The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

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THE BOY TRAVELLERS.
Of lacquer-ware, of all kinds and prices, there was literally no end.
There were trays and little boxes which could be had for a shilling or two,
and there were cabinets and work-stands with numerous drawers and slid-
ing panels curiously contrived, that a hundred dollars, or even five hundred,
would not buy. Between tliese two figures there was a wide range, so
that the most modest purse could be gratified as well as the most plethoric
one. Frank found that the dealers did not put their best goods where
they could be most readily seeiL Tiie front of a shop contained only the
most ordinary things; and if you wanted to look at the better articles, it
was necessary to say so. When the merchant knew what his customer
wanted, he led the way to the rear store, or perhaps to an upper floor, where
the best goods were kept. It was necessary to walk very carefully in
these shops, as they were very densely crowded with goods, and the
least incaution might result in overthrowing some of the brittle articles.
A clumsy visitor in one of these establishments a few days before Frank
called there had broken a vase valued at fifty dollars, and while stooping
to pick up the fragments he knocked down another worth nearly half that
amount. lie paid for the damage, and in future declined to go around
loosely in a Japanese store.
The Japanese lacquer of the present time is not so highly prized as
that of the last or the previous century. It is not so well made, partly
for the reason that the workmen have lost their skill in the art, and part-
ly because labor is much more expensive now than formerly. The prices
obtained for some of the specimens of this kind of work have been very
high, but they are not enough to meet the advance that has been made in
wages in the past few years. The manufacturers are anxious to turn
their money as rapidh' as possible, and consequently they do not allow
their productions to dry thoroughly. To be properly prepared, a j)iece
of lacquer should dry very slowly ; and it used to be said that the best
lacquer was dried under water, so that the process should not be too
rapid. The article, whatever it may lie, is first shajied from wood or
papier-mache, and then covered with successive coatings of varnish or
lacquer : this is made from the gum of a tree, oi', rather, from the juice,
and it is said to have the peculiar property of turning black froin expos-
ure to the air, though it is of a milky whiteness when it exudes from the
tree. It can be made to assume various colors b}' the addition of pig-
ments ; and M'hile it is in a fresh condition coatings of gold-leaf are laid on
in such a way as to form the figures that the artist has designed. Every
coating must be dried before the next is laid on ; and the more elaborate
and costly the work, the more numei'ous are the coatings. Sometimes