Dictionarium polygraphicum. Sea-green colour for a tincture of glass.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
The first sea-GREEN colour for a tincture of Glas.

The Italians give the colour of sea-green to Beryl, which is a precious stone found at the foot of mount Taurus by the river Euphrates, which has the green-blue of the sea.

It is found in the Indies of a colour somewhat paler, which makes it be call'd by different names; and when the colour is deeper, they commonly pass for other precious stones: it is therefore the water expresses the colour.

This colour, which is one of the finest sky-colours, ought to be made of fine and well purified crystal, which the Italians call bollito; for if it be made of common glass, it is not so fair; nor must there be any manganese put to this colour.

Therefore to make it very fine and beautiful, take crystal frit, put it into a pot, set it in a furnace, where being well melted and clear, you must skim off the salt, which will swim on the top like oil, with an iron ladle; for if you should not take it off, the colour would be foul and oily.

The matter having been well purified, you must add to every ten pounds of it or thereabouts, three ounces of the powder of copper calcin’d (see COPPER calcin'd) with an eighth part of zoffer prepai’d, also in powder, and well mixt both together.

In putting both these powders into the pot on the crystalline metal, you must do it by little and little, for fear the crystal rising and swelling, should run over, of which care must be taken, by keeping stirring it well all the while.

When this has been done, let the metal stand still and settle for the space of three hours, that the colour may incorporate; then stir, it again, and you may then make a trial of the colour.

And it may be wrought twenty-four hours after the mixing of the powders, for by that time it will be well coloured; but the workman must first well mix the whole, for fear the colour should not be precipitated to the bottom, which must always be well observed in all vessels, wherein there are colours, and the doses of the tinctures rightly proportioned.


Another sea-GREEN made with less charge to colour glass.

Though this colour be inferior to the last, yet it has beauties sufficient to satisfy both the fight, and pay the pains of the work man. He must take the same preparation of scales of copper we ave mentioned, and the same dose of zaffer, with as much crystal made of rochetta of the Levant and barilla of Spain without any manganese either in the one or other, which has not been cast into water, but well purified from its salt, observing in this place all we have noted to be done in other preparations of crystal and sea-green, and you'll have a fine sky-colour or sea-green fit for any use.


Another sea-GREEN far finer than the rest.

Neri seems to be the inventor of this new sea-green, and to have experimented it; it is made with caput mortuum of vitriol of Venus, without any corrosive, which is a very curious preparation. This caput mortuum ought to be expos'd to the air for some days in a place where the sun cannot come, where (by a magnetical virtue) it will attract the universal spirit which will restore to it again part of that it has lost by extraction, and will become of a whitish Green colour; then pound it with the same dose of zoffer prepared; put the whole in a pot filled with crystal metal very fine and well purified from its salt. Observing all we have noted on this subject, it will make an extra ordinary sea-green.