IX. How to prepare most colours for limning.X. To make what is called lamp-black.XI. Another way of, making black.XII. To make a blue.XIII. To make a turquin blue.XIV. A fine green for limning.XV. Another for the same purpose.XVI. To make what is called the Sap-green, or blackberry green.XVII. To make lake.XVIII. To make a liquid lake.XIX. Another way.XX. For the vermilion.XXI. For the making of carmine.XXII. Of the choice of colours fit for expressing the various complexions.

Valuable Secrets concerning Arts and Trades:
or Approved Directions, from the best Artists, for the Various Methods...
Printed by Thomas Hubbard,
Norwich, 1795Chap. V. Secrets concerning colours & painting. § III. Compositions for Limners.


IX. How to prepare most colours for limning.

Most colours are prepared, or grinded, with gum-arabic. Ocher makes the yellow; courant mourant, the white; verdigrise, the green; ceruse, the grey; lamp black, the black; cinnabar, the red; and gold in shell, the gold.


X. To make what is called lamp-black.

Put a large week of cotton in a lamp filled with nut oil; and light it. Prop over the flame a earthen dish, and now and then visit this dish, and gather all the black which fixed itself to it.


XI. Another way of, making black.

Burn some nut shells in an iron pan, and throw them in another full of water. Then grind them on marble with either oil or varnish.


XII. To make a blue.

Whitening grinded with verdigrise will make a very fine blue.


XIII. To make a turquin blue.

German turnsol infused for one night in chamber lye, then grinded with a discretionable quantity of quick lime, in proportion as you want to have it paler or darker.


XIV. A fine green for limning.

Grind some verdigrise with vinegar, and a very finall quantity of tartar. Then add a little quick lime, and sap-green, which you grind also well with the rest, and put in shells for keeping. If it become too hard, dilute it with a drop of vinegar.


XV. Another for the same purpose.

Grind on a marble stone, verdigrise, and a third of tartar, with white-wine vinegar.


XVI. To make what is called the Sap-green, or blackberry green.

Express the blackberry juice, when full ripe. Add force allum to it, put all in a bladder, and hang it in the chimney to dry.


XVII. To make lake.

Take three parts of an ounce of Brasil wood; a pint of clear water; one drachm and a half of roch-alum; one dozen and a half of grains of salt of tartar; the bulk of two filberts of mineral crystal; three quarters of a pound of the whitest found, or cuttle-fish bones, rasped. Put all together in a saucepan to boil, till reduced to one third. Strain it three times through a coarse cloth. To make a finer sort, strain it four times. Then set it in the sun under a cover to dry. That which dries the soonest the finest.


XVIII. To make a liquid lake.

Pound some cochineal and alum together; then boil them with ascertain quantity of lemon-peels cut very small. And when it is come to the right colour you want, pass it through a cloth.


XIX. Another way.

On a quantity of alum and cochineal pounded and boiled together, pour, drop by drop, oil of tartar, till it comes to a fine colour.


XX. For the vermilion.

Vermilion becomes very fine in aquavitæ, or in child's urine. But it will be still finer, if you put it in aquavitæ with a little saffron. It is used with whipped whites of eggs.


XXI. For the making of carmine.

1. Boil two quarts of spring water in a varnished pipkin; and, when it boils, throw in seven pugils of pulverisd chouam. After this has thrown two or three bubbles, take it off from the fire, and decant it in another clean pipkin. Then put in this water five ounces of cochineal in powder, and boil it for a quarter of an hour. Add three pugils of autour, in fine powder, and make it throw four bubbles. Then add three pugils of Roman alum in powder, and take it oat directly from the fire, which must be made of live coals.

2. Strain all this through a linen cloth, and divide this liquor into several delft vessels, and so let it remain for three weeks. At the end of that term pour off the water by inclination. You will find under a kind of mouldiness, which you must carefully pick off, and then gather the carmine.

Note. Every five ounces of cochineal give one of carmine. It is to be grinded on marble. A general opinion prevails, that this operation is best done in the crescent of the moon. How far it is needful to observe this precept is left to the wise to determine.


XXII. Of the choice of colours fit for expressing the various complexions.

1. For women and children; mix a little white and a little turnsol.

2. For men; a mixture of white and vermilion is proper.

3. For old folks; you must use some white and ocher.

4. For horses; you must chuse bistre, ocher, and white. The dark brown horses require a little addition of black. The grey want nothing but bistre and white.