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 THE ART ; 
 
 
 OF 
 
 MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 BY T. GOODWIN, 
 
 ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF THE “MANUAL OF ILLUMINATION,” 
 “THE LIFE OF FRA ANGELICO DA FIESOLE.” 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 &rs probat artificem. 
 
 
 ' L OM DON: 
 
 WINSOR AND NEWTON, 38, RATHBONE PLACE. 
 
 % 1874. 
 
 Price One Shilling. 
 

THE ART 
 
 or 
 
 MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 BY T. GOODWIN. 
 
 ONE OE THE AUTHORS OE THE “ MANUAL OE ILLUMINATION 
 “ THE LIEE OE ERA ANGELICO DA EIESOLE,” StC. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Hrg poll at arttficem. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR AND NEWTON, 38, RATHBONE PLACE, 
 
 Manufacturing artists’ (Eolourmm, fig Special appointment, to ®cr fflajrstu, 
 anti ®{jrir ftogal =l§tgt)nesscs ttjc prince anfi iprinccss of SBalcs. 
 
 [The Right of Translation is reserved.'] 
 
co aJ.S 
 pjb 
 
 G&Z' 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by A. Schulze, 13, Poland Street. 
 
 THE GETTY CENTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
1 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Prefatory Remarks 
 Historic Review .... 
 The Nature of Pigments 
 Oil and Tempera 
 
 List of Materials Requisite for 
 Tempera ..... 
 Practical Hints .... 
 Stereochrome or Water -Glass 
 
 Spirit Presco. 
 
 Fresco ..... 
 Encaustic ..... 
 
 Gilding. 
 
 Text Painting .... 
 Design. 
 
 Decoration in Oil or 
 
 
PREFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 — • — 
 
 The object of this Manual being to describe, in as few 
 and simple words as may well be, the Art of Mural Deco¬ 
 ration by means of colour and gilding—sometimes called 
 Polychromy—very little prefatory matter appears neces¬ 
 sary or desirable. With theories or so-called laws of 
 colour the author has absolutely nothing to do, that 
 being left to the artist: with the history of the art, 
 only so far as may relate to or explain its practise at the 
 present time, all else being the province of the archaeo¬ 
 logist. 
 
 The revival of a feeling for Gothic Art, which employed 
 colour so largely, happening to coincide with the rise of 
 an ecclesiastical movement, for some time prejudiced the 
 public mind against Mural Decoration. 
 
 The decorator’s bright colours were regarded with sus¬ 
 picion as vehicles of false doctrine and Foreign theology. 
 It is not so now, however. We no longer associate de¬ 
 corative art with any religious tendencies, esteeming it 
 rather as a means of satisfying that inward craving for 
 
6 
 
 PREFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 the beautiful, which Nature, the Great Teacher, has 
 implanted in us to outlive the transitory theories and 
 dogmas of the hour. We no longer colour churches 
 and parsonages only, but all our secular and domestic 
 buildings are thought incomplete, until the architect’s 
 work has been supplemented by that of the decorator. 
 
 We do not exaggerate when we say that scarce one 
 large public edifice has been erected in the last ten or 
 fifteen years, but has been more or less adorned with 
 colour. 
 
 It is not, however, by any means with reference to 
 such works as these, that this little Manual is designed. 
 They are intrusted, with varying success, to profes¬ 
 sional decorators—we write for amateurs. The amateur 
 has a very sufficient sphere of his own, and there are many 
 small works quite within his compass and means. Many 
 a small parish church might owe its adornment to the 
 hands of some would-be Angelico, many a humble school 
 room might have the poverty of its white-washed walls 
 redeemed by some skilful hand, while the decoration of 
 the dwelling house is a work always open to all, and 
 might form an agreeable relief to those weary of illumin¬ 
 ating illegible texts, or spoiling glass pots by converting 
 them into potichomanie. That amateurs do not under¬ 
 take this more, we believe, is from a mistaken idea of 
 the difficulty or expense attending the art. We have 
 endeavoured, therefore, in the following pages, to give so 
 clear and plain a description of the various methods and 
 processes which constitute the* Art of Mural Decoration 
 as to enable any one with a small knowledge of draught- 
 manship, and competent to handle a brush, to take up a 
 
PREFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 7 
 
 work from the beginning and carry it through with a 
 success only limited by his patience and powers of appli¬ 
 cation. While we Lave striven to render this Manual 
 thoroughly practical and useful, we have been anxious to 
 avoid dry technicalities as much as possible, and to touch 
 on such matters of interest as the nature of the subject 
 allowed. 
 
 At the same time, no process is described or recom¬ 
 mended which has not been tested, and many are given, 
 which, though old-established practises with professional 
 decorators, will doubtless be new to amateurs. Briefly, 
 then, we have attempted to compress within the limits of 
 a Manual, all that may be useful and practical on the sub¬ 
 ject of Mural Decoration, leaving extraneous matter to 
 those whom it more properly concerns. 
 

 THE ART 
 
 OP 
 
 MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 -- $)> — - 
 
 HISTOEIO REVIEW. 
 
 'There is no habit more common than that of accepting 
 results without bestowing a thought upon the means by 
 which they were attained. Perhaps life is too short to 
 enable us to act otherwise in practical matters. The 
 general consent of those best able to judge as to the 
 utility or quality of any article must determine our adop¬ 
 tion or rejection of it. Hor do we care to search into 
 and analyse its history and nature unless we desire to 
 make some change or improvement in the article itself. 
 And yet in the slow and gradual advance from the first 
 rough conception to the perfect, finished object, in the 
 difficulties encountered and overcome, and the patient 
 labour and thought necessary to its formation, there can¬ 
 not but be much interest to a contemplative mind. When 
 an artist sits down to his carefully adjusted easel with 
 his mahl stick and sheaf of hog-hair and sable pencils, 
 
 / 
 
10 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 and proceeds to ‘ set’ his palette from the numerous little 
 tinfoil tubes holding his pigments, he seldom thinks 
 of the history contained in each one of those articles he 
 so often uses. We have to travel back in imagination, 
 aided by the pages of a Theophilus or Cennini, and peer¬ 
 ing into some monastic cell, watch its occupant as he 
 busily grinds and sifts, and washes and boils and mixes 
 all his crude pigments, or laboriously selects the little 
 bundles of hair which are to form his pencils, before we 
 fully appreciate what has been achieved for us. A treatise 
 on Mural Decoration as practised now, will hardly be com¬ 
 plete without some reference to its employment in days 
 gone by. Nor could any subject well be found possess¬ 
 ing greater attractions for lovers of art. For the condi¬ 
 tions under which the art, we now call decoration, existed 
 in the early times connected it so closely with that 
 which is properly termed pictorial art, that the one could 
 scarcely be described or recorded without constant re¬ 
 ference to the other. And since decorative art, not 
 only like all other arts, derives its rise from archi¬ 
 tecture, but even cannot exist without it, it would be 
 very hard to draw their respective limits. Passing over 
 too the influence which religious theories have at all 
 times exercised over the decorative art—the power of 
 climate, habit and innumerable circumstances to fos¬ 
 ter or restrain it, and coming to the more practical 
 and material part, the preparation of pigments in the 
 middle ages, would lead us somewhat deep into Chemistry, 
 nay, almost, according to the ideas of those times, into 
 Alchemy, and their application, would include no slight 
 history of the arts of Illumination and Heraldry. 
 
THE AET OE MUEAL DECOEATION. 
 
 11 
 
 From a scheme so vast as this, the author of a little 
 Manual like the present may well be excused, not only 
 on the very sufficient ground of want of knowledge, 
 power and space, but also because there are already many 
 valuable works in existence written by those who are 
 masters of the subject, supplying all necessary in¬ 
 formation. It will be interesting, however, to take a 
 very brief review of the gradual progress of the art in 
 different times and countries, that we may examine how 
 it was practised by various nations, and the improvements 
 effected by experience, and hence, learn how best it may 
 be practised at the present time. 
 
 Inasmuch, as painting consists simply in the applica¬ 
 tion of pigments diluted and mixed with various fluids 
 to any given surface, it will be seen that to understand 
 clearly the various systems of painting which have existed, 
 it is necessary to enquire first what and how many these 
 fluids are. They are called vehicles, and sometimes, but 
 not so correctly mediums. A vehicle is that fluid which 
 carries and bears the colour in suspension from the 
 palette to the surface to be painted. A medium properly 
 speaking, is a vehicle which is neither actually oil nor 
 water, but possesses to a certain degree the properties of 
 both. Although we recognise now six varieties of systems 
 of painting, viz.:—Tempera, Fresco, Encaustic, Oil, 
 Stereochrome, and Spirit Fresco, it will much simplify 
 the subject, if we divide them practically into two heads. 
 Those possessing a watery vehicle, and those employing 
 an oily vehicle. TJnder the first will fall Tempera or Dis¬ 
 temper, Fresco and Stereochrome ; under the second, Oil 
 painting proper, Encaustic and Spirit Fresco. Stereo- 
 
12 
 
 THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 clirome or water-glass, speaking strictly, is the only system 
 to which the term water-colour is applicable. In it the 
 powdered pigments are applied with a vehicle of pure 
 distilled water alone. In Fresco, water mixed with lime 
 is used. In Tempera, the vehicle is mixed with parch¬ 
 ment or glue size, white and yolk of egg, gum and other 
 substances of a glutinous nature. Encaustic appears to 
 have been practised among the ancients in two or three 
 several ways, some more resembling the art of modelling 
 in wax by the aid of a heated graver or oestrum, 
 and others where the wax was held in solution by a 
 volatile oil, such as turpentine or naptha. But in all 
 alike, wax was the basis, and for this reason it may be 
 regarded as belonging rather to the oily than the aqueous 
 division of vehicles. In the recently invented method of 
 Spirit Fresco, wax is used mixed with certain resins and 
 oil of spike, exhibiting a curious link between en¬ 
 caustic and oil painting proper, which uses various oils, 
 as linseed, poppy and nut variously mixed with turpen¬ 
 tine and other dryers. 
 
 It very little concerns the present purpose to enquire 
 who first discovered or practised the art of architectural 
 decoration, even were the inquiry practicable. The love 
 of colour is so closely planted in human nature and is 
 found so universally in all nations, varying infinitely as 
 they may in other respects, that we may safely conclude 
 that colour has always formed a part of and been as¬ 
 sociated with the requirements of architecture. It could 
 not be otherwise from the very nature of the materials 
 employed. When the changes or influences of the climate 
 first prompted man to raise some shelter for his head, 
 
THE ART OF MTJRAL DECORATION. 
 
 13 
 
 with what materials did he set to work ? The trunks 
 and massive houghs of trees which the storm had laid 
 low would naturally he the fittest for his purpose. And 
 these gnarled and twisted into a thousand spiral curves, 
 with their grey-green hark flecked with purple, and 
 scarlet, and gold mosses and lichen, set up side hy side, 
 formed the first rude habitation. Add to this, a carpet of 
 emerald green varied by every hue of gem-like flowers, 
 and the great arched dome of the bright blue sky, seen 
 through the many crevices of the roof, and you have all 
 the highest elements of artistic decoration combined in 
 the simplest possible form. Was it possible for men who 
 had passed their first existence in some garden-like locality, 
 gorgeous with such an utter prodigality of colour and 
 sensuous attraction, not to attempt to recal in some 
 degree its beauties as the necessities of a more artificial 
 existence became more and more forced on them ? And 
 again, as they progress and employ first the skins of the 
 beasts slain in the chase, and then the products of the 
 loom and cunning work of the skilful female fingers for 
 the comfort and adornment of their habitations—their 
 ideas of colour become almost unconsciously systematised 
 and regulated, until we find them perfected and mature 
 in the mighty temples and rock-hewn tombs of Egypt, 
 where every colour has its law, and place, and meaning, 
 not to be violated or altered, and where art and religion 
 appear to have allied themselves. With Egypt then we 
 may well commence our review of ancient Decorative 
 Art. 
 
 Erom the evidence not alone of the temples and other 
 buildings, but also from the extensive decorations found 
 
14 
 
 THE ART OF MORAL DECORATION. 
 
 existing on domestic utensils, furniture, &c., we may 
 safely conclude that the Egyptians possessed a strong 
 natural love for colour, though of somewhat crude 
 character. Their colouring consists of different disposi¬ 
 tions of the primaries, red, blue and yellow, with the 
 addition of green and black, according to the same 
 severe conventional principles, which ruled their or¬ 
 nament. It is difficult to see any advance from the earliest 
 to the latest periods. The art never progressed beyond 
 a precocious childhood. With play of fancv or struggles 
 after an ideal type of beauty, it had nothing to do. It 
 was practised under the jealous care and superintendence 
 of the priesthood, and being consecrated to the perpetua¬ 
 tion of certain ideas respecting the gods and their 
 representative, the king partook of the conservative and 
 stationary character which ever marks an era of priestly 
 domination, and which may be seen later in Byzantine 
 work. The method employed by the Egyptians was 
 Tempera or Distemper, that is their colours were diluted 
 with weak glue and water, the glue probably being made 
 from the hides of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus or 
 crocodile. Owing to the marvellously clear and pure 
 atmosphere of the country, this vehicle has lasted in a 
 manner unequalled by anything else—the colours, exposed 
 in many cases to the external air, are as clear and sharp 
 as if applied yesterday, and scarcely in any instance are 
 there signs of fading. Wax has been discovered mixed 
 with the colours in some cases, only we believe in small por¬ 
 table pictures or pieces of furniture. “ According to the 
 best chemical analysis of Egyptian colours, the blues 
 appear to be oxides of copper with a small admixture of 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 15 
 
 iron, none of them contain cobalt.” Belzoni, therefore, 
 who supposed the Egyptian blues to be indigo, appears 
 to be in error. “ There can be little doubt,” says Mr. 
 Field speaking of ultramarine, “ that is the same pig¬ 
 ment which still continues in all its original force and 
 beauty in the Temples of Upper Egypt, after an exposure 
 of at least three thousand Tears.” 
 
