used, the addi- 

 tional thickness will tell where several sheets 

 come together. Therefore, a soft paper must 

 be used into which the imposed sheet will 

 sink under pressure. Again, both sheets will 

 wrinkle more or less in drying, even when care- 

 fully dampened. This is due partly to the im- 

 possibility of dampening them equally; there- 

 fore, when they have had a first drying under 

 the press, they are both wetted a second time 



smoothed between sheets of clean blotting- 

 paper, and again placed under pressure, when 

 they should dry perfectly flat and without per- 

 ceptible increase of thickness. 



A third method, which may under some cir- 

 cumstances be advantageously followed, is to 

 lay the print on the mounting- sheet before 

 trimming it, and, carefully adjusting it in 

 place, cut through both thicknesses of paper, 

 moving the knife-blade in a vertical plane. 

 This at once trims the print and cuts a "win- 

 dow" into which it will exactly fit. The 

 mounting-sheet should be a little thicker than 

 the print-paper, and both are to be pasted, 

 with all precautions against wrinkling, upon 

 a third sheet which completes the folio, and 

 if skillfully done gives a most satisfactory 

 result, as nothing shows on the reverse side. 

 Coarse prints may be cut from the daily jour- 

 nals, and treated in any of the three methods 

 described, in such a way that when finished 

 they will look like etchings on India paper. 



The best material for the inlayer's purposes 

 is a not very hard, not very smooth, calendered 

 paper. German drawing - paper is good ; 

 Whatman's, being hand-made, is not so satis- 

 factory ; ribbon paper, such as is cut into strips, 

 and wound up with costly ribbons, is excellent 

 for "laying on." Of course, no beginner 

 should make a first attempt upon anything 

 valuable; the manual dexterity essential to 

 true and nice beveling comes only by practice. 



Inlaying, apparently after the methods de- 

 scribed has been practiced by the Chinese 

 time out of mind, and it was largely used by 

 monkish missal- writers of the middle ages. It 

 is an art well adapted for amateur work, and 

 is not without its inducements as a professional 

 calling. It is believed that there are in this 

 country only three professional inlayers, and 

 even in Europe the market is not over- supplied 

 with really good workmen. 



INSURANCE LEGISLATION. The record of the 

 Legislature and the Governor of New York 

 relative to insurance matters in 1886 was of 

 much more than the usual interest. Eleven 

 very important laws were enacted. The first 

 provides that Canadian companies may deposit 

 Canadian securities with the Insurance Super- 

 intendent for business done in the State. The 

 second amends the laws of 1875 so as to allow 

 any of the New York State companies doing 

 business in foreign countries to invest in for- 

 eign securities the funds that are required 

 abroad. The third facilitates the closing up of 

 insolvent life-insurance and annuity companies. 

 It provides that upon the expiration of two 

 years after the declaration of a final dividend 

 by a receiver heretofore appointed of an insol- 

 vent life-insurance and annuity company, a 

 Justice of the Supreme Court, at a special 

 term thereof held in and for the county in 

 which the office of such receiver is situated, 

 may, upon petition of the Attorney-General, or 

 the receiver or any of his bondsmen, make an 

 order authorizing such applicant to cause to be 



