Secrets Concerning Colors and Painting

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§ VIII.  Preparations of Colors of All Sorts For Oil, Water, and Crayons.

LXVIII.  An oil to grind colors with, when the works are much exposed to the injuries of the weather.
    Take two ounces of mastich in drops, very clear, and grind it with linseed oil.  Then put in a well glazed pipkin any quantity of that oil, and set it on the fire to boil.  By little and little introduce in that boiling oil the above prepared mastich, stirring well the whole to mix and incorporate the better.  When done, take it from the fire and let it cool.  Such is the preparation of oil with which you are to grind your colors, when they are to be much exposed to the injuries of the weather, for they will resist it.

LXIX.  To marble and jasper paper.

LXX.  To clean pictures.

LXXI.  Another for the same purpose.

LXXII.  A secret to render old pictures as fine as new.

LXXIII.  An oil to prevent pictures from blackening.  It may serve also to make cloth to carry in the pocket against wet weather.

LXXIV.  A wash to clean pictures.

LXXV.  A very curious and simple way of preventing flies from sitting on pictures. or any other furniture, and making their dung there.

LXXVI.  To make indigo.
    Put some isatis, otherwise woad, or glastum, with slacked lime, to boil together in water.  There will rise a scum, which being taking off, and mixed with a little starch, makes the indigo.

LXXVII.  To make a yellow.
    What the luteola dyes yellow, becomes green by the woad, or glastum.  Whence we may justly conclude, that green is not a simple color, but a mixture of blue and yellow as the yellow itself is a compound of red and white.

LXXVIII.  An azure of mother-of-pearl.
    Take any quantity of superfine tested silver in laminas.  Put it a little while in vinegar; then take it out, strew over the laminas some pounce powder, to alcoholise them.  Next stratify them in a crucible; and when red hot, take them off from the fire, and you will have a fine azure.

LXXIX.  A white for painters, which may be preserved for ever.
    Put into a large pan three quarts of linseed oil, with an equal quantity of brandy, and four of the best double distilled vinegar; three dozen of eggs, new laid and whole; three or four pounds of mutton suit, chopped small.  Cover all with a lead plate, and lute it well.  Lay this pan in the cellar for three weeks, then take skillfully the white off, then dry it.  The dose of the composition for use is six ounces of that white to every one of bismuth.

LXXX.  Another white for ladies paint.
    To four parts of hog's lard add one of a kid.  Melt them together, then wash them.  Re-melt and wash them again.  Then add four ounces of ammoniac salt, and as much of sulphur, in subtile powder.  This white will keep a long time.

LXXXI.  A good azure.
    Take two ounces of quicksilver; sulphur and ammoniac salt, of each one ounce.  Grind all together, and put it to digest in a matrass over a slow heat.  Increase the fire a little; and, when you see an azured fume arising, take the matrass off from the fire.  When cool, you will find in the matrass as beautiful an azure as the very ultramarine itself.

LXXXII.  An azure from silver, done in less than a fortnight.
    Dissolve in very strong vinegar, as much gem-salt and roch-alum, as it will dissolve.  Put this in a new pipkin; and over it hang up laminas of the finest tested silver.  Cover the pot. and lute it well.  Bury it in the cellar; and ten or fifteen days afterwards take off the azure, which you will find about the laminas.  Replace things as before; and, ten days afterwards, the same again; and repeat this process as many times as you can get any azure by it.

LXXXIII.  To make an azured water.
    1.  Gather wallwort grains between green and ripe, and bake or stew them in a pan.  When they have boiled a considerable time, strain them through a cloth, and keep the juice in a glass phial; its color will never change, and will keep for ever very fine.
    2.  Have next dog's dung, very dry.  Pulverize it very fine, and sift it through a silk sieve.  Then grind it on a marble with the wallwort juice, and a mullar, as painters do their colors, and you will find this paste of a very fine azure color.
    3.  Now, if you tinge any water with this, by putting it in a phial to soak, you may dye whatever you will with it, such as thread, cotton, cloth, etc.