 ‘‘ The reds are red oxide of iron mixed with lime. 
 The yellows which are sometimes of a pure bright 
 sulphur colour, appear to be generally vegetable colours; 
 the greens are a mixture of this vegetable yellow with 
 copper blue ; this vegetable, it has been suggested, might 
 be the henne plant which is still used in the east for such 
 purposes. The bluish green which sometimes appears 
 on Egyptian antiquities is a faded blue. The blacks 
 might be from wine lees, burnt pitch, charcoal or soot.” 
 (Timbs, “ Painting popularly explained.”) 
 
 Thus it will be seen, with few exceptions, the pigments 
 employed are formed on such good chemical basis as 
 to leave small doubt as to their durability. Much of 
 our knowledge of the materials employed by the Egyptian 
 art-workmen is derived from discoveries in the tombs of 
 Thebes and elsewhere. Here have been found palettes, 
 slabs, mullers and specimens of the reed pens used in 
 “ setting out” their designs. According to Mr. Owen 
 Jones, the method of procedure with a wall was as fol¬ 
 lows : “ The wall was first chiselled as smooth as possible, 
 the imperfections of the stone were filled up with cement 
 or plaster, and the whole was rubbed smooth and 
 covered with a coloured wash 5 lines were then ruled 
 perpendicularly and horizontally with red colour, form- 
 
16 
 
 THE ART OF MURAD DECORATION. 
 
 ing squares all over tlie wall, corresponding to the 
 proportion of the figures to be drawn upon it. The 
 subjects of the painting and of the hieroglyphics were 
 then drawn on the wall with a red line, most probably 
 by the priest or chief scibe, or by some inferior artist, 
 from a document divided into similar squares; then 
 came the chief artist who went over every figure and 
 hieroglyphic with a black line, and a firm steady hand, 
 giving expression to each move, deviating here and 
 confirming there the former red line. The line thus 
 traced was then followed by the sculptor. In this state 
 there are instances of a foot or a head having been 
 completely sculptured (incised) whilst the rest of the 
 figure remains in outline. The next process was to paint 
 the figure in the prescribed colours; and in some cases 
 the painted line deviates from the sculptured line, show¬ 
 ing that the painter was the more important workman, 
 and that even in this last process no possible improve¬ 
 ment was omitted. There are other instances where a 
 considerable deviation from the position of a leg or arm 
 has been made after the sculpture was finished and 
 painted, the part was recarved and the defective portion 
 filled in with plaster, which having since fallen out, 
 furnishes us with this curious evidence of their practice. 
 The same rigid system of procedure must have obtained 
 in the decoration of their hieroglyphic MSS., sacophagi 
 and obelisks, all of which are sacred in intention and 
 conventional in execution.” 
 
 Of the extensive employment of the decorative art 
 among the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans there 
 is not the slightest doubt, although the descriptions in 
 
THE AET OF MIJEAL DECORATION. 
 
 17 
 
 Pliny, Vitruvius and others, generally obscure and fre¬ 
 quently impossible, do not give us particularly clear 
 notions of the system employed. Both Greeks and 
 Romans, however, made use of Tempera and perhaps 
 more largely Encaustic. In the practise of Tempera there 
 could have been little variation from the method employed 
 by the Egyptians. The clear bright sky of Greece or 
 Rome, though less dry and pure than that of Egypt, would 
 allow the use of media inapplicable in northern regions. 
 There is little doubt that the vehicle employed was 
 the ordinary glue size, perhaps supplemented with yolk of 
 egg and the juice from the cuttings of fig trees. In 
 many cases at Pompeii, colours in a water vehicle have 
 been afterwards protected with a colourless wax varnish, 
 made probably either by melting wax by heat in a drying 
 oil, or by solution in a volatile oil such as naptha. The 
 pigments used, appear simply the red and yellow ochreous 
 earths with white and a black, which was most likely 
 lamp black. Various hues and tints were derivable from 
 those possessing of course the same qualities, and with 
 this limited palette they appear to have been for a long 
 time content. With the Greeks appears to have originated 
 the system styled Encaustic, afterwards introduced into 
 Rome, of which Pliny has left us so puzzling an account. 
 Passing over two methods of practising this art, which 
 seem allied more to modelling than painting, we find 
 in the third a system differing but little from that now 
 employed. Although the term encaustic is vaguely given 
 to any system where wax is used, it does not strictly in¬ 
 volve the use of wax at all, meaning simply “ a burning in.” 
 However, in this the levigated colours were mixed with 
 
 c 
 
 
 0^-v- 
 
18 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 pure wax dissolved by means of heat and afterwards kept 
 in pots. The wall having been prepared and saturated 
 with dissolved wax, these colours must have been suf¬ 
 ficiently liquid to be applied with the pencil, by solution 
 in some essential or fixed oil, and perhaps by the addition 
 of some resin. When the design was completed and the 
 colours dry, a brazier of live coals or a heated cautery 
 was held at some little distance and passed over the wall 
 surface until the colours frothed. This Drought up and 
 fused the wax of the ground with that of the medium, and 
 so “ locked up” the colour between them, somewhat in 
 the way attained by the lime in Fresco, or the water-glass 
 in Stereochrome. The last process was that of polishing 
 the surface with a cerate, and finally rubbing it down 
 with clean linen cloths until it had attained a perfect 
 lustre and brilliant polish like that of a mirror. Such 
 was the Encaustic method of the Greeks and Komans and 
 of the early Christians, before their attention was turned 
 to the more durable system of mosaics. Later, we shall 
 point out the chief differences between their Encaustic 
 and that used at the present day. In this, in Tempera, 
 and possibly in Eresco secco, i.e., lime water colours upon 
 dry plaster, did they decorate their gorgeous Atria, 
 Temples and Basilicas, as the Pompeian remains amply 
 demonstrate, bio gentleman’s house was thought com¬ 
 plete without its lavish adornment of arabesque and 
 figure subjects, which in the later days of the Empire 
 degenerated into something very like scene painting. 
 The Romans never had the true and delicate feeling 
 for art which formed part of the life and nature of 
 the Greek, having a preference for gorgeousness 
 
THE ART OP MTJRAL DECORATION. 
 
 19 
 
 rather than chasteness, strength than beauty, and violent 
 contrast than subtle harmony. 
 
 With Christian and Mediaeval art, we begin to emerge 
 somewhat from the region of ingenious guessing and 
 hap-hazard conjectures, and arrive at tolerably safe 
 ground. Theophilus and Eraclius in the twelfth, and 
 Cennino Cennini in the fifteenth centuries supply ns with 
 information as valuable in matter as it is amusing in 
 style, and together with the rolls and MS. accounts of 
 various monasteries, and the charming gossipping lives of 
 Yasari, afford materials for a history of the art which 
 have been ably employed by Sir C. Eastlake and 
 others. 
 
 Eor a long time, the early church regarded the decora¬ 
 tive and pictorial arts with suspicion and dislike. Eor 
 this there may be several reasons, the chief being that 
 Manichean belief in the inherent evil of matter which 
 almost unavoidably infected anew sect, struggling against 
 a system of idolatry. To the ascetic and heatedly zealous 
 mind of a Christian convert, the gentle legends and tender 
 myths of Olympus were nothing less than doctrines of 
 devils—all that ministered thereto was poisoned and 
 infected—the sensuous attractions of colour, and form, and 
 music, snares of the evil principle, and the practisers of 
 of those arts which had conduced so much to the civiliza¬ 
 tion of the world, dealers in unholy things. Thus, for 
 a long while, their efforts were directed to render the 
 form of worship as purely spiritual as might be, to the 
 exclusion of all that might affect or move the min d 
 through the senses. It must be remembered, also, that 
 their persecution as a political sect would necessarily 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 THE ART OE MORAL DECORATION. 
 
 retard the progress of art, since men in frequent danger of 
 their lives were not very likely to attract attention to 
 themselves by the splendour of their conventicles, or 
 (devote much time or thought to their adornment. After 
 a while, however, as the little body of Christians ramified 
 and increased, the necessity of making some concessions 
 to the predilections of heathendom was recognised, and 
 the church began that policy of suiting herself to the 
 circumstances and foibles of her time which has generally 
 marked her history. While some of her ablest writers 
 conciliated the philosophers, by trying to show the com- * 
 mon ground existing between Christianity and Philosophy, 
 and the school of Alexandria allegorised until fact seemed 
 very like fable—in art various heathen emblems and 
 figures were adopted as typical of Christ and Christian 
 ideas. The dove, sacred to Venus, becomes the emblem of 
 Christian love ; the cock, of watchiulness ; the phoenix and 
 peacock, of eternity; the palm branch, the symbol of 
 victory, the sign of victory over death ; while Cupid and 
 Psyche come to signify eternal love, and Christ is 
 represented as a shepherd, as Orpheus and sometimes 
 even as Agonothetes, or Umpire in the public games. All 
 these may be seen, with many other specimens of decora¬ 
 tion and pictorial art in the Roman Catacombs, which 
 for a long time were the only places of safety both for 
 worship and sepulture. But when, on the accession of 
 Constantine, that remarkable Concordat between church 
 and state took place, which is ordinarily called his Con¬ 
 version, the state church had time and opportunity to 
 develop©, increase, become rich and even ultimately to 
 persecute. As, by degrees, the simple and somewhat 
 
THE AET OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 21 
 
 narrow doctrinal ideas of early days became exchanged for 
 the more worldly views better suiting an age of power 
 and luxury, the necessity of gorgeous display, of spectacle 
 and lavish use of colour and gold was fully seen, and the 
 decoration of ecclesiastical edifices established in a form 
 which the Catholic church has never since given up. 
 
 Whatever effect this practise may have had upon 
 religion, it is impossible to overestimate its influence 
 upon art. The church became the foster-mother and 
 patron of the art-workman, in most cases we must allow 
 a generous one, and the workman repaid her care by 
 contributing to her glories, illustrating her practise and 
 populaifising her dogmas through the means of the exter¬ 
 nal senses. Thus, religion and art may be said to have 
 walked hand in hand until that wonderful movement, 
 which in religion is called the Reformation, and in art 
 the Renaissance, but which is really traceable to one and 
 the same cause, enabled art to take up an independent 
 position and stand alone. A very great impetus was 
 given to the practise of Mural Decoration, both in its 
 higher and subordinate branches, by the spread of the 
 monastic system. A body of men living in semi-seclusion 
 would gladly hail the practise of any innocent art as a 
 relief from the tedium and monotony of incessant repeti¬ 
 tion of the Divine office, specially too, where, as in the pre¬ 
 sent case, it could be brought into use for the aggrandise¬ 
 ment of their favourite shrines. And thus grew up a 
 system of artistic practise and conventional tradition 
 which was handed down by one generation of monks to 
 that succeeding it, together with the little secrets and 
 receipts which naturally group themselves around. But 
 
22 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 of all orders, the Dominican was ever the most addicted 
 to the fine arts, and from that obedience sprung some of 
 the greatest names of the middle ages. The excellence 
 of mediaeval art is to be accounted for mainly by the 
 universal character of mediaeval genius. The same man 
 was often painter, architect and sculptor, and thus was 
 able to direct each and all of those branches of art in 
 any work he might be engaged upon. The names of 
 Giotto, Michael Angelo, Rafael and Leonardo will at 
 once recur to the reader as examples of this. The 
 influence this circumstance had upon architecture and 
 sculpture is universally allowed, not less must have been 
 that reciprocally exercised upon both pictorial and decora¬ 
 tive painting—-the artistic element showing forth in the 
 exquisite conventionalisms and patterns of polychrome, 
 the decorative delighting in introducing its own peculiar 
 gorgeousness and brilliance of effect into the compositions 
 of the painter. But independently of this, religious and 
 secular art were not so broadly distinguished then as now. 
 The same style of architecture was employed for both 
 church and palace, the same painter embellished the 
 cathedral and the council chamber; and thus we find a 
 continual interchange of symbol and ornament, religious 
 and secular; in the church we often see pourtrayed 
 objects decidedly secular and not a little ludicrous; in 
 the private house, scenes, incidents and emblems which 
 the better taste of those days would reserve for religious 
 edifices. The revival of Gothic art, some thirty years back, 
 gave an example of this exaggerated usque ad nauseam. 
 No decoration was considered complete or in true 
 “ gothic taste” without incessant repetition of the cross, 
 
THE ART 0E MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 23 
 
 fleur de lys and monogram i.h.s., their meaning or special 
 fitness for any position not being thought of for one 
 moment. 
 
