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Furniture Finishing
While all decalcomania makers carry thousands of stock designs, the furniture manufacturer ordinarily prefers procuring an exclusive one.
Plate LXIX.—Large Decalcomania in Chinese Pattern
He can have his own designer or artist prepare this or it may be both prepared and executed according to his ideas in the studios of the decalcomania maker. The economy, of course, is greatest where the largest number of transfers of a given design are used, since the chief expense lies in the art work and preparation of plates. Where relatively few are needed a stock design will serve all practical purposes.
CHOICE OF DESIGN
Floral designs follow the rules for hand painting and range from a single bold color to nature's full array in antiqued sprays, festoons, groups, baskets and nosegays adapted in size to the space on which they are to be applied. Marquetry and inlay transfers reproduce the most delicate wood grain coloring, lights and shadows and combinations of striped, pencil and fancy markings. In conventionalized classic forms there are arabesques, the acanthus, Roman figures, urns, horns of plenty, wreaths, shells, torches and the like in shaded black and white and for band borders, the Greek key, egg and dart, ribbons and Egyptian lotus, not to mention straight lines in various thicknesses, colors and corner variations.
There are even flat and slightly raised Chinese figures and landscapes for furniture of oriental inspiration in all appropriate colorings. For juvenile furniture, where transfers have long contended with stencils for supremacy, there are a profusion of animals, Mother Goose characters, fruits, flowers, etc. Be the period Egyptian or a company trademark, Renaissance or nothing in particular, there is a design to fit it at almost every range of cost.
APPLICATION
To lay a decalcomania transfer properly it should be placed face up on a smooth surface and the colored face then coated evenly with either the special cement furnished by the maker or a good varnish reduced to fairly thin consistency with turpentine, using a soft brush of convenient size. For quicker drying some use japan gold size or even Le Page's glue, rubbing it on thinly with the fingers. Shellac, shellac substitute or library paste are not advisable unless the transfer is being applied to paper.
In the case of varnish or the maker's cement, which is a type of varnish, the transfer should not be laid until it reaches what is called a "tack," a condition of drying between wetness and top hardness. The actual time varies according to the varnish and the extent of thinning. If the transfer is laid while the varnish is wet it may sag out of position or easily slide from its place at the slightest touch. If the varnish is dried too far, the transfer naturally will not adhere properly.
