Materials required are a palette, palette-knife, flat varnish brush, three sizes of bristle brushes, three sizes of table brushes, drying oil, mastic varnish, spirits of turpentine, Grecian varnish.

Colours used are oil colours in tubes.  Those generally needed are silver white, Naples yellow, yellow ochre, brilliant yellow, vermilion, Prussian blue, raw sienna, ivory black, carmine, yellow lake, vandyke brown.

If economy is an object, some of the above-mentioned materials can be dispensed with.

550.  DIAPHANIE

This is a beautiful, useful, and inexpensive art, easily acquired, and producing imitation of the richest and rarest stained glass; and also of making blinds, screens, skylights, Chinese lanterns, &c., in every variety of colour and design.  In decorating his house, a gentleman spends as much money as he can conveniently spare; the elegancies and refinements of modern taste demand something more than mere comfort; yet though his walls are hung with pictures, his drawing-room filled with bijouterie, how is it that the windows of his hall, his library, his staircase, are neglected?  The reason is obvious.  The magnificent historical glass might be envied, but could not be brought within the compass of ordinary means.  Recent improvements in printing in colours led the way to this beautiful invention, by which economy is combined with the most perfect results.  A peculiar kind of paper is rendered perfectly transparent, upon which designs are printed in glass colours, (vitro de couleurs,) which will not change with the light.  The paper is applied to the glass with a clear white varnish, and when dry, a preparation is finally applied, which increases the transparency, and adds tenfold brilliancy to the effect.  There is another design, printed in imitation of the half-light (abatiour;) this is used principally for a ground, covering the whole surface of the glass, within which (the necessary spaces having been previously cut out before it is stuck on the glass,) are placed medallion centres of Watteau figures, perfectly transparent, which derive increased brilliancy from the semi-transparency of the surrounding country.  To ascertain the quantity of designs required, measure your glass carefully, and then calculate how many sheets it will take.  The sheets are arranged so that they can be joined together continuously, or cut to any size or shape.

Practical Instructions.—­Choose a fine day for the operation, as the glass should be perfectly dry and unaffected by the humidity of the atmosphere.  Of course, if you have a choice, it is more convenient to work on your glass before it is fixed in the frame.  If you are working on a piece of unattached glass, lay it on a flat table, (a marble slab is preferable,) over which you must previously lay a piece of baize of cloth to keep the glass steady.  The glass being thus fixed, clean and polish the side on which you intend to operate, (in windows this is the inner side,)