 It is Mr. Buskin, I think, who says that in one respect 
 at least, that of colour, the term <£ dark ages” would be 
 more appropriately applied to the present time than 
 to the middle ages. Our forefathers really delighted 
 in colour, they had a hearty honest love of positive bright 
 tints, applying them boldly, generally with good effect, 
 to nearly all places and purposes. It is not a little sin¬ 
 gular to turn over the pages of a MS. Hour Book or 
 Missal and examine some of the many interiors of churches 
 it contains. The pavement, brilliant with encaustic or 
 mosaic work—the walls, decorated with diapers and pow- 
 derings of the most vivid tints and striking contrasts, the 
 legends and martyrdoms of saints perhaps carried round 
 above the string course; piers, arches and mouldings 
 glow with gorgeous colours ; the roof high over head is 
 a little mimic heaven with its azure and gold stars, and 
 groups of musical angels ; while windows which rival the 
 ruby and sapphire, and emerald in fire, cast their bril¬ 
 liant light upon the .marble and jewelled altar and ta¬ 
 bernacle, and shrine and rood, and many a fair image 
 decked and adorned with gold and vermilion. Imagine 
 such a fane as this, the air faint with incense, filled with 
 priests and acolytes in robes of fine linen, and brocade, and 
 cloth of gold, grouped with worshippers in quaint and 
 lively costumes of rich texture and bright colour, and we 
 have a tolerably clear idea of a mediaeval church as 
 depicted in the MSS. It is somewhat barbaric in its 
 prodigality of colour, slightly overpowering and exhaust- 
 
24 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 ing in its glitter of gold and sparkle of jewels, and crude 
 contrast of positive colours. It suggests ideas of a 
 sacred kaleidoscope, and yet is satisfactory as it proves 
 that men and women in those days did not whitewash 
 nature or reduce the prismatic rays to drab. Just as 
 the conversation of the time was broader than good taste 
 sanctions now, so their notions of colour were somewhat 
 more pronounced and positive than we should quite care 
 for at the present day, and yet good of their kind, 
 because honest and true. There is as much difference 
 between mediaeval and modern ideas of colour, as there is 
 between the childish faith of the middle ages and the 
 discriminating reason of the present day. 
 
 It will be interesting to the amateur to make a brief 
 survey of the gradual rise and progress of the decorative 
 art in our own country, before we turn our attention to 
 the vehicles, systems and materiel employed. 
 
 The value of Polychrome as an adjunct to architecture 
 in heightening sculptural decorations, harmonising blank 
 and otherwise unrelieved surfaces, and “ picking out” 
 mouldings and carving by light and shade, was early felt. 
 It was not, however, considered as absolutely necessary 
 or indispensable, since there are many buildings which 
 it is well known never received colour in this, or, indeed, 
 in any other way. The degree to which it is used is 
 very capricious also : sometimes the whole of a church 
 will be coloured, to the entire concealment of surface— 
 occasionally of costly material, as alabaster and marble, 
 
 while at other times, only parts will be touched, and 
 that sparingly with colour and gold. The same forms 
 and ornaments will be found repeated in many places ; 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 25 
 
 the same treatment of peculiar features, the same broad 
 principles of colour and conventionalism influenced by 
 the particular temperament and character of the indi¬ 
 vidual artist. 
 
 The Venerable Bede informs us that Benedict Biscop 
 at the end of the 7th century adorned the church at 
 Weremouth with pictures. Wilfrid also is related to 
 have done the same at Hexham, William, of Malmesbury, 
 relates how Ernulph, Prior of Cantuar, at the end of the 
 11th century, restored the eastern part of the cathedral, 
 and adorned it “ with many coloured pictures which led 
 the wondering eyes to the very summit of the ceiling ; and 
 the chancel which Ernulph left unfinished was superbly 
 completed by his successor Conrad, who decorated it 
 with excellent paintings, and furnished it with precious 
 ornaments.” (W. of Malmesbury, quoted from Professor 
 Willis’s Canterbury Cathedral.) 
 
 The earliest traces of colour in churches are very rude, 
 and consist generally of bands of colour on some ground 
 wash. The patterns used in the early paintings bear a 
 strong resemblance to the coeval sculpture and MS. 
 decorations. Winchester Cathedral in the north transept 
 possesses a remarkable piece of painting upon the early 
 Norman arches, executed in tw T o tones of red. The 
 Norman work in Rochester Cathedral has also been 
 extensively decorated, and the sculpture picked out in 
 colour. The spandrils of the triforium and the south 
 transept (13th century) may be particularly instanced. 
 Even this rude Norman work begins to show considerable 
 taste and feeling for colour, as instanced by the use of 
 complimentary and contrasting colours. 
 
26 
 
 THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 The following account quoted from a paper on Poly¬ 
 chromatic Decoration by Mr. Whichcord in ISTeale’s 
 papers on Architecture, will be found to give a very 
 accurate description of the gradual developement and 
 improvements effected in colour. 
 
 “ During the former part of what is called the Early English period, 
 i.e. from 1189—1216, decorative painting made hut little progress, 
 and the extant specimens exhibit a similar mode to that formerly in 
 use. Colours were used in masses, without distinction of detail. A 
 screen of about this date against the north and south walls of the 
 Lady Chapel at Winchester has the central columns of its tripled 
 shafts painted alternately red and black, the colours on either side of 
 the centre being painted in the contrasting colour. In this case the 
 colour on the columns extends to the adjacent hollow, without any 
 other relief than a double hand of black encircling those columns that 
 are red, at about every foot in height. When painting was only 
 partially introduced, as was the case in simple works, such as churches 
 in rural districts, red was the favourite tint used in capitals and bases 
 of the columns, and often appearing as a margin to the internal 
 window-jamh, if it was without mouldings, of the breadth of two or 
 three inches, sometimes with a narrow black line running beside it on 
 its outer edge. Eew traces of colouring of much greater interest will 
 he found prior to the accession of Henry III. The paintings in 
 churches of an early character were often executed at a later period ; 
 and this may generally be suspected when no letters nor costumes are 
 represented to determine the precise date: such decorations as we 
 have alluded to, with a few figures on the plaster of the chancel walls, 
 under the east window and on the chancel arch painted in red or black 
 outline, a few sentences and a ruder cross or two, are all that the art 
 of the former part of the 13tli century appears to have been capable 
 of producing. . . . 
 
 “ A free and bold style of Arabesque prevailed from the time of 
 Henry III. until the close of the reign of Edward III. Bright and 
 lively colours were applied in masses,—the grounds covered with a com¬ 
 position of foliage and birds, animals and human figures,—sometimes 
 in one tint, sometimes in varied colours. Beautiful instances exist 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 27 
 
 in Rochester Cathedral, in the groining of the crypt, and in a piece 
 of wall painting in S. Ninian’s Chapel: in the same Cathedral, and 
 under the canopy of the monument of Aveline, Countess of Lancaster, 
 in the choir of Westminster. (Strongly resembling these in general 
 effect must be the coloured decorations of S. Jacques, Liege, and the 
 Temple Church, London.) The groined ceiling of Adam de Orlton s 
 Chapel, in Winchester Cathedral, exhibits on a straw-coloured ground 
 among green foliage, with flowers, green and blue medallions, in 
 which are painted the heads of angels surrounded by a nimbus ; the 
 groining ribs have their mouldings marked in various colours, and a 
 rnnning enrichment in a chevron pattern is painted red and black on 
 the centre moulding: the coloured mouldings of this date are often 
 powdered with rosettes or similar ornaments in red, black, or gold ; 
 and it was not unfrequent to cover with a sculptured diaper even 
 those mouldings which were intended to be painted.” 
 
 As we have already said, the degree to which colour 
 was applied, varies much. If it was intended to entirely 
 colour the chancel or church, the lower part of the walls 
 up to the string-course was often painted of some darker 
 colour, as chocolate or Indian red, and the brighter tints re¬ 
 served for the space above, up to the wall-plate or roof. 
 Large surfaces of colour were always broken with diaper 
 patterns in a lighter tint or gold. Thus, light green on 
 dark, pink on maroon, gold on red, ivere very favourite 
 combinations. Diapers—so called from the designs on 
 napkins and cloths of Tpres—either extend in a con¬ 
 tinuous pattern all over a surface, or consist of many 
 sprigs, flowers and ornaments, spotted about in geometri¬ 
 cal arrangement. These are more properly called pow- 
 derings. The large diapers were broken and edged by 
 borders of rich and elaborate composition round doors, 
 windows, and openings. Borders also are generally 
 found under string-courses, on wall-plates, and any 
 
28 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 position which it was wished to define particularly. In 
 the older paintings, different mouldings were usually 
 coloured without distinction ; in later examples, however, 
 we find many colours employed to get the effect of light 
 and shade. Plain surfaces, however small,—as those of 
 small ornamental buttresses—are seldom left unorna¬ 
 mented, and usually bear a pattern in two tints of the 
 same colour. The roofs, whether of groined stone or of 
 timber received much attention and ornament. When 
 groined, as we have before noticed in the crypt of Roch¬ 
 ester, Adam de Orlton’s Chapel, Winchester, S. Jacques, 
 Liege, the roof was generally treated with arabesque and 
 flowing patterns of foliage in green, gold, and red, broken 
 at intervals with medallions of blue, bearing the heads or 
 busts of saints, and sometimes angels with musical instru¬ 
 ments. As a very successful modern example of this, the 
 roof of Merton College, Oxford, where the oak boarding 
 of the roof has quite the mellow effect of gold and softens 
 the colours in a remarkable way. Where the roof was of 
 wood, canted, or the ordinary cradle-roof, the panels were 
 frequently tinted blue and covered with devices in gold 
 and colour as monograms, crosses, and most of all stars, 
 which was a very favourite mode of ornament. Bosses, 
 whether of wood or stone, are exquisitely coloured and 
 heightened with gilding—-sometimes to the concealment of 
 the material, sometimes allowing the stone or oak to show 
 through. Moulding-ribs are treated with bands, points, 
 and chevrons of colour, as it were, fastening them to¬ 
 gether. If the roof were of groined stone—frequently 
 also in wood—a bright border ran on either side of the 
 vaulting-rib, unless, however, kept at a sufficient distance 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 29 
 
 from the rib itself it would have the effect of unduly 
 thickening it in effect, as Mr. Scott notices, was often the 
 case in Italian Polychrome. 
 
 The following notices of various roofs despoiled by Will 
 Dowsing, the Parlimentary visitor of churches in the years 
 1643—1644, will show how very beautiful they must for¬ 
 merly have been. They are only a few from the many 
 examples which might be derived from the same source. 
 
 “ 103. Cochil, April the 6th. . . . There was many inscriptions 
 of Jesus in capital letters on the roof of the church, and cherubims 
 with crosses on their breasts, and a cross in the chancel—all which 
 we left a warrant with the constable to destroy in 14 days. 
 
 “ 113. Dunwich, April the 9th, at Peter’s Parish. Sixty-three 
 cherubims, sixty at least of Jesus written in capital letters on the 
 roof and forty superstitious pictures. 
 
 “115. Bramfield, April 9th. . . . The picture of Christ and 
 twelve angels on the roof, and divers Jesus’s in capital letters. 
 
 “124. Ufford, August the 31st. . . . Twelve cherubim on the roof 
 of the chancel, and nigh a hundred JuSUS-Maria in capital letters. . . . 
 In the church (nave) there was on the roof above a hundred Jesus- 
 Maria in great capital letters, and a crosier staff to be broken down 
 in glass, and above twenty stars on the roof.” 
 
 Dowsing’s Journal is well worth inspection, as the num¬ 
 ber of “ superstitious” pictures broken down, show to how 
 great an extent the custom of adorning churches with 
 paintings prevailed. Both subject and manner of treat¬ 
 ment was to a great extent guided by conventional rules. 
 Thus the Doom or Last Judgment was reserved to the 
 chancel arch, S. Christopher and the patron saint for the 
 door, the Baptism of Christ for the Baptistery, and 
 scenes from the life of the Virgin or the patron saint, as 
 well as detached figures about various parts of the church. 
 
30 
 
 THE AET OF MTTKAL DECOBATION. 
 
 The Ecclesiologist for October, 1859, gives a very inter¬ 
 esting account of some paintings, possibly the Seven works 
 of Mercy, discovered in a church near Cambridge, which 
 show with great distinctness the manner in which these 
 subjects were treated. In the Church of Holy Trinity, Co¬ 
 ventry, there is a very large painting of the doom over the 
 chancel arch, which is considered as one of the finest in 
 the kingdom ; at Preston Church, Susses, and at North 
 Leigh, Oxon, are others, and very many examples might be 
 added, did our business lie with pictorial subjects instead 
 of decorative Polychrome. The practice of the art in the 
 Middle Ages is curiously illustrated by the accounts of 
 money paid for the decoration St. Stephen’s Chapel, West¬ 
 minster. This great work undertaken by Edward I. 1292 
 —1294, and afterwards by Edward III. in 1350, when 
 the Chapel had been rebuilt, gave a great and impor¬ 
 tant impetus to art. Some of the items charged for are 
 very amusing, it must however be remembered that in 
 those days painters prepared their own materials, even to 
 making brushes and pencils. Thus we have in Smith’s 
 “ Antiquities of Westminster— 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Master Hugh de S. Alban’s, for half a pound of teynt 
 
 for the painting of the said Chapel . . . .020 
 
 To the same for one pound and a half of oker for the same 
 
 painting.. . .003 
 
 To the same for two small earthen jars to put the different 
 
 colours in . . . . . . . .001 
 
 . . . One pair of shears to cut the leaves of tin . .002 
 
 Nineteen flagons of oil for painting of the Chapel, at 3s. 4d. 
 
 per flagon . . . . . . . . .334 
 
 John Lambard, for two quarters of royal paper, for the 
 
 painter’s patrons (patterns).0 18 
 
THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 31 
 
 £ s* t?« 
 
 One pound of cotton to lay on the gold . . . . 0 0 10 
 
 Gilbert Pokerich for 153 peacocks and swan’s feathers for 
 
 the pencils of the painters . . . . .003 
 
 Simon de Lenne, for one pound and a half of hog’s bristles 
 
 for the brushes of the painter . . . . .002 
 
 (And the list of materials might easily be extended.) 
 
