Modern curiosities of art & nature extracted out of the cabinets of the most eminent personages of the French court : together with the choicest secrets in mechanicks, communicated by the most approved artists of France / composed and experimented by the Sieur Lemery, apothecary to the French king ; made English from the original French.

To counterfeit Ebony.

The most solid Wood and freest from Veins is best, such as Pear-Tree, Apple-Tree and Service-Tree; black well either of these; when dry, rub it with a Cloath, then make a little Brush of Rushes tyed near the ends, melt some Wax in a Pot, mix∣ing with it some Lamp-black, then with the Brush throw on some of the Wax, brushing it till it shine like Ebony, then rub it with a Cloth and some of the black Wax; the Wood should be well pollisht and rusht before you do it.

To counterfeit Ebony, Holly is the best of all Woods, which you must put into a Hat-makers Furnace where he dyes his Hats; when you find it by cutting, to be struck in about the thickness of a Sixpence, take it out and dry it in the Shade, that it

may the better drink up the Dye-Water, then pollish it with an Iron to take off the foulness of the Dye; then with Rush and Pouder of Charcoal and Sallad Oyl, as is done to Ebony; the Wood of Tunis pollishes easily, it also burnishes well with a Tooth, and is better to cut than Ebony, which is very brittle.