ABSTRACT
Paul Nooncree Hasluck was an Anglo-Australian writer and editor. He was the editor of Work and Building World, as well as being secretary of the Institution of Sanitary Engineers and a fellow of the Institute of Journalists. Although graining was a technique often derided as a sham it was very popular in achieving woodgrain effects for woodwork. Numerous books and articles were published on the topic in both decorators and DIY manuals. Graining is eminently an English art, for in this country it was first practised, and here it has attained the greatest perfection. More recently – perhaps in consequence of the disapproval of the art by the late John Ruskin, who wrote that “There is no meaner occupation for the human mind than the imitation of the stains and striae of wood and marble’’ – the adoption of graining or marbling in the embellishment of a building came to be considered as an exhibition of artistic ignorance.