 For all particulars as to the vehicles, systems and 
 materials employed by the medisevalists, the reader cannot 
 be referred to a more useful work than the Treatise of 
 Cennino Cennini, which enters fully into all these subjects. 
 This painter, the son of Andrea Cennini was, as he him¬ 
 self informs us, for twelve years pupil of Agnolo, son of 
 Taddeo G-addi, who in his turn was godson and pupil of 
 Giotto. According to the calculation of his editor 
 Tambroni, he must have been born somewhere about 
 1350, and as his Treatise was finished in 1437 it comprises 
 the available knowledge of the most valuable period. 
 Although properly, it relates more specially to pictorial 
 art, yet from the very nature of the arts as then prac¬ 
 tised, and also from the discursive style in which it is 
 written, it contains information which would in these days 
 be thought to concern only the gilder, the decorator, or 
 the colourman. 
 
 He commences with what may be styled a religious 
 flourish of trumpets and invocation of various saints 
 favourable to art, and then unhappily thinking it neces¬ 
 sary, according to the then custom, to begin ‘ ab ovo ’ 
 with the Creation, enters into a labyrinth in which he and 
 his readers get entangled and confused alike. The first 
 book, professedly on drawing and design, may be said to 
 contain every conceivable subject more or less con- 
 
32 
 
 THE ABT OF MUBAL DECORATION. 
 
 nected with art, from making a pen or cutting a crayon 
 to the diet and religious and moral conversation of the 
 student. To the former branch of subjects, we shall have 
 frequent occasion to refer to in the practical part of this 
 Manual. The second hook treats of the preparation, 
 grinding, and nature of colours, the media applicable 
 to each, and also the making of pencils of minever and 
 hog’s hair. The third hook treats of Fresco and Secco. 
 The fourth hook is very comprehensive, containing the 
 whole art of oil-painting, as then known, preparation of 
 panels, gilding, nimbus making and engraving on the 
 gold, ending with receipts for casting moulds and taking 
 impressions of seals. In spite of its quaintness and 
 discursiveness of style, it would he hard to find a more 
 valuable and practical treatise and compendium of art as 
 practised in the Middle Ages, than the work of Cennino 
 Cennini, and we shall have frequent occasion to refer to 
 it in our description of materials and processes. 
 
 Of the decay of the art of decoration—its degradation 
 to mere scene painting, its retirement before stone colour 
 paint and pails of whitewash, and its recent revival, 
 there is little need for us to speak, as we are taking the 
 practical rather than the historical or theoretical view of 
 the subject. It certainly seems sufficiently recognised 
 and esteemed at the present day, nor does there seem 
 much fear of its disuse, now that it has progressed beyond 
 the region of whim, and been accepted as a natural 
 instinct. 
 
THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION". 
 
 33 
 
 THE NATURE OF PIGMENTS. 
 
 There is no point more deserving the amateur decora¬ 
 tor’s attention, and perhaps none more neglected than 
 the properties and nature of the pigments he employs. 
 So long as a dry smooth absorbent base is attained, both 
 amateurs and professionals alike, too often think that no 
 further care is needed, and either from ignorance or 
 wilful carelessness, employ pigments of the worst possible 
 character, reaping their own reward in the speedy 
 fugacity and ultimate destruction of their work. Unfor¬ 
 tunately, a bad example is but too frequently set them 
 by the practise of many artists, who sacrifice permanence 
 for mere temporary effects, and employ lavishly 
 delicate tints which for a time delight the eye, but all 
 too surely ultimately fade, blacken or change to the des¬ 
 truction of the picture. It is to be regretted also that as 
 a general rule the permanence of colours is in almost 
 inverse ratio to their beauty, the solid grave ochres, 
 umbers and siennas being durable, while the brilliant 
 lakes, scarlets and greens quickly fade and fly. At the 
 same time, however, we must bear in mind how greatly 
 the science of the chemist has of late years aided the 
 labour of the artist, in supplying him with pigments free 
 from the bane of fugacity. Indeed, thanks to the 
 chemical science, so greatly has the palette been extended 
 by the addition of pigments, both permanent and bril¬ 
 liant, that it will be the artist’s own fault alone if he 
 employ fugitive tints in preference to those of more 
 durable qualities. It should then be the decorator’s 
 
34 
 
 THE ART OF MITBAL DECORATION. 
 
 business to make himself well acquainted with the nature 
 of the colours with which he has to deal, more especially 
 it should be an absolute and invariable rule never to 
 employ any pigment of the durability of which he is 
 not sure. It was this thorough understanding of the 
 qualities of their colours, added to a severe simplicity in 
 their employment, which ensured to the artists of the 
 Middle Ages the combined brilliance and durability of 
 their paintings. And yet, while in the present day our 
 chemical knowledge has developed and increased so 
 marvellously, while all the materiel of the artist has 
 been brought within the reach of the most moderate 
 purse, and while the practise of the art has been freed 
 from the atmosphere of mystery which once enveloped it, 
 so great is the general ignorance of decorators, and so 
 reckless their system, that there is scarcely any 
 grounds for expecting the permanence of modern decor¬ 
 ation. Though it would be easy to point out specimens 
 of decorative work which have stood the lapse of four 
 centuries with brilliance unimpaired, five or six years 
 is very often sufficient to change, impair, and perhaps 
 destroy modern adornment. When artists or professional 
 decorators speak regrettingly of lost c systems’ or pig¬ 
 ments enjoyed by the medievalists and unattainable now, 
 it would be far better were they to make the best use of 
 existing materials and study their further developement. 
 
 “ Titian,” says Haydon, “ got his colours from the 
 colour shops on the Rialto, as we get ours from Brown’s; 
 and if Apelles or Titian were living now, they would 
 paint just as good works with our brushes and colours as 
 with their own.” Naturally, where the artist was his 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 35 
 
 own colourman, that is prepared his colours from the 
 materials selected and purchased from the merchant, he 
 would take every care that such preparation should he 
 the best possible, knowing how far his fame depended 
 upon it. We may also believe that, to a certain extent, 
 religious motives may have directed the employment of 
 the finest pigments on sacred art, “ I give you this 
 advice,” says Cennini, “ that you endeavour always to 
 use fine gold and good colours, particularly in painting- 
 representations of our Lady. And if you say that a poor 
 person cannot afford the expense, I answer, that if you 
 work well (and give sufficient time to your works) and 
 paint with good colours, you will acquire so much fame 
 that from a poor person you will become a rich one; and 
 your name will stand so high for using good colours, 
 that if some masters receive a ducat for painting one 
 figure, you will certainly be offered two, and your wishes 
 will be fulfilled, according to the old proverb ‘ good 
 work, good pay.’ And even should you not be well 
 paid, God and our Lady will reward your soul and 
 body for it.” So that the amateur decorator appears 
 bound to employ good pigments, either from a religious 
 or practical motive as his fancy or experience may sug¬ 
 gest. In the present day when good artist-colourmen 
 abound, and the aid of the chemist is called in to the 
 birth of a new pigment, we could scarcely venture to 
 recommend the amateur to manufacture his own colours. 
 The excellence of their preparation, whether in oil, 
 water or powder, he may generally take for granted, 
 their permanence and eligibility should be ascertained by 
 his own private study. If an artist chooses to employ 
 
 d 2 
 
36 
 
 THE ART OE MITRAL DECORATION. 
 
 such colours as iodine scarlet, pearl white, or verdigris in 
 decoration, he has only himself to thank when they turn 
 black or fade; the fault is not with the colourman for 
 supplying, hut with the artist for using pigments radi¬ 
 cally vicious. For any deep and comprehensive inquiry 
 into the natures of colours, we must refer the reader to 
 that useful work Field’s “ Chromatography” where all 
 particulars may he learnt. In the present chapter, we 
 only aim at giving a few rough notes on the properties 
 of those pigments most useful for decorative purposes, 
 with the addition of the media most applicable to each. 
 The colours really indispensaole for decoration are very 
 few, and happily those are mostly of good character for 
 permanency. It should be carefully borne in mind, how¬ 
 ever, that the permanence of most pigments is in¬ 
 fluenced to a great degree by circumstances. Thus 
 a colour which is highly eligible in Oil, may be 
 doubtful in Distemper, and absolutely inadmissible in 
 Fresco; and vice versa, many colours useful in Tempera 
 do not admit Oil. The limited palette again of Fresco is 
 owing to the presence of lime, which is destructive to 
 vegetal colours, but has no influence upon the earths. 
 So also one colour may be antagonistic to another, and 
 render it fugitive in conjunction or juxtaposition, 
 whereas separate, each may be regarded as permanent. 
 Dut besides all these considerations, and putting aside 
 the question of internal damp which destroys all colours 
 and all media alike, the decorator must take into his 
 calculations the adverse influences of external damp (Trom 
 condensation of breath) and the action of light, oxygen, 
 shade, sulphuretted hydogen or foul air, and he will find, 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 37 
 
 perhaps somewhat to his confusion, that some pigments 
 are entirely uninjured by one class of - hostile chemical 
 agents, but perish under the reverse, that some are proof 
 against neither, and that others can defy both. In the 
 words of Mr. Field, “ The majority of pigments have a 
 mediocrity of qualification, balancing their excellencies 
 with their defects, and the number of good and 
 eligible pigments overbalances those which ought in 
 general to be rejected.” 
 
 Aureolin. This new and very beautiful pigment pos- 
 ' sesses a rare combination of remarkable qualities that place 
 it far above any other known brilliant yellow. It is light, 
 vivid, and transparent. The lighter and fainter tints are 
 at once clear and delicate, and admit the most subtle 
 gradation of tone. Aureolin mixes advantageously with 
 all other colours, and forms combinations of the utmost 
 variety and value ; the tints of Aureolin being of exceed¬ 
 ing purity, whilst its hue is rich and vivid. It is abso¬ 
 lutely and entirely permanent. Aureolin has been sub¬ 
 jected to every variety of the severest test and trial which 
 have demonstrated its powers of endurance, and shown 
 that its distinctive characteristics are retained unimpaired 
 under all possible conditions. 
 
 Cadmium Yellow. Sulphide of Cadmium. There are 
 several tints of Cadmium Yellow manufactured. That 
 called “ deep” Cadmium is tbe most serviceable and is 
 chiefly in use. It is a full, rich, golden yellow, not very 
 transparent, but clear and bright, and of great power. 
 It gives beautiful clear tints by admixture with white. It 
 is the most richly toned yellow known. It may be classed 
 among the permanent pigments ; impure air or damp does 
 
38 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 not affect the yellow of Cadmium. Until lately, owing to 
 the great scarcity and dearness of the metal from which 
 these yellows are obtained, they were little known. Cad¬ 
 mium is, however, now found more abundantly, and 
 consequently the yellows have become proportionately 
 cheap and plentiful. 
 
 Chrome Yellow. Chromate of Lead. The power and 
 brilliancy of the various chromates of lead—lemon, pale, 
 deep, and orange, have caused them to be much employed. 
 Yet they are rank in tone, and are not to be depended 
 upon for permanency. The lead base of the chromates is 
 liable to blacken by foul air, and the lighter yellows have 
 a tendency to become greenish in their hue. Of the 
 chromates of lead, the Chrome Orange is the most durable 
 and the least exceptionable. It is, however, liable to the 
 changes of the lighter chromes, though in a less degree. 
 
 Yellow Ochre. There is a great variety of yellow 
 earths falling under this name. They are found abun¬ 
 dantly in most countries, and especially in our own. 
 Their tints range from a bright, though not vivid, yellow, 
 to deep low tones of brown yellow, which latter is known 
 under the name of Brown Ochre. The finest kind of Yellow 
 Ochre is that known as Oxford Ochre, and this is the 
 kind chiefly used in painting. It is a most serviceable 
 pigment in oil, fresco, and distemper, and it is not pre¬ 
 judicially affected by light, impure air, or other causes of 
 deterioration and change. 
 
 Naples Yellow. Antimoniate of Lead. Alight, warm, 
 opaque yellow, formerly much used. It is, however, so 
 liable to change by admixture with pigments that contain 
 iron, such as the ochres, Prussian Blue, &c., and even by 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 39 
 
 contact with metallic iron, a steel palette knife, for 
 instance, that its use is now hut very limited. All the 
 tints of Naples Yellow are readily and accurately imitated 
 by admixture of deep Cadmium Yellow and white, and 
 these are now employed to replace the untrustworthy 
 tints of the Naples Yellow pigment. 
 
 Bciw Sienna Earth. Also a native pigment; in many 
 respects of great value. It has more transparency than 
 the ochres, and it is equally permanent. 
 
 Burnt Sienna Earth is the raw sienna earth burnt, and 
 is of a rich orange russet colour. By the operation of 
 burning, it acquires warmth, transparency, and depth. It 
 is a very durable and eligible pigment. 
 
 Vermilion. Sulphuret of Mercury. There are several 
 varieties of this pigment, the orange, the pale, the deep, 
 and a purplish tint, known as Chinese Vermilion—the 
 latter now but little used. The difference of tint between 
 the several kinds is but slight. The pale and the deep 
 vermilion are those mostly employed in decorative paint¬ 
 ing. Neither light, time, nor foul air, effect sensible 
 change in true vermilion. It is frequently adulterated 
 with red lead and other inferior pigments ; but when 
 unmixed and pure, vermilion is permanent, and eligible 
 in oil, distemper and fresco. 
 