LXXXIV.  Another way of making azure.
    Take the bulk of a filbert of ammoniac salt, which dissolve in a common half pint glass tumbler of water.  Then pound and sift, all together, one ounce of vitriol, and one and a half of quick lime.  Put this powder into the water in which the ammoniac salt was dissolved.  leave this to infuse for the space of forty-eight hours, and at the end of that term the azure shall be done.

LXXXV.  A fine azure.
    Make an incorporation of three ounces of verdigrese, and of an equal quantity of ammoniac salt, which dilute with tartar water, so as to make a thick paste of it.  Put this composition into a glass, and let it rest for a few days, and you will have a fine azure.

LXXXVI.  Another way.
    Pulverize and mix well together one part of ammoniac salt, and two of verdigrease, with a little ceruse.  Then pour over it oil of tartar, enough to make a clear paste of it.  Put this in a glass vessel, which take care to stop and lute well.  When done, put it in an oven along with the bread, and take it out with it also, then the azure will be done.

LXXXVII.  Another way.
    Take sublimed mercury, four parts; ammoniac salt, two; sulphur vivum, one.  Pulverize the whole, and put the powder in a matrass, which lute well with the lute of sapience.  Put this matrass on a mild and slow fire; and, when you see a white fume beginning to rise, stop the fire.  When the matrass is cold, break it, and you will find a very fine azure at the bottom.  Now take it, and work it with lukewarm water first, and then with cold.
    Note.  There are some who absurdly wash it with lye, or a strong lime water; but they spoil their azure entirely.  What is most advisable, and indeed the only preparation allowable, it to boil a little white honey in the water, and skim it; and when that water becomes lukewarm, wash the azure with it.  This may contribute to give it a fine color, but the other will certainly hurt it.

LXXXVIII.  To make an admirable white lead, fit for oil painting and coloring of prints.
    Grind the finest white lead in flake you can find, on the stone with vinegar.  It will immediately turn black.  Wash it well in a pan of water, and let it settle.  Pour the water off by inclination, and grind it again with fresh vinegar, then wash it a-new.  Repeat this operation four or five times, and you will get a most beautiful white.

LXXXIX.  The preparation of verdigrease.
    Grind the verdigrease with vinegar, and put it in a piece of brown bread dough.  Bake it as you would bread; and when done, cut it open and take it out.  You will then have a very fine verdigrease, fit to work with, either in oil or water, as you like.

XC.  A fine liquid green.
    Mix well together, one pound of Montpelier verdigrease and half a pound of white tartar from the same place.  Put this a soaking for twelve hours in two quarts of the strongest vinegar, then reduce it by boiling to one half.  Let it rest for two days, and filter it afterwards in a bottle, wherein you keep it for use.

XCI.  To make the Still-de-grain, or Brown pink.
    Bruise and boil in three quarts of water, four ounces of French berries, to the reduction of one half.  Strain all through a cloth, and put in this juice a discretional quantity of whitening, pounded and sifted into a subtile powder, so as to make a thick paste, which put into small tied bags, and set to dry on tiles.  When dry, it is used with gum.  And to render it finer, you may put some gamboge.

XCII.  To make a fine vermilion.
    Make a mixture of cochineal powder and burnt alum.  Stifle it quite hot in rose or plantain water.  It will give you the finest vermilion in the world.

XCIII.  A secret to draw without either ink or pencil.
    Rub a sheet of paper with tripoly.  Then with any blunt point, form your drawing on it.  Whatever you trace will be visible.

XCIV.  To make an imitation of enamel on tin, for chimney branches, etc.
    Get a sheet of block-tin very clean, and cut it in the form, shape, and figure you choose to make your flowers and other things.  Grind what colors you propose to make use of, with clean water, and each separately, then let them dry.  When you want to employ them, each apart, with liquid varnish, and lay them on with the brush.  Set the work in the open air for fear the colors should run, and when they are a little thickened and consolidated, finish drying them before a gentle fire.

XCV.  A valuable secret to make exceeding good crayons, as hard as red chalk, discovered by Prince Rupert, brother to Prince Palatin.

XCVI.  To render the stone-cinnabar and vermilion finer; and at the same time, to prevent them from blackening.
    1.  You raise the hue of the stone vermilion, if, in grinding it, you add gamboge water, tinged with a little saffron.  This preparation extends only to the red.
    2.  With respect to the orange color, you must add some minium to it.
    3.  For the yellow, put a discretional quantity of orpine in cakes, prepared as follows:-- Take the finest orpine you can find, and grind it well with water.  Make it in little cakes, and set it to dry on paper.  When dry, pulverize and use it.
    4.  For the gridelin, take French sorrel and boil it in water, to draw as strong a tincture from it as you possibly can.  Then have white lead (dried in cakes, and prepared after the method above mentioned for the orpine) and grind it a-new with this sorrel tincture, then dry it.  Grind and dry it again, and repeat this operation with the sorrel tincture, till you have obtained the desired point of color.

XCVII.    Process used in making Eastern carmine.
    1.  Have a two quart glazed pipkin, quite new, wash it with boiling water, then fill it with water, very clean and filtered.  Set it on blasting coals, and when it begins to boil, throw in a drachm of chouan in fine powder, which boil very quick for near quarter of an hour.  Then strain this water through a cloth washed in lye, but not with soap and receive it in another new glazed pipkin, washed as the first.  Put this on a fire not quite so blasting as the first; and, when it begins to give signs of boiling, throw in an ounce of the finest cochineal, pulverized very fine.  Stir often with a hazel stick, stripped of its peel, and let boil gently for near a quarter of an hour;  then throw in sixty grains of autour in subtile powder, and keep it boiling for half a quarter of an hour.  Take it off from the fire, and throw in sixteen grains of Roman alum in powder, then strain it immediately through a clean cloth, washed with lye, and no soap, and receive it in two different large china bowls, new and perfectly clean.  Place these in a room, where they will be perfectly free from dust, and let them rest there for a week, that the carmine may have time to make a precipitation.
    2.  At the end of this term, decant out gently your tincture into two other china bowls, of the same size as the two former and as perfectly clean, taking great care in decanting, to do it so gently that the liquor may not carry the carmine along with it.  Then dry in a shade the carmine, which is left in the bottom of your bowls, gather it with a little brush, and keep it very cleanly.
    3.  Eight or ten days afterwards, more or less, decant again the tincture which is in the second bowl into a new varnished pipkin, then dry and gather the carmine, which is at the bottom, in the same manner as the first.
    4.  Then set the pipkin, in which the carmine had been decanted for this second time, on the fire, and vaporize the liquor gently, till the ground remains in the consistence pf a pap.  This pap-like ground must then be put into several small china cups, and placed in the sun to dry, which will procure you again another carmine, darker, and much less valuable than the first.-- Should there happen any moistness on your last cups, take it off immediately, but gently, and with a great deal of care.
    5.  In order to take the water off from your china bowls, you might make use of another method, viz. a very fine and clean sponge, in the following manner:  Dip your sponge into very clear and pure water, and there work it well with your hand, soaking and pressing it alternately, till you have rendered it very soft.  Hen press and squeeze it dry in a clean towel. Now, if you only approach it to the surface of the tincture water, it will immediately fill itself with it, and you may squeeze it into another empty bowl, this repeating the same process, till you have got it all out of the first bowls; taking care every time you approach it to the surface of the water, lest it should touch the carmine; for no doubt but it would carry some along with the water.
    6.  If you dissolve one drachm of mineral crystal into this tincture, by boiling it to that effect for five of six minutes, it will help a great deal the precipitation of the color, from which you take out afterwards the water with a sponge, as we said before.  Should the water you have thus drawn out be still tinged, you may add some more mineral crystal to it again; boil it as before, strain it through a cloth, and let it settle.  By these means you will have very fine crimson carmine.

XCVIII.  The process observed in making the lake.
    1.  Take one pound of Alicant kali, or Bril-ash, pulverized, which put in a kettle with four quarts of spring water.  Boil the whole for the space of a quarter of an hour, keeping stirring all the while with a stick, then take it from the fire, and let it cool, so as to be able to keep your finger in it without scalding.  When it is in that state, throw it in a jelly-bag, made of cloth, to filter it, and render it perfectly clear.  Put it next in a new glazed pipkin, with one ounce of finely pulverized cochaneal, previously diluted by degrees with some of the same lye.  Set it a boiling for half a quarter of an hour, and never cease to stir it with a stick all the while it is on the fire-- You may, if you choose, add one drachm of serra merita in fine powder, at the same time with that of the cochineal; it will render your lake the redder-- When the whole shall have boiled the prescribed time, take it off the fire, and let the tincture cool, in order to pass it through a cloth, or the above-mentioned jelly bags.  Set a large stone pan under the bag to receive the tincture which shall filter; and, when all is well drained, take the bag, turn it to throw off all the dregs, and wash it well, inside and outside, in clear water, and wring it quite dry.
    2.  Now hang again this same bag at two feet distance, or thereabout, above the pan wherein the tincture did run, and now is.  Dissolve, in about two quarts of warm spring water, six ounces of Roman alum well pounded, that it may more readily melt.  When this dissolution is no more than lukewarm, have somebody to pour it for you in the above jelly bag, while you stir with a stick what runs from it into your tincture, and do so till the whole is passed through, and the tincture froths no more-- Then wring well you bag again, to express all the alum's dissolution from it into your tincture, and wash it again afterwards in clear water, as before.
    3.  Have another stone pan like the first, hang your bag again over it, and pour all your tincture in it.  If it run clear like water, you may then let it go so; if not, put it again in the bag over the other, and continue so to do till it absolutely does run clear.  If however, after having repeated this three of four times, it should continue to run tinged, dissolve two or three ounces more of pulverized Roman alum in about two quarts of that tinged water, then stir and mix it well in the whole quantity of tincture, then pour it again in the bag where the lake is, re-pouring again and again what shall run first from it, till it runs quite clear, and does not even strain the paper.
    4.  Then let drain well the lake which is in the bag; and, with a box-spoon take it, and spread it on pieces of cloth, laid on plastered stones, and let it dry, in the shade where there is no dust, or where, at least, you may preserve it from any.

XCIX.  To make the fine columbine lake.
    1.  Take half a pound of the finest Brasil wood you can find.  Cut it in small bits, and pound it in an iron mortar.  Put this in a new glazed pipkin; pour over it two quarts of strong wine vinegar.  Let this infuse without the assistance of any heat for three whole days.  Boil it next for half an hour; then add one ounce of pulverized Roman alum, and boil it again for the space of three quarters of an hour. that the alum may the more perfectly be dissolved, and the stronger the color.
    2.  Take the pot off the fire; and rasping the softest part of a dozen cuttle-fish bones, add this powder to it,  Replace the pot on the fire, and stir the contents till you see a froth rising on the composition; when immediately taking the pot off from the fire again, cover with its lit, and let it stand for a week.  During that space of time you mush, however, carefully stir this matter four times a day.
    3.  Have next a glazed pan, filled with dry sand as high as three fingers from the brim.  In this sand put your pot half way in,  Place all on a charcoal fire, till it nearly boils; then, taking the pot off from the fire, run the liquor through a clean cloth.  Put it in different retorts, and set them halfway in the sand again, which, by this time, ought to be quite cold.  Replace all on the fire as before, and keep it there till it begins to simmer;  Then taking it form the fire, let it cool, and the lake is done.  But it must not be used till twelve days after.
    Note.  When the tincture is in the retorts, you may put in each of them half a gill of lye, made with vine branch ashes.  When you put the powder of cuttle fish bones in the tincture, you must take care it is warm.  The residue which is found at the bottoms of the retorts ought not to be thrown away, as it is very good to paint in water colors.

C.  A fine red water, for miniature painting.
    1.  Put in a new glazed pipkin one ounce of Fernamburg Brasil wood, finely rasped.  Pour three pints of spring water on it, with six drachms of fine white isinglass chopped very small.  Place the pot on warm ashes, for three days,  during which you are to keep up the same degree of heat.
    2.  When the isinglass is melted, add two ounces of kermes in grain, one of alum, and three drachms of borax, well pounded,  Boil this gently to the reduction of one half; then strain the liquor through a cloth, bottle and stop it well, and set it in the sun for a week before using.
    Note.  This water may very properly be used as a wash to give an agreeable bloom to pale faces.

CI.  The receipt of the fine Venetian lake.
    1.  Take one pound of good pearl ashes.  Put it in a large copper; then, pour over it six gallons of spring water.  Let the pearl ashes soak thus twenty four hours, after which, set the coppen on the fire, and boil it for one quarter of an hour.  Then filter through a cloth jelly-bag, and receive the filtration in a stone pan.
    2.  If not quite clear, filter it till it is; changing the pan only underneath, pour what ran thick in the bag again.  When all is new filtered and clear, put in the copper again, which must have been previously washed, and set it on the fire to boil.  When it boils, throw in two pounds of fine scarlet flocks which boil to whiteness.  Then filter again this lye tinged with scarlet color, in the before mentioned jelly bag, and press well the flocks, that there may not remain any color in them.
    Observe that your bag may serve both for the lake and the tincture, without being at the trouble of cleansing it, you must not filter through it the second lye from the copper, directly into it, the scarlet flocks would undoubtedly run with the lye, which would give you an infinite deal of trouble to get out of the bag after the filtering of the tincture.  And the least bit of it would entirely spoil the lake; to avoid all these inconveniences, strain your second lye either through a cloth, or another bag by itself.
    3.  While the tincture is filtering, get the copper well cleaned, and wiped dry.  Put the filtered tincture in it.  Dissolve, over the fire, in a glazed earthen pan, half a pound of Roman alum in one quart of spring water.  Then strain it quickly, and while warm, pour it in your tincture, keeping stirring all the while, and afterwards, till all the froth has quite subsided.  Boil next altogether, for the space of half a quarter of an hour. Then throw it in the same bag that filtered your first lye, and receive the filtration into a clean stone pan.
    4.  Besides this: boil again, in another quart of spring water, half a pound of Fernamburg Brasil wood, cut and bruised in an iron mortar.  Strain it through a cloth, and pour it along with the above dissolution of Roman alum in the jelly bag, and stir it to run altogether.
    5.  After all is run out of the bag, throw in again half a pint of quite clear and pure spring water.
    6.  When nothing runs any more out of the bag, the lake is left in it.  Take it out with a box spoon, and spread it on plaster flat stones, three fingers thick, and about half a foot square, covered with white cloth of the same size.  For should there be no cloth on the plaster, the lake would stick to it.
    Note.  It often happens for the first water which runs out of the bag to be muddy, and to carry some lake along with it.  But you must continue filtering till it comes bright and clear.  then taking off the pan from underneath, and substituting another, put that muddy liquor into the bag again.  Should the filtration by chance continue to run red, as it sometimes happens, you must still keep filtering the liquor through the bag, till it is clarified.

CII.  Directions for coloring prints.

CIV.  Directions for painting fresco.

CV.  Directions for the choice, use and composition of the colors employed for the above purpose.

 

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