Tt was not until the seventeenth century that the decorative valid of lacquer was recognized in Eng-Iand, when it wes imported by Dutch traders and the East India Company. The Dutch craftsmen immediately jon to the home rental" lacquer and imported Oriental teachers. The' work they produced was sold as genuine Oriental lac, and as such was readily bought up in this country. When the secret leaked out, the English craftsmen set to work themselves and succeeded in iron ducing Incquerwork of such high quality that by 1725 they were exporting it to Holland. The craze for Inequer reached such a pitch that '"Japanning," as it was called, became the fashionable hobby for} ladies in the reigns of William and Mary and Queen Anne. Handbooks were published on "The curi and mystery of japanning. gow Herald."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.