 Indian Bed. A native earth containing a large pro¬ 
 portion of peroxide of iron. It varies considerably in its 
 hues, and is valued for the clearness and soft lakey tone 
 of its tints. It is very permanent, and is an eligible 
 pigment in oil, distemper and fresco. 
 
 Light Bed, calcined yellow ochre. The brilliancy of the 
 red being in proportion to the clearness and purity of the 
 
40 
 
 THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION'. 
 
 oclire employed. Mixed with, white, light red gives a 
 beautiful range of tints of pale and deep flesh colour. 
 
 Venetian Bed. Prepared from calcined sulphate of 
 iron ; somewhat similar to light red in tint, but more 
 powerful, and of a more scarlet hue. Very permanent, 
 and has all the qualities of good ochres. 
 
 There is a class of red pigments consisting of native 
 earths, such as red ochre, Armenian bole, red chalk, &c. 
 These red earths abound in England. They are all 
 useful and permanent pigments of more or less value, 
 according to the body they possess and to the brightness 
 and purity of their tints. 
 
 With these may be named the Colcotliars mostly 
 obtained, like Venetian red, by the calcination of sul¬ 
 phate of iron. They vary in tint, according to the pro¬ 
 cess of manufacture, from full, low toned red to brown 
 red and purple brown. They furnish very durable colours 
 which unite well with all other pigments. The whole of 
 the iron pigments give very permanent, sober tints. 
 
 Madder Lake. Of all the transparent red lakes, and 
 they are very numerous, those obtained from the madder 
 root possess the most desirable qualities. They are 
 brilliant, transparent, and above all, permanent. They 
 do not change by the action of light or impure air, and 
 they are not injuriously affected by mixture with other 
 pigments. 
 
 An extraordinary variety of lakes of different hues, all 
 permanent, are obtained from the madder root in addition 
 to the red lakes. They are known by the names of flesh 
 madder, Rubens’ madder, madder purple, madder brown, 
 &c. Of these, the two latter are the most important. 
 
THE ABT OE MURAL DECOEATION. 
 
 41 
 
 The use of madder purple, chiefly on account of its high 
 price, is almost entirely confined to water-colour drawings. 
 The madder brown is very much cheaper and is more 
 generally employed. It is a powerful marrone brown of 
 great beauty, depth, and transparency. 
 
 Lake, crimson, scarlet and purple. The lakes obtained 
 from cochineal are all more or less affected by strong 
 light, which weakens their tints, and in time deprives 
 them of colour. Their extreme beauty and transparency, 
 however, causes them to be extensively employed in all 
 kinds of ornamental painting where permanence is not 
 absolutely demanded. The deeper tints, the purples, are 
 the most permanent. 
 
 A low toned purple lake is obtained from lac, which is 
 tolerably permanent. Red lakes are also prepared from a 
 variety of dye woods which yield red tinctures. These 
 are, without any exception, fugitive. 
 
 Genuine Ultramarine —the most celebrated of all 
 pigments, ancient and modern. A most exquisitely 
 beautiful blue, varying from the utmost depths of shadow 
 to the highest brilliancy of light and colour. Transparent 
 in all its shades, and pure in its tints, so eminently per¬ 
 manent. that it remains perfectly unchanged in the oldest 
 paintings. Unfortunately, the great expense of fine 
 genuine ultramarine forbids its extensive employment in 
 decorative painting. 
 
 French Ultramarine. Though wanting the high merits 
 of genuine ultramarine in brilliancy and purity, the 
 imitation pigments, known as Trench Ultramarines, 
 effectively replace the genuine colour for almost all 
 purposes. The imitation ultramarines possess in a 
 
42 
 
 THE AKT OP MUEAL DECOEATION. 
 
 subdued degree, the characteristics and qualities of the 
 genuine. They are brilliant, transparent, powerful and 
 permanent. They are now made, by various processes, 
 of different degrees of excellence, at prices varying with 
 their quality, and of tints ranging from pale to deep. 
 
 Cobalt Blue, a clear, light, brilliant azure, of great 
 value where clear light blue tints are required. These 
 tints approach in brilliancy the paler tones of ultramarine. 
 Cobalt Blue has not, however, the transparency and depth 
 of ultramarine. This pigment may be considered to be 
 permanent, the slight changes to which it is liable affect¬ 
 ing it but rarely. 
 
 Smalt is an impure vitreous Cobalt Blue, varying much 
 in its qualities. The finer kinds are occasionally used in 
 decorative work. It is almost always of a coarse, gritty 
 texture and of little body. Smalt is, on this account, 
 sometimes applied to work by strewing the dry powdered 
 pigment upon a flat ground of white or blue oil paint 
 immediately after the latter is laid on, whilst it yet 
 remains wet. 
 
 Prussian Blue. Cyanide of Iron. A deep and powerful 
 blue colour of great transparency, affording tints of great 
 beauty with white lead. The extraordinary strength of 
 this pigment renders it of important use in painting deep 
 blues, its transparency giving force to its depth. It is 
 also valuable in compounding purples with lakes, &c., 
 and its addition adds considerably to the intensity of 
 black. Prussian Blue, under favourable circumstances, 
 has considerable permanence, that is, in the absence of 
 much damp or of impure air, 
 
 Antiverp Blue is a lighter coloured, and somewhat 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 43 
 
 weaker Prussian Blue, having more aluminous base to 
 which its paler tint is owing. Otherwise, it is similar in 
 its qualities to Prussian Blue, except in wanting its 
 extreme depth. 
 
 Indigo is extremely powerful and transparent, but is 
 not so bright as Prussian Blue, to which it is in all 
 respects inferior. Its tints with white lead are all 
 fugitive. 
 
 Oxide of Chromium is, as its name expresses, an oxide 
 of the metal Chromium. There are at present several 
 varieties in use. The kind hitherto best known is the 
 opaque oxide, such as is employed in enamel work, and 
 is the fine green observed on superior porcelain. The 
 Oxide of Chromium is perfectly unchangeable. Neither 
 light, impure air of any kind, chemical reagents, or even 
 the most powerful heat, affects its colour. It is the most 
 permanent pigment known. It is a sober, cold green of 
 wonderful power, extremely agreeable to the eye, and its 
 tints with white are peculiarly delicate and pleasing. 
 
 Viridian, Veronese Green, Transparent Oxide of Chro¬ 
 mium. Under these, and indeed a variety of other 
 names, are manufactured oxides of chromium, differing 
 from the last named opaque oxide in the very important 
 point of being more or less transparent. By far the 
 most brilliant and transparent is the colour known under 
 the name of Viridian. It is wonderfully rich and brilliant, 
 and far surpasses all the other kinds in transparency, 
 depth, and fullness of tint. Some of the lower qualities 
 of the transparent oxides of chromium are of a dull tone, 
 tending to dark olive, between which and the highest of 
 the scale, the splendid Viridian, are many qualities 
 
44 
 
 THE AET OP MUEAL DECOEATION. 
 
 differing in various degrees of power, clearness, brightness 
 and transparency. All these various qualities are equally 
 permanent with the opaque green, excepting that they 
 blacken when subjected to great heat. 
 
 Chrome Greens. With the foregoing genuine oxides of 
 chromium must not be confounded the so-called “ chrome 
 greens” of commerce. These are merely admixtures of 
 Chrome Yellow and Prussian Blue. They are manu¬ 
 factured of an immense variety of tints, under almost as 
 great a variety of names. They are all extremely fugitive, 
 and applicable only to the commonest exterior work of 
 house painting, &c. The variety of tint and great cheap¬ 
 ness of these mixed pigments occasions an enormous con¬ 
 sumption of them for all common purposes. 
 
 Emerald Green. Arsenite of Copper. The most vivid of 
 the tribe of greens, rather opaque and powerfully reflec¬ 
 tive of light. Its vivid hue is almost beyond the scale of 
 other bright pigments. Care is consequently required to 
 place Emerald Green so that it may be in harmony with 
 the hues around it. There exist many varieties of this 
 green, under different names, one is called Scheele’s 
 Green, another Schweinfurt Green. It is somewhat 
 singular that being copper colours, they are, nevertheless, 
 permanent. They are scarcely at all affected by damp 
 and impure air, and they are in all respects more eligible 
 colours than the other descriptions of copper greens which, 
 under various names, abound in commerce. 
 
 White Lead. The German manufacture, known as Crem- 
 nitz White, is the most brilliant lead white with which 
 we are acquainted. It is of body and brightness superior 
 to the lead whites of English make. This superiority is 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 45 
 
 considered to be owing to tbe greater purity of tbe 
 metallic lead from which the white is obtained. We 
 manufacture, however, in England lead whites of good 
 qualities for general purposes. 
 
 Zinc White, oxide of zinc, is manufactured on a very 
 extensive scale, and is largely used for painting. It does 
 not possess much body, that is, covering property, in oil. 
 It is, however, perfectly durable in oil and water. 
 
 Sulphate of Barytes and various whites with lime bases, 
 as the sulphate and carbonate, are used in distemper, 
 fresco, and other processes of water-colour painting. The 
 white pigments are an exceedingly numerous class. A 
 perfectly unexceptionable white pigment, adapted to 
 general purposes is, however, yet to be desired. The 
 white earths are destitute of body in oil and varnish, and 
 metallic whites of the best body are not permanent in 
 water. 
 
 Browns. Of these we have abundance of excellent 
 quality adapted to every kind of painting. The Turkey 
 and English raw and burnt Embers afford us pigments of 
 great body, and the bituminous earths, Vandyke Brown, 
 Cassel and Cologne earths, &c., give us rich transparent 
 tints that leave nothing to be desired. 
 
 Blacks. Black pigments are very numerous; little, 
 however, need be here said of them. Ivory Black supplies 
 a rich, full, silky tint, and Lamp Black a tint dense and 
 solid. These are sufficient for every purpose. 
 
 It will be seen by the above list and its accompanying 
 remarks, that the resources of the artist or decorator 
 who makes permanence a primary consideration are really 
 quite sufficient for all ordinary purposes. Erom their very 
 
46 
 
 THE AST OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 nature no colours are absolutely permanent, because “ all 
 natural substances are changeable.” The utmost, there¬ 
 fore, that the decorator can do is to consider under what 
 circumstances his work will have to be executed and exist, 
 as damp, excess of light or shade, foul air, &c., and suit 
 his palette accordingly. Time, of course, effects all 
 pigments more or less, its action resembling that of heat, 
 which may be taken as a safe test in its effects ; but some 
 colours will be found almost unchanged even after 
 centuries have elapsed. As a general rule, the simpler 
 the system of colouring employed, the more prospect of 
 its enduring, while in the combination of two or more 
 colours to form a tint, the greatest care should be taken 
 to see they are homogeneous and on similar bases. A 
 little study, and attention, and reflection is all that is 
 needed to guide the amateur. It would scarcely be 
 saying too much to add that an epitome of nearly all that 
 it is desirable to avoid, may be learnt from the practice 
 of the lower class of professional decorators, who appear 
 to combine the maximum of ignorance with the 
 minimum of common sense, and while boasting of 
 rules of ‘ taste’ and composition gleaned at random 
 from grammars of ornament and the like, are in 
 most cases absolutely destitute of an eye for colour, in 
 many, colour blind. 
 
 OIL AhTD TEMPEKA. 
 
 For many reasons, it will be seen that for decorative 
 purposes the choice lies between an Oil and a Tempera 
 medium. 
 
1 
 
 THE ART OF MUEAL DECORATION. 47 
 
 They are both cheap, facile in application, needing 
 but very simple preparatory grounding, admit a greater 
 number of pigments than other vehicles, and can be 
 used upon any surface at pleasure. They neither require ex¬ 
 ceptional surface like Fresco, Encaustic and Stereochrome, 
 nor is there any limit to the amount of work which may 
 be executed in a day. Also they are free from the neces¬ 
 sity of fixing as in water-glass, or fusing by heat as Encaus¬ 
 tic, yielding, as they may be said to do both to these and 
 also to Fresco in the point of absolute permanency ; yet as, 
 under properly favourable conditions, a duration of two or 
 three hundred years may safely be expected for both Oil 
 and Distemper, they cannot be said to be dangerous or 
 fugitive vehicles. ‘ Tinder properly favourable circum¬ 
 stances ’—that is that the situation be reasonably dry, the 
 edifice sufficiently di’ained and ventilated, and the stone 
 or plaster surface free from damp. If these be not secured, 
 no medium can be expected to behave in a satisfactory 
 manner. 
 
 The respective merits, however, of Tempera and Oil are 
 opposed; the former being best able to cope with the 
 natural dampness of stone or plaster, i.e., internal damp, 
 the latter possessing most power against the damp pro¬ 
 ceeding from without. The reason of this appears to be 
 as follows. Stone is in a greater or lesser degree of an 
 essentially damp and cold nature. The minute pores and 
 holes which permeate its substance, form so many little 
 spiracles or breathing places, which give passage to the 
 damp to rise to the surface. Although by careful choice 
 of stone, by proper precautions in building, draining, 
 and ventilation, a stone wall may always be rendered sufli- 
 
48 
 
 THE AET OE MUEAL DECOEATION. 
 
 ciently serviceable for decorative purposes, yet to a certain 
 degree damp must always exist. Now when successive 
 coats of oil-paint liave been applied to the inner surface 
 of a stone or plaster wall, a liquid lias been used repugnant 
 and contrary to tlie nature of tbe internal damp. Tbe 
 air boles are stopped up, and as tbe stone still desires to 
 breathe through, a battle ensues between tbe water and 
 tbe oil which after a time ends in the latter being pushed 
 off from within, and detached in minute scales or powder. 
 
 Hence the defect of an oily vehicle against internal 
 damp. At the same time as each grain and particle of 
 colour is ‘ locked up’ in the stout body of oil, it is effect- 
 tually preserved against external damp, which cannot push 
 or* drive it into the wall, and hence glides off from its 
 surface harmlessly. 
 
 Now in Tempera the reverse holds good. The thinness 
 of the aqueous vehicle prevents the stone pores being 
 stopped up, and allows the passage of air freely, thus 
 causing no internal warfare, while on the other hand, that 
 very tenuity of body affords little or no protection 
 against the attack of damp from without. 
 
 Added to this, it may be said that the nature of the size 
 employed, being animal, must after a time suffer decay 
 and liberate the imprisoned colour. Still, under ordinary 
 circumstances, the time required to effect these destructive 
 changes is so extended, that with proper precautions the 
 amateur may regard both his Distemper and Oil vehicles 
 as quite sufficient for his purposes, sparing himself much 
 trouble about the various mixtures—nostrums which from 
 time to time arise. In two respects the balance will be 
 in favour of Distemper, as it possesses the property of 
 
THE ART OR MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 49 
 
 drying both flat, i.e. unshining, and quick, the former of 
 which is essential, the latter always desirable in deco¬ 
 ration. 
 
 For convenience, therefore, we shall treat of these two 
 media in one chapter, giving such special instruction as 
 may be necessary. 
 
 1. The preparation of walls for commencing the decora¬ 
 tion of a church or other building .—Thefirst thing to be done 
 is to have some competent opinion as to the fitness of the 
 walls, plaster, and stone-work for receiving colour. To 
 this end it will be best to ask the advice of some builder, 
 who, on knowing the nature of the soil, materials em¬ 
 ployed, drainage, and the time which has elapsed since 
 building, can give a sufficient decision as to the safety or 
 danger of colouring. As a general rule, however, it may 
 be observed that ashlar walls, being composed of free stones 
 as they come from the quarry, are likely to be bad, as the 
 dampness of the atmosphere condensing on the wall in 
 warm weather makes them wet. Nor are rubble walls any 
 better. Perhaps brick, well plastered, is the best surface 
 attainable for all cases ; whether stone or plaster be used, 
 some period should be allowed to elapse between building 
 and decoration. In plaster more particularly, as the kinds 
 vary much, Parian requiring only three or four days, 
 mastic (which is used in oil) taking a fortnight or more, 
 while the ordinary plaster should not be touched for six 
 or eight weeks. 
 
 2. To prepare a briclc surface unplastered for decora¬ 
 tion .—Melt down a sufficient quantity of Young’s patent 
 size in a saucepan or earthen pot, and add twice its bulk 
 of water. Having dusted the walls down, brush them well 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 THE ABT 0E MXJEAL DECOBATIOH'. 
 
 with this solution, using a large spreading brush, and 
 talcing care to cover the ground well. 
 
 This will be sufficient preparation both for Oil and 
 Tempera, when the brickwork is to be retained as a ground. 
 In the same way, stone may be prepared for colouring, 
 the delicate varied natural white of the stone being infi¬ 
 nitely preferable to any white ground in Distemper or 
 Oil. 
 
 3. To prepare stone for colouring and gilding in oil, 
 retaining it as a ground. —Melt in a pipkin, or clean paint 
 pot, one ounce of virgin white wax, adding sufficient 
 turpentine to reduce it to the consistency of milk ; add 
 to this French oil varnish ad libitum, to make your wash 
 flow easily, and a little sacrum (prepared sugar of 
 lead) to cause it to dry flat. Apply warm with a large 
 brush. This will very slightly darken the tint of the 
 stone, and will form a good ground for painting in oil. 
 
 4. Preparation of walls in Tempera. —When it is wished 
 to colour a wall, not retaining the plaster or stone as a 
 ground, the following order must be observed. First 
 mend any broken parts with a mixture of putty and plaster 
 of Paris neatly put on with a spatula or palette knife, and 
 smoothed down. Then brush over the walls with a size, 
 composed of lib of good glue dissolved in one gallon of 
 hot water, thickened with some red lead, or else with 
 Young’s patent size as described before. Give this suffi¬ 
 cient time to dry. blow proceed to make your ground 
 colour, which we will suppose to be what is usually called 
 vellum tint, as follows : 
 
 In a large double sized paint pot, put 31bs of gilder’s 
 whiting, cover it with watet', and let it be until it be per- 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 51 
 
 fectly broken up and saturated, and the effervescence has 
 subsided. Then pour off the water and stir with a thick 
 stick, until the mass has attained the consistency of 
 dough. Melt Young’s patent size not diluted, and 
 pour upon the whiting, stirring well up, and then 
 straining while warm to free from impurities. Let 
 this stand several days in a cool place until it is formed 
 into a weak trembling jelly, so as to be worked with 
 ease with a stiff brush. Before the size is added, it may 
 be stained to any tint which is desired, by the addition 
 of the proper colour, ground in water. It should be ob¬ 
 served that all colours in distemper dry lighter than when 
 first applied, so that the only way to secure the requisite 
 tint is to make experiments upon a piece of paper or card, 
 until the proper tint is reached. The colour must then be 
 applied to the walls in its cold and jellied state. 
 
 Bor this purpose, use a large hog’s hairbrush, and work 
 with decision and freedom, taking care not to retouch 
 any portion of the work, but to cover the ground well 
 as you proceed. The wall should be divided by your eye 
 into squares, advancing from one to another in regular 
 succession and, of course, beginning from above. Unless 
 for some special purpose, your ground should never be 
 pure white, but be stained, however little, with black, 
 blue, ochre or chrome yellow to take' off the raw appear¬ 
 ance ; where a coloured ground is needed, proceed in the 
 same way as above described, commencing with a larger 
 or smaller quantity of whiting, and tempering it in the 
 colour to the degree required. 
 
 5. Preparation of walls in oil .—First give a coat of 
 glue size as in Tempera. Follow this up with two 
 
 e 2 
 
52 
 
 THE AET OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 or three thin coats of boiled linseed oil, with some 
 red lead and litharge added. This must he applied 
 to the wall quite warm to prevent its scaling off. 
 After this, the wall should he well rubbed down with 
 glass and sand paper, and dusted if a very fair finish is 
 required. For the second coat in vellum tint, grind white 
 lead in equal parts of raw linseed oil and turpentine, 
 adding some litharge as dryers. Heighten your 
 colour to the tint desired with ochre or raw 
 sienna, and apply with a large soft hog’s hair brush. 
 The third coat will be made and applied in the same 
 way. In two or three days the third coat will be ready 
 to receive what is technically called its flatting, which 
 should be put on before the last coat of oil paint has 
 dried quite hard, as otherwise it will look uneven and 
 streaky. For vellum tint, white lead, tinged with ochre, 
 &c., to the desired tint, should be ground in spirits of 
 turpentine and a little oil and dryers until quite thick 
 and viscid. It may then be strained through a coarse 
 cloth and thinned to the necessary degree, taking care 
 to match the tint from any remnant of the last coat of 
 oil. In applying it, observe the following directions. If 
 the wall or surface to be flatted be too high to be washed 
 conveniently, a small scaffold should be fixed along it so 
 that any one standing upon it can reach with ease to 
 the top. Having the colour properly prepared and using 
 a large soft spreading brush, commence at the bottom 
 and work upwards to the scaffold, taking about a foot or 
 a foot and a half at a time, then cross your work hori¬ 
 zontally and finish by “ laying off” your work from the 
 bottom upwards, and'then from the top downwards. As 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 53 
 
 you finish each strip or portion of your work, some one 
 on the scaffold must commence where you left off and 
 carry the work upwards, observing exactly the same di¬ 
 lutions, so that the two workers may follow each other 
 up and gradually complete the work. 
 
 6. To mix colours for ordinary use in oil .—Ad 
 colours for use in decoration should dry flat and un¬ 
 shining, for this purpose various substances called tech¬ 
 nically “ dryers” require to be mixed with them, care being 
 taken not to mix too much, as this exactly defeats the 
 desired end. The principal dryers are the acetate or sugar 
 of lead, litharge, sulphate of zinc or white vitriol, and 
 japanner’s gold size which is really oil boiled upon litharge. 
 The amateur should observe that some of these dryers 
 act injuriously upon certain colours, for instance, oxides 
 of lead upon such light and tender colours as lakes, &c., 
 and also that a mixture of two dryers as sugar of lead and 
 vitriol, although sometimes recommended, is bad for che¬ 
 mical reasons. The colours should be ground in oil, the 
 necessary amount of dryers added, and then the mass 
 thinned with turpentine to the consistency required. 
 
 The amateur should take great care always to clean the 
 stone after any colour has been ground by rubbing, with 
 a cloth and fine sand, and afterwards wiping down with 
 turpentine. Brushes and pencils in oil should also be 
 cleaned after use, first in turpentine and then afterwards 
 in warm -water and soap. They should be well wiped and 
 then placed on a sloping board, one end resting in cold 
 water which will keep them supple. It should be ob¬ 
 served, however, that the pencil must not on any account 
 rest on its point as this invariably ruins it. Large 
 
54 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 tools, after washing, are best left to soat in cold 
 water. 
 
 In Distemper, it is as well to have a large pot of whit¬ 
 ing prepared as before described, and then to temper with 
 it the other colours, red, blues, greens, &c., until the 
 desired tint is reached. For permanent colours and com¬ 
 binations the reader is referred to the table of pigments. 
 
 LIST OF MATERIALS REQUISITE FOR DECORATION IN OIL 
 OR TEMPERA. 
 
 1. Powder colours as necessary. 
 
 2. Boiled linseed oil. 
 
 3. Oil of turpentine. 
 
 4. Japanner’s gold size. 
 
 5. Oil gold size. 
 
 6. Knotting Tarnish. 
 
 7. Patent size. 
 
 8. Glazed earthen pots, various sizes. 
 
 9. A marble slab and muller. 
 
 10. Palette and knife. 
 
 11. Mahl stick. 
 
 12. Hog’s hair tools, various sizes. 
 
 13. Sable pencils, &c., &c. 
 
 14. Coarse sponge. 
 
 15. Square of glass for stencils. 
 
 16. Paper for ditto and patterns. 
 
 17. Muslin for straining colotus. 
 
 18. Gilder’s cushion knife and tip. 
 
 19. Cotton wool. 
 
 20. T square and straight edge. 
 
 21. Two foot rule. 
 
 22. String and lead weight. 
 
 23. Large wooden compasses. 
 
 24. Putty for mending cracks, &e. 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 55 
 
 25, Powdered charcoal and sticks of ditto. 
 
 26 Needle set in wooden handle for making pounces. 
 27. Tin dippers for holding turpentine, oil, size, &c. 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS. 
 
 In beginning any large decorative work, tlie first thing 
 to be seen to is, of course, the architect’s design. This 
 will ordinarily consist of a sketch of the general effect 
 drawn to a certain scale, and details full size of the 
 various portions composing the whole—all more or less 
 coloured. Should the amateur prefer making his own 
 design, he will proceed in a similar way, taking particu¬ 
 lar care to secure accurate figured dimensions and sections 
 of mouldings, &c. Where it is wished to employ some 
 pattern which differs in size from the space it is to 
 occupy, recourse must be had to a method called ‘ squar¬ 
 ing,’ if the amateur be not possessed of sufficient powers of 
 draughtsmanship to effect it otherwise. The modus 
 operandi is very simple. On the pattern to be copied, 
 strike perpendicular and horizontal lines through the 
 centre. Enclose the pattern in an exact square, and t 
 subdivide it into smaller squares, as many as may be 
 convenient, working from your central lines. Then 
 lightly number each square 12 3, &c. 
 
 Treat the space which you desire your pattern to 
 occupy in a similar manner, drawing your squares larger 
 or smaller as necessary, but retaining the same number 
 as your copy. Then beginning from the top, draw square 
 
56 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 by square what you see in the corresponding squares of 
 your copy, and you will find no difficulty in obtaining 
 an exact facsimile, larger or smaller according to the 
 proportion of your squares. The work should finally 
 be touched and outlined with a bold free hand, to 
 remove the ‘ patchy’ and 'stiff appearance it otherwise 
 might present. 
 
 In making full size details from the sketch, it is, of 
 course, only necessary to draw portions sufficiently 
 large to woi’k from. Thus in a running border, one 
 pattern and - a half, ■ or two patterns are enough 
 to repeat from. In a large diaper, or powdering, 
 one pattern complete with the guide lines and central 
 points of its repetition will suffice. It is impossible to 
 be too careful in setting out diapers and patterns which 
 repeat; an error of the eighth of an inch, insignificant 
 as it appears at first, will, by repetition put a whole wall 
 out of drawing and entirely spoil the “work. The mode 
 of setting out a diaper, or pattern, which is to cover a 
 large wall space, is as follows. Commencing at the top, 
 measure the space accurately in a horizontal direction 
 with a rule, and thus determine the centre which you 
 mark with a spot. Procure a piece of fine twine, long 
 enough to reach the bottom, and having tied a plumb or 
 heavy leaden weight flat on one side to the end, rub it 
 all along with some finely powdered charcoal—if the 
 ground be dark, chalk—and hold it firmly to the central 
 spot. Let the weight swing, until it finally settles down 
 and draws the twine perpendicularly. Some one then 
 must hold it caiefullv in that position, and having’ drawn 
 it taut, give it a gentle snap, upon which it will leave 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 57 
 
 a perpendicular mark upon the wall. To get a line at 
 right angles to this, divide your perpendicular and. ascer¬ 
 tain its centre. Then place one leg of the compasses on 
 this central spot, and mark two points upon the perpen¬ 
 dicular. From each point, upper and lower successively, 
 ♦describe a parabola with the compasses so as to cut 
 each other. A line drawn through the centre, and the 
 points of intersection will be horizontal, and at right 
 angles to your perpendicular. Having secured, these two 
 important lines, you should next mark off with the com¬ 
 passes the distance from centre to centre of your repeat¬ 
 ing diaper, and proceed to divide the wall into squares 
 with your chalk or charcoal lines, each point of intersec¬ 
 tion representing the centre of a pattern. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that every pattern must be 
 started in theory from its centre, so as to insure unifor¬ 
 mity of extension. Patterns to be painted by hand ai’e 
 usually transferred to the wall by the processes of 
 pouncing or tracing. The former is effected thus: the 
 pattern is carefully drawn upon paper, not too thick, 
 which should then be placed on a soft deal board or 
 table covered with a piece of carpet. The outlines of 
 the pattern must next be -pricked through with a fine 
 pointed needle, keeping the holes very close together. 
 Certain guide marks should be made at the edges of the 
 pounce to secure its being placed in the proper position, 
 and then being held firmly against the wall where the 
 pattern is to go, chalk, for a dark ground, and charcoal 
 or Indian red for alight, should be dusted through it in a 
 little muslin bag, thus leaving an exact transcript of the 
 pattern. 
 
58 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 Before using the pounce, it is as well to pass it before the 
 flame of a candle, or gas burner, as otherwise the holes 
 are apt to get choked up. In tracing, it is simply 
 necessary to rub the back of the pattern with any pow¬ 
 der colour, as Indian red, &c., and apply it to the wall, 
 tracing over the outlines with a style or hard-pointed 
 pencil, and so leaving an impression on the wall. A 
 very efficacious method of transferring on a smooth white 
 surface, as paper, card, wood, is to make a careful 
 tracing of the pattern with a BB pencil on oiled 
 paper, and then having reversed it in its position, to rub 
 it with the back of a knife or paper cutter, which leaves 
 an impression in black lead, and may be repeated several 
 times. 
 
 Where it is not wished to paint the patterns in by hand, 
 a process called stencilling is employed. The pattern is 
 carefully traced or drawn upon a piece of cartridge paper, 
 which has been painted over with knotting varnish on 
 one side to make it stiff; a special quality of tinfoil also 
 is sold, very well adapted for this purpose. The pattern 
 to be painted must then be cut out with a sharp pen¬ 
 knife, the pattern being laid on a thick sheet of glass 
 for this purpose, and sufficient little ties being left to 
 hold it all together. The stencil plate is held up in its 
 proper position on the wall, or elsewhere, and the design 
 brushed through with either a proper stencil brush or a 
 hog s hair tool tied round with thread, so as to make it 
 short and stiff. The colour should be mixed very stiff 
 so as not to run, and should be put on with a very dry 
 brush which has first been dabbed upon the palette to 
 remove superfluous paint. The stencil plate should be 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 59 
 
 frequently cleaned with a soft clotli and a little turpen¬ 
 tine, and the ties finally painted in and rough edges 
 corrected. Of course in a pattern of many colours there will 
 he a separate stencil for each. Each plate should have its 
 guiding lines and marks that they may respectively tally 
 and fit correctly. 
 
 Two points, simple in themselves, require special care, 
 the execution of the black or other line which generally 
 edges and completes a pattern, and the drawing straight 
 lines. 
 
 Both should be done with a long hair sable pencil 
 springing and elastic, and well filled with colour. This 
 will at first be troublesome to use, but after a little while 
 the hand grows accustomed to it. Curves must be 
 worked with a bold and free hand, while straight lines 
 of any length are best ruled with a straight edge, using 
 the sable brush like a drawing pen or cedar pencil. 
 
 It will be found in practice that all decorative work 
 may be resolved into stencilling, painting and gilding. 
 The manner of setting out, of course, is the same in every 
 case, however varied the patterns or designs may be. 
 The same rules are applicable to every portion of a 
 building to which decorative painting has to be applied ; 
 roof, walls, mouldings, carving, and in every case the 
 amateur will proceed alike. Eirst preparing his ground, 
 whether wood, stone or plaster, in Tempera or Oil as he 
 prefers, according to the instructions before given ; then 
 commencing from the roof and working downwards, set¬ 
 ting out his general design, and either stencilling or 
 hand painting the details as time and inclination direct, 
 leaving the gilding of each portion as the last operation. 
 
60 
 
 THE ART OF MUEAL DECORATION. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply directions and instructions 
 ad libitum, but having taught the amateur to prepare his 
 ground, mix his colours, mate such materials as can 
 well be made by unprofessionals, to gild and to employ 
 the various little processes and ‘ mysteries’ of the art, all 
 else appears superfluous and unnecessary. For this reason 
 we make no mention of varnishing, graining, imitation 
 of marbles, wood, &c., which do not properly belong to 
 the art of Mural Decoration, but form a branch of house 
 painting. 
 
 STEREOCHROME, OR WATER-GLASS. 
 
 Although for reasons we shall state, Stereochrome ap¬ 
 pears more suitable for pictorial than decorative art, yet 
 this little Treatise would scarcely be complete, without 
 some mention of this new and important method now en¬ 
 gaging the attention of our first artists. There certainly 
 seem sufficient chemical reasons for regarding it as the 
 most durable system yet invented, and though the boast 
 of German Artists, that pictures executed in Stereochrome 
 are absolutely indestructible by fire or water, may be an 
 amiable exaggeration, yet the fact that twenty years have 
 been ineffectual to damage or change paintings, in some 
 cases actually exposed to the open air, must be a very high 
 testimony to its durable nature, as compared with Fresco, 
 Oil and Distemper. The extreme simplicity of the medium 
 and the whole process from first to last, is another favour¬ 
 able characteristic, while for its effects in the hands of true 
 
THE ART OF MIJRAL DECORATION. 
 
 61 
 
 artists we need only refer our readers to those noble pic¬ 
 tures, the “ Meeting of Wellington and Blucher” by Mr. 
 Maclise, and tbe “ Moses” of Mr. Herbert in the Houses of 
 Parliament. 
 
 As we have before said, Stereochrome belongs to the 
 first of the two great divisions of painting, that in which 
 an aqueous vehicle is employed. It differs, however, from 
 Fresco, Distemper, and what we commonly style £ water- 
 colour,’ inasmuch as in these the water vehicle is tem¬ 
 pered respectively with lime, size and various gums, 
 whilst in Stereochrome the powder colours are applied 
 with pur e distilled water alone, entirely free from other ad¬ 
 mixture. For this reason, as Mr. Maclise justly observes, 
 it is the only method to which the term aquarelle, or water¬ 
 colour, can be legitimately applied, and certainly thus far is 
 the simplest of any. 
 
 It will naturally then be asked, for what reason it is 
 styled water-glass. The answer is plain. In most other 
 systems the act of applying colour in a liquid form to any 
 surface of itself, binds, and fixes it there as soon as dry, 
 from the more or less glutinous character of the vehicle. 
 In Fresco, too, where the colours are applied to wet plaster 
 containing lime, each grain of colour, becoming incorpor¬ 
 ated with the lime and locked up in it by the union with 
 the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, is hardened into a 
 non-absorbent and impenetrable surface. But in water- 
 glass, the colours when first put on the wall could be 
 easily dusted or blown off again, and their fixation is 
 effected by the after process of sprinkling them with a fine 
 shower of water-glass, or soluble alkaline silicate diluted 
 with water, which is sucked in by the plaster ground, 
 
62 
 
 THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 itself containing silica, until the painting is incorporated 
 into the wall itself and indelibly fixed. For the chemical 
 reasons which specially prove the durable character of this 
 fixation, we cannot do better than to quote the words of 
 Mr. Maclise, who must be regarded as the authority par 
 excellence on this Art. He says, “ from what information 
 I have gathered, by aid of books and conversation, I have 
 formed the opinion that between the stereochromic and 
 ceramic arts there exists a close analogy ; while the art 
 of fresco is not assimilated to either, except in a very re¬ 
 mote degree. The fixation of pigments by water-glass on 
 a plaster wall, appears due to much the same circum¬ 
 stances, as that whereby the fixity of colours on an article 
 of pottery is effected. In both these operations, it is 
 owing to the presence of silica (quartz) in the materials 
 of the ground-work, that the painting can be rendered 
 permanently indissoluble, and because this substance being 
 capable of fusion at a certain degree of temperature, in¬ 
 volves while cooling down to a state of solidity, the water 
 of the colours laid in contact with itself. 
 
 “ Without presuming to explain the process of Stereo- 
 chromy more exactly than what my limited knowledge of 
 the chemical facts will allow me, I should say that what 
 the slab or other form of potter’s clay is to the ceramic 
 painter, the plaster -wall is to the stereochromic painter; 
 in both materials, the substance called silica exists, and 
 this is painted upon directly where it lies at the surface. 
 But while in the process of baking the article of pot¬ 
 tery the silica in it becomes fused by heat, and at 
 the time the pigments become incorporated in the silica, 
 and all together afterwards set fixed'y on cooling, a 
 
THE ART OF MIJRAL DECORATION. 
 
 63 
 
 similar result cannot be" 1 obtained for the Stereocliromic 
 painting, because of the inadmissability, or rather, practi¬ 
 cal impossibility of subjecting the wall to the influence of 
 fire. If such were conveniently possible, the result would 
 of course be the same. It is therefore upon the happy 
 discovery that silica, rendered soluble by boiling it in an 
 alkali, such as potash, soda or lime, can in that state be 
 infused into the wall through its facial painting, and so 
 render the latter fixed, that the Art of Stereochrome 
 mainly depends. 
 
 “ This art is new to Mural Painting, but the chemical 
 fact is of long standing. Soluble alkaline silicate (water- 
 glass) is but ordinary glass in a different form. Both 
 are compounds of the same materials, and in the same 
 proportions or very nearly so ; and, in fact, the very plas¬ 
 ter covering on which ,the painting is to be made and 
 set is, in itself, (as the chemist attests) a similar com¬ 
 pound, but one in a different state. Quartz sand which 
 forms the base of the plaster, is silica ; the alkali, (soda, 
 potash or lime) in chemical union with quartz represents 
 glass ; therefore the plaster formed of quartz, sand and 
 lime is of the same matter as glass, the only difference 
 between them being due to a chemical union of the in- 
 gredients of the glass, while those of the plaster only 
 hold together united by virtue of the common law of 
 cohesive attraction. It would appear therefore that 
 between the plaster and the soluble glass there subsists 
 a natural appetency. The one is desired by the other, 
 the plaster thirsts and drinks into its multitudinous pores 
 its vitreous beverage. The similar matters cohere as 
 things physically suited for union, and upon this fact 
 
64 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 the Art of Stereochromy is based and therefore will 
 endure.’’’ 
 
 It must be evident, however, from the above remarks, 
 that the necessity of a plaster basis or ground for paint¬ 
 ing upon to which Stereochrome owes its quality of dur¬ 
 ability, very much impairs its utility for mere decorative 
 purposes. The only vehicles which can be regarded as 
 thoroughly useful for decoration are those which can be 
 applied to all surfaces alike, when properly grounded with 
 oil or size. But stone, wood, and iron are equally ex¬ 
 cluded from Stereochrome, from the want of a siliceous 
 ground or base, while to apply a plaster surface or 
 coating to these would, in most cases, be impracticable. 
 It certainly appears possible that by saturating any of these 
 surfaces with successive coats of water-glass diluted, a 
 sufficient siliceous surface would be produced to receive 
 the pigments and after-fixing solution, but then putting 
 aside the question of the durability of this method, it is 
 evident that in very many positions requiring decorative 
 treatment, such as mouldings, deeply recessed carving, 
 &c., it would present very great and serious difficulties. 
 Although, therefore, the mingling of two or more systems 
 of painting in the same work is one never to be recom¬ 
 mended, if Stereochrome is to be used for decorative pur¬ 
 poses, it should be reserved for such large surfaces as 
 are capable of receiving the plaster intonaco, while flatted 
 oil, or better, Distemper should be employed for the com¬ 
 pletion of such positions not so capable. 
 
 The best ground for Stereochromic painting appears 
 to be one formed of three coats of mortar. The 
 two first should be of rich lime and river sand, in the 
 
THE ABT OE MTXEAL DECOBATION. 
 
 65 
 
 proportion of one part lime to three of sand, the last or into- 
 naco, which is to be the immediate recipient of the painting, 
 of the same relative proportions, hut using fine silicious 
 sand. This should be hand-floated with a proper wooden 
 float, not trowelled as is the case in Fresco, inasmuch as 
 this would render it too smooth and not sufficiently ab¬ 
 sorbent. Two things, also, must be borne in mind in 
 laying this ground—uniform treatment in floating the 
 intonaco is of high importance, as any irregularity of 
 surface would very easily show through and produce an 
 unpleasant effect in the painting. The colours cannot be 
 safely loaded with so slight a vehicle as pure water with¬ 
 out danger to their peeling and falling off. And again, 
 though any special roughness of surface is not absolutely 
 necessary to the success of the painting, it can be attained 
 at the artist’s pleasure by employing a coarser or finer 
 sand. Portland Cement and fine sand in the proportion 
 of one of the former to three of the latter may be em¬ 
 ployed, but from its dark colour is not advisable, save 
 under special conditions of light and shade. In all 
 cases the intonaco should not be more than the tenth of 
 an inch thick. 
 
 The modus operandi is very simple. A portion of the 
 intonaco is to be wetted with a solution of lime water 
 by the aid of a large brush, and the painting commenced 
 while wet. The colours are simply tempered with dis¬ 
 tilled water to about the same consistency, and applied 
 as in Distemper or Fresco. The operations of glazing, 
 hatching and stippling are all admissible in Stereochrome. 
 When perfectly dry, next day it may be fixed with a 
 solution of kali, water-glass, in the proportion of one 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 THE AET OF MORAL DECORATION. 
 
 part water-glass and two of pure water, but on a ground 
 of cement, two of water-glass to one of water. This is 
 sprinkled or applied by means of a syringe, specially con¬ 
 structed for the purpose, and differing from the ordinary 
 type by possessing a perforated flat nozzle, diffusing a 
 broad shower of liquid, and also a glass bottle or reser¬ 
 voir for containing the diluted wat^r-glass and supplying 
 the syringe. Care should be taken not to use the solution 
 too thick for fear of producing a shiny surface. It is 
 better therefore to employ a diluted solution several times, 
 until fixation is accomplished. Under ordinary circum¬ 
 stances, sixty square feet would require three quarts of 
 solution to fix it, but these proportions will be found to 
 vary according to the absorbency of the ground. 
 
 With the exception of lime, for which zinc white 
 is substituted, all colours employed in Fresco are 
 equally applicable in Stereochrome. 
 
 SPIRIT FRESCO. 
 
 It is owing to the courtesy of a well known amateur 
 in art, Mr. T. G-ambier Parry, that the author is enabled 
 to lay before his readers a detailed account of the new 
 medium of which that gentleman may be regarded as the 
 introducer. It was first brought before public notice in 
 an article in the ‘ Ecclesiologist’ for March, 1863, and has 
 since been advocated on various occasions by its in¬ 
 ventor. It is very doubtful, however, whether it is as 
 much known in the artistic world as it deserves, and we 
 
THE ART OF MTJRAL DECORATION. 
 
 67 
 
 make no apology, therefore, for availing ourselves of the 
 present opportunity of describing it—such description 
 being grounded by permission on the article referred to, 
 supplemented from various sources. At the same time, 
 it must be borne in mind that time is the only infallible 
 test of tlie new media and systems of painting which 
 are presented to us,, and that until a strong chemical 
 reason can be shown for the expected durability of any 
 medium, the system employing it must be considered to 
 a certain extent experimental. 
 
 Mr. Parry commences his observations by remarking 
 that damp is the great enemy of wall painting, whether 
 it be internal in the stone, or external, as damp of at¬ 
 mosphere or from the condensation of the breath of 
 assemblies of people. And yet continually, both artist 
 and decorator have to work under these unfavourable 
 circumstances—to paint with the inward certainty that a 
 few months may see the fading, a few years certainly 
 must see the destruction of their work. Of the folly of 
 painting in an incurably damp situation, upon new and 
 insufficiently prepared surfaces we have elsewhere spoken, 
 and shown how very short-sighted is the spirit of eco¬ 
 nomy which hurries the artist or decorator over his work, 
 or forces him to employ unsatisfactory methods to ob¬ 
 tain, at best, a transitory effect. But we may have “ a 
 dry wall and a damp atmosphere, how shall we then deal 
 with them ?” asks Mr. Parry. He then reviews the 
 various systems in existence, Presco, Tempera, Oil, 
 Encaustic and Stereochrome, mentioning what appear 
 to him the chief objections to each. With these, we con¬ 
 fess, we do not always agree, although Fresco, Encaus- 
 
 f 2 
 
68 
 
 THE AET OE MTJEAI DECORATION. 
 
 tic and Stereochrome we have elsewhere dismissed as 
 unsuitable for mere decorative work from their special 
 requirements of a particular ground or for other reasons. 
 
 The fatal objections to Fresco appear to be its inability 
 to resist internal damp, and its very doubtful durability 
 against the continued action of a damp atmosphere. 
 Add to this, the necessity of extreme rapidity in execu¬ 
 tion, which, however desirable as inducing breadth of 
 effect in figure painting, is much otherwise in decoration, 
 the limited number of colours permissible, the require¬ 
 ment of a wet plaster ground and the difficulty of altera¬ 
 tion, and you certainly have a medium almost impossible 
 for the decorator, and as Mr. Parry suggests, ill adapted 
 to the artist. 
 
 Tempera is dismissed as perishable. Pictures in the 
 middle ages painted in Tempera were afterwards varnished, 
 hence their bright tints now. And for wall paintings, it 
 is most probable that wax was embodied into the compo¬ 
 sition of the Tempera vehicle, or at least that a colourless 
 wash of diluted wax was glazed over the painting. It is 
 hard to see how otherwise the Tempera vehicle should 
 have withstood the repeated coats of whitewash to which 
 m many cases it has been suojected. Be this as it may, 
 from the nature of the animal size employed, the duration 
 of a Tempera vehicle unprotected is but limited in a cli¬ 
 mate like that of England. 
 
 TV hy not then try Oil F Simply because it is wanting in 
 body and absorbent of light. Mixed with other materials 
 these defects may be remedied 5 but then the good rests 
 with these and the bad with the oil, which darkens by 
 age and in drying shrinks away from its original richness 
 
T TTF. ART OR MURAD DECORATION. 
 
 69 
 
 into a dull thin film, needing a varnish to preserve it; 
 thus adding to the objections which render it an unfit 
 medium for wall painting. What then is to be used ? 
 Why not Encaustic ? Because the process of Encaustic 
 painting by the use of heat risks the injury of the more 
 delicate colours, and tends to decompose the medium 
 in which the colours have been mixed, repelling part 
 into the wall and drawing part to the surface, often 
 giving it a gloss which is objectionable. The last process 
 in Encaustic painting universally practised by the ancients 
 and recommended by modern painters in that method, is 
 to polish the surface with cloths. A wall painting should, 
 of course, be equally well seen from all parts of the build¬ 
 ing ; but if it be polished, it is only visible in certain po¬ 
 sitions and certain lights. The modern invention of glass 
 painting, (Stereochrome) may prove most valuable ; but 
 experience of it is as yet too short to authorize either per¬ 
 fect confidence, or adverse criticism. The present evident 
 objections to it may be overcome, as the preparation of 
 its materials is improved. For instance, the water-glass 
 with which the colours are set has chemical qualities, so 
 that the number of colours which will stand it is hardly 
 above that of Fresco, where the lime is the difficulty. 
 The potash in the glass-water may be so much diminished 
 as to be harmless to almost any colour ; but the danger 
 then is that, as little or nothing but silica is left, the 
 water evaporating, leaves an exceeding fragile and delicate 
 film, liable to injury from the slightest causes, and flak¬ 
 ing off from the wall, leaving the colours unprotected.” 
 
 We may observe, en pctssccnt, that Mr. Maclise recom¬ 
 mends, and the German Artists use only the kali water- 
 
70 
 
 THE ABT OE MURAL BECOEATION. 
 
 glass not the potash. “ The colours are plain water-colours, 
 they have no vehicle with them either for protection or ad¬ 
 hesion. It is inconvenient to use the water-glass with them 
 as a vehicle, because as the water evaporates, the glass re¬ 
 mains and the brush becomes rigid. Nor can an oily 
 vehicle help them, or gums as in common water-colour; 
 because then they would be impervious to the shower of 
 glass-water which ought to be absorbed by them and set 
 them. The efflorescence, too, to which a surface painted 
 in water-glass is subject, may be a curable evil, as the 
 composition or proportions of the materials is improved ; 
 and the more delicate colours may be made available by 
 being prepared on stronger chemical bases.” 
 
 Mr. Parry then proceeds to say that, however far his 
 remarks on the systems may be right or wrong, the system 
 he now advocates—Spirit Fresco—possesses all their good 
 qualities without their objection, considered in relation to 
 our climate; having the luminousness of Fresco, the facility 
 of Tempera and water-glass, the richness of Oil and the 
 durability of Encaustic. 
 
 All this is to be obtained by a composition of wax re¬ 
 sins and volatile oils, used in certain proportions and upon 
 a definite system. My confidence is founded in great mea¬ 
 sure on the experience which art has afforded as to the 
 nature and effect of those materials. Wax is an invalu¬ 
 able coating to the particles of colour, and is unaffected 
 by the atmospheric changes of heat and cold, damp or 
 diyness. It dries as it is used, both as to quantity and 
 colour; not like oil, which darkens and becomes a mere 
 thin horny pedicle on the evaporation of the water which 
 is the principal ingredient; nor like size, which is liable 
 
THE AET OR MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 71 
 
 to peel off if used too thick, and to perish if used thin. 
 But wax, although free from these objections, has weak¬ 
 nesses of its own. It is, however, most happily amenable 
 to all demands upon it for mixture with other materials, 
 which remedy its defects. 
 
 “ Of all works of art which have been preserved to our 
 times, none are in mere perfect condition than those 
 which have either been painted in, or protected by an oil 
 varnish. That used in the earlier Middle Ages has in 
 many cases darkened painfully, both from the faulty 
 quality of the oil, and the choice of the resin (commonly 
 Sandarach) with which it was made up. But the protec¬ 
 tion afforded by it to the picture has been complete. A 
 finer and harder resin not only protects better but darkens 
 less. That which was used by Yan Eyck has protected 
 his works perfectly, and has not darkened at all. The 
 preparation used by his school was probably the same as 
 we now have in the finest preparations of artist’s copal. 
 In wax painting, several other resins have been tried; but 
 there are objections to most of them for the purposes of 
 wall painting. Mastic, for instance, if used in sufficient 
 quantities to consolidate and toughen the wax, becomes 
 objectionable in another way by its gloss. It is also very 
 hygrometric, I) a mar a is in quality like a very poor edition 
 of mastic, and liable to the same objections. The balsams 
 do not mix well with the copal. But elemi resin will do 
 so by heat, and when added in small proportions to wax, 
 gives it the strength and toughness requisite for our 
 purpose. If then we have a composition ol these materials, 
 wax, elemi, and copal, made sufficiently liquid by a 
 fourth which is a solvent of the other three, namely, oil of 
 
72 
 
 THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 spike, we have a medium perfectly applicable to wall 
 painting in this climate ; because it has strength to resist 
 external damp, it is free from chemical action on the 
 most delicate colours; it does not change by age, it is 
 subtle enough to penetrate deeply the pores of the wall, 
 and thus to key the pores of the painted surface to it; it 
 is rich enough to protect the colours from the atmos¬ 
 phere and from each ether; it is itself transparent, and 
 dries with a dead surface. Whatever be the materials 
 used, or methods of using them, where durability is the 
 object, the one great point to be attained is some ready 
 means of incorporating those materials with the wall 
 itself, so that the painting may be made rather as it 
 were into the wall than merely upon it. Fresco aims at 
 this, by crystallization of the lime enclosing the colours in 
 the drying plaster. Tempera aims at it by the adhesive 
 qualities of the size, with which the porous surface of the 
 wall is prepared. Encaustic aims at it by heat, driving 
 the melted wax into the wall. Stereochrorny attains it in 
 a very slight degree, because the delicate shower of 
 water (which must not risk the running of the colours on 
 the perpendicular wall surface) is too fine to penetrate 
 deeply into the pores as a more copious wash would do. 
 
 “ a modification of wax painting, a method may be 
 obtained perfectly suitable to our climate by the dura¬ 
 bility of its materials, and to our light by its powers of 
 colour to be as bright as the illuminations of a missal, or 
 as sober as a Giottesque fresco. It is objected that wax 
 deadens colours. This it need not do. The real objec- 
 tion to the common systems of wax painting, are that 
 they reduce it to a slightly modified oil painting by 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 73 
 
 mixing drying oils with, the wax, and using colours 
 ground up in the oil, or by the contrary fault of trusting 
 the wax too much by itself, without strengthening it 
 sufficiently with other materials. 
 
 “ Another practice is to prepare the wall with wax, and 
 
 then paint upon it with oil; this may do for mere decora¬ 
 
 tive work, but for works of fine art its objections are 
 
 manifest. To meet all the requirements of wall-painting 
 (where the walls are dry) with little risk of injury from 
 the action of our climate, avoiding the objections to other 
 systems and retaining all that is good and effective in 
 them, I recommend the following scheme. Take a 
 medium composed in these proportions : 
 
 Pure bleached wax 
 
 Elemi resin 
 
 Oil of spike lavender 
 
 6 oz. i liquid 
 
 Finest preparation of artist’s copal 18 oz. j measure 
 
 which shall be used throughout from the first preparation 
 of the wall to the last touch of colour laid upon it ; that 
 the whole mass may be perfectly homogeneous, all colours 
 are to be ground up in it, and may be kept in tubes as 
 oil colours are, or in any other way. The same compo¬ 
 sition diluted in twice its bulk of rectified spirