Blue JAPAN Grounds

Blue JAPAN Grounds.—Blue japan grounds may be formed of bright Prussian blue, or of verditer glazed over by Prussian blue, or of smalt. The colour may be best mixed with shell-lac varnish, and brought to a polishing state by five or six coats of varnish of seed-lac: but the varnish, nevertheless, will somewhat injure the colour by giving to a true blue a cast of green, and fouling in some degree a warm blue by the yellow it contains: where therefore a bright blue is required, and a less degree of hardness can be dispensed with, the method before directed in the case of white grounds must be pursued.