Painting, generally limited to the cheapest sort of furniture, was little practiced by quality cabinetmakers. The imitation of oriental lacquer called japanning was not common in the colonies, and in any case was the province of the japanner. The cabinetmaker favored oil, wax, or varnish finishes to produce a hard, transparent, and glassy-smooth surface. To prepare the surface of the wood, colonial cabinetmakers had planes, scrapers, glasspaper, and sandpaper—the latter two available by the late eighteenth century and probably much before that. Stains were used to enrich the natural color and emphasize the grain of the wood, and pulverized chalk, plaster of Paris, or the like was used to fill the pores of coarse-grained woods. Wax, usually beeswax melted and mixed with turpentine, was cheap, easy to apply, and easy to renew. Rubbed on, allowed to dry, and polished with a cloth—and repeated by generations of industrious housewives or servants—wax produced a beautiful finish, especially on mahogany or cherry. Linseed oil thinned with turpentine was frequently the only finish applied on these and other hard, close-grained woods. The mixture was applied generously, allowed to stand for several hours, and wiped off. The surface was then rubbed for hours with the bare hand or a piece of cloth or felt, and the process was repeated again and again until the wood showed a fine rich sheen. As the wood absorbed the oil its grain rose slightly and had to be smoothed down again between coats. Sheraton advocated a technique that combined filling, oiling, and smoothing in one operation: the oil was poured on and allowed to stand, then sprinkled with fine brick dust and rubbed with a cloth. The brick dust filled the grain and combined with the oil to form a putty that was mildly abrasive and would, Sheraton said, “secure a fine polish by continued rubbing.” Eighteenth-century cabinetmakers employed both oil varnishes and spirit varnishes. The former was made by dissolving a natural resin—copal was one of the most commonly used—in hot oil and thinning with turpentine. The only spirit varnish of importance was that made of lac—in the form of stick lac, seed lac, or shell lac—dissolved in alcohol. (Lac is the resinous secretion of an insect encrusted on the twigs of certain East Indian trees.) The application of a varnish required less labor than wax or oil but more skill. It was flowed on, allowed to dry, and rubbed down with a fine abrasive. This was repeated with as many coats as might be necessary, and wax applied as a final coat. Eighteenth-century Anglo-American cabinetmakers seem to have preferred lac varnishes, particularly shellac, for walnut furniture, wax and oil finishes for mahogany. _WILLIAMSBURG WORKSHOPS_