sand, and rag, are ranged on shelves and in
racks, in a gloomy apartment, where
everything is black. These are the "plain goods;"
—goods which are hereafter to be decorated
to order. When the order comes, and a tray,
for instance, is to be inlaid with pearl, with
certain initials on a medallion in the centre,
a neat-handed woman may be seen to undertake
the task: or, more probably, a skilful
man;  for the nicest parts of the work are
usually done by men. We were rather
surprised at this, till we heard the reason. The
decorative parts of this manufacture seem to
suit women's faculties of head and hand; and it
looks strange, at first sight, that only about a
fourth of the three hundred people employed
in this establishment are women; and that
the women do the coarser parts of the work
—having, necessarily, lower wages than the
men. The reason is, that women do not learn
the business and stick to it, as men do. A
boy serves an apprenticeship of seven years;
and then regards the business as the main
employment of his life. Girls come for
months, or years, as it may happen: and it
never does happen that they look upon it as
the one settled business of their lives. They
marry, or they think of marrying. They are,
sooner or later, more or less unsettled; and
it commonly happens that a home and a baby
call them from the manufactory, as soon as
they have become thoroughly trained to their
work. It is, therefore, most probably a man
who has to inlay this tray with pearl.

The pretty flakes of pearl which lie about
in little heaps, and in saucers and cups, are,
for the most part, from New Zealand. Some
come also from Guernsey. For the best and
most expensive kind of work, the flakes are
carefully selected, that the grain (so to speak)
may lie all one way, that there may be no
cross lights in the figures. In a chess-table,
worth sixteen guineas, which we saw in the
show-room, the squares are formed of these
pearl flakes, disposed in different patterns,
with all the grain lying one way. The pattern
is disposed on the varnish, to which it is
fastened by an adhesive substance. Coat
after coat of varnish is then laid on, and the
pearl is covered with asphalt, till it first
glimmers red, then brown, and then
disappears completely buried from sight. When
the last coat is fairly baked on, the surface is
rubbed with pumice-stone, as before; then
with sand and rag; then with rotten-stone;
and the pattern is revealed. It now only
remains to give the final polish with the hand,
under which the surface becomes bright as a
mirror. A peculiar quality of hand is
requisite for this; a quality attained only by
practice. The finest of aristocratic ladies,
whose hand is seldom out of her glove, could
not polish a pen-dish, or door-plate. She
might possibly find that she had scratched it;
while she might see a hard-working, poorly
dressed woman, with long, bony, turned-up
fingers, skinny and yellow, producing an
unrivalled polish, though she finishes her job by
daubing the work with little touches of oil,
which she carries smeared upon her left
wrist. This is to remove any dust or
dimness which may have lodged in any corner,
or crease. One final stroke, removing the oil,
turns out the work complete.

If the tray, or other article, is to have the
initials of the purchaser, or any other figure,
embossed in the centre, it is done by embedding
a plate of pearl;  painting the letters or
figures on it, in a substance which cannot be
corroded; and then rubbing over the whole
with rotten-stone, and an acid which corrodes
the pearl. More varnish is then laid on; and
the raised letters are disencumbered of their
covering.

There is a great fancy at present for a style
of ornament which we do not at all admire.
The pearl is used for flowers and fruit, coloured
after nature, but looking as unlike nature as
anything can well do. Flowers and fruit do
not shine and glitter; but tinfoil does: and
there is too much of a tinfoil look about this
method of ornament. The genuine
flower-painting will be far more permanent, no doubt;
for it is very beautiful.

In the colouring room, one of the prettiest
processes seen is the gilding of borders and
other designs. The artist paints his border
with a steady hand and graceful strokes, with
a camel-hair pencil, dipped in isinglass and
water. He then lays on leaf-gold; and
presently rubs off the superfluous gold, leaving
the pattern gilt. Near him may be seen
another man varnishing a set of maroon-coloured
pen-dishes. These had been coloured
brown, and then painted over with lake, to
produce the maroon colour; then gilded in
graceful patterns with isinglass and gold leaf;
and now the last transparent varnish is laid
on with a brush. Not far off sits another
artist, with a convolvulus in water before
him. He is painting flowers on a work-box.
On some of the screens in the show-room, the
flowers were finished with a most mysterious
softness. We could not conceive how such a
melting away of colours could be managed.
We now see how it is done. An artist has
laid on various flowers in white or
cream-colour; he throws on some colouring powder;
depositing it in the darkest centre, and
wiping it thinner and thinner towards the
lighter edges. A flower thus tinted, with the
dark folds of the centre, indicated by the
black under surface being more slightly
covered, gives real enjoyment to the eye that
rests upon it.

A patent was taken out, two years ago, by
this firm, for inlaying gems under glass. We
saw some panels—such as might form the
doors of small cabinets, or the top of
jewel-boxes—splendidly inlaid with pearls, rubies,
amethysts, emeralds, and turquoises. Two of
these were designed from the Queen of Spain's
jewels; the quick eye of the artist having
seized their character, while on view in the