The properties which render ivory so desirable for artists are, the evenness and fineness of its grain, its allowing all water colours laid on its surface to be washed out with a soft wet brush, and the facility with which the artist may scrape off the colour from any particular part, by means of the point of a knife, or other convenient instrument, and thus heighten the lights in his painting more expeditiously and efficaciously than can be done in any other way. These advantages are obtained in the paper made according to the following receipt, without any of the disadvantages of ivory, such as its limited size and changeable colour. Traces made on the surface of ivory paper by a hard black-lead pencil are much more easily effaced by rubber than from common drawing paper, which, together with the extremely fine lines.

Which its hard and even surface is capable of receiving, peculiarly adapts it for the reception of the most delicate kind of pencil-drawing and outlines. The colours laid upon it have a greater brilliancy than upon ivory, owing to the superior whiteness of the ground.

Take 1 lb. of clean parchment cuttings and put them into a 2-quart pan, with nearly as much water as it will hold; boil the mixture gently for 4 or 5 hours, adding water from time to time to supply the place of that driven off by evaporation; then carefully strain the liquor from the dregs through a cloth, and when cold it will form a strong jelly, which may be called size No. 1. Return the dregs of the preceding process into the pan, fill it with water, and again boil it as before for 4 or 5 hours; then strain off the liquor, and call it size No. 2. Take three sheets of drawing paper - outsides will answer the purpose perfectly well - wet them on both sides with a soft sponge dipped in water, and paste them together with the size No. 2. While they are still wet, lay them on a table, and place them upon a smooth slab of writing slate somewhat smaller than the paper, turn up the edges of the paper, and paste them on the back i of the slate, and then allow the paper to dry gradually. Wet as before three more sheets of the same kind of paper, and paste them on the others, one at a time; cut off with a knife what projects beyond the edges of the slate, and when the whole is perfectly dry, wrap a small piece of slate in coarse sand-paper, and with this rubber make the surface of the paper quite even and smooth.

Then paste on an inside sheet, which must be quite free from spots or dirt of any kind; cut off the projecting edges as before, and when dry rub it with fine glass-paper, which will produce a perfectly smooth surface. Now take 1/2 pint of the size No. 1, melt it with a gentle heat, and then stir into it 3 table-spoonfuls of fine plaster of Paris; when the mixture is complete, pour it out on the paper, and with a soft wet sponge distribute it as evenly as possible over the surface. Then allow the surface to dry slowly, and rub it again with fine glass-paper. Lastly, take a few spoonfuls of the size No. 1, and mix it with three-fourths its quantity of water; unite the two by a gentle heat, and when the mass has cooled so as to be in a semi-gelatinous state, pour one-third of it on the surface of the paper, and spread it evenly with the sponge; when this has dried, pour on another portion, and afterwards the remainder; when the whole has again become dry, rub it over lightly with fine glass-paper, and the process is completed; it may accordingly be cut away from the slab of slate, and is ready for use. The quantity of ingredients above mentioned is sufficient for a piece of paper 17 1/2 by 15 1/2 in.

Plaster of Paris gives a perfectly white surface; oxide of zinc mixed with plaster of Paris, in the proportion of 4 parts of the former to 3 of the latter, gives a tint very nearly resembling ivory; precipitated carbonate of baryta gives a tint intermediate between the two.