LUSTRE, the gloss or brightness appearing on any
thing, particularly on manufactures of silk, wool, or
stuff. It is likewise used to denote the composition or
manner of giving that gloss.
The lustre of silks is given them by washing in soap,
then clear water, and dipping them in alum water cold.
To give stuffs a beautiful lustre: For every eight pounds
of stuff allow a quarter of a pound of linseed; boil it
half an hour, and then strain it through a cloth, and
let it stand till it is turned almost to a jelly: after-
wards put an ounce and a half of gum to dissolve 24
hours; then mix the liquor, and put the cloth into
this mixture; take it out, dry it in the shade, and press
it. If once doing is not sufficient, repeat the opera-
tion. Curriers give a lustre to black leather first
with juice of barberries, then with gum-arabic, ale, vinegar,
and Flanders glue, boiled together. For coloured lea-
ther, they use the white of an egg beaten in water.
Moroccos have their lustre from juice of barberries,
and lemon or orange. For hats, the lustre is frequently
given with common water: sometimes a little black
dye is added: the same lustre serves for furs, except
that for very black furs they sometimes prepare a lustre
of galls, copperas, Roman alum, ox's marrow, and other
ingredients.