Pigments, Paint and Painting: A practical book for practical menTerry, George
Science
Pigments, Paint and Painting: A practical book for practical men
Terry, George
Paint; Painting, Industrial; Pigments
(4) Other recipes for making mountain greens have been published which
bear no relation to the composition of the original article, _e. g._
by mixing a solution containing potash and arsenic with a solution of
bluestone; or, as a much more complicated example, treating a solution
of bluestone first with slaked lime, then with a solution of arsenic
and soda obtained by boiling in water, and finally with tartaric acid.
The advantages attendant on so much trouble in producing what is at
best an unstable pigment are not very apparent.
PARIS GREEN.--This is another name, used especially in
America, for the emerald greens described on p. 121.
PRUSSIAN GREEN.--A name often applied to class _b_ of the
Brunswick greens (see p. 114), or in other words those which are
prepared from Prussian blue.
RINMANN GREEN.--The first cobalt green (see p. 119), put on
the market was made by Rinmann, and hence it is still often called by
his name.
SAP GREEN.--This vegetable pigment or lake is closely allied
to the Chinese green or lokao, described on p. 129.
It consists of the solidified juice extracted from the berries of the
common buckthorn shrub (_Rhamnus catharticus_), which is obtained
either by allowing the berries to undergo slight fermentation for about
a week in wooden tubs, then pressing and straining; or by boiling the
berries, and straining off the juice. In either case the clean juice is
boiled down to a syrupy consistence, and a little alum (about ½ oz. to
the pint of thickened juice) is added, the liquor being then evaporated
to dryness, or very nearly to that point, the drying being left to
complete itself after the pigment has been ran into bladders.
The quality of this green is liable to serious fluctuation, owing to
the neglect or ignorance of certain simple precautions. Thus, for
a true green the berries should be selected before they have quite
reached maturity. The more nearly ripe the berries are, the more yellow
will be the tint of the green afforded by them. The boiling of the
berries, if followed, and the evaporation of the juice, must be done
at a low temperature, and the final stages of the evaporation cannot
safely be done with direct fire heat, but should be effected in a water
bath. The only substance incorporated with the juice should be potash
alum. Sometimes it is replaced by carbonate of magnesia (which destroys
the transparency of the pigment); or by carbonate of potash (which
introduces a stickiness or viscosity).
Sap green possesses too little body and is too translucent for use as
an oil paint; but being non-poisonous, and in fact perfectly harmless,
it finds many useful applications outside of water colour and pastel
painting, viz. in colouring alimentary substances such as drinks and
sweets. Its true colour is a leaf green, glossy and translucent. In
durability it is not remarkable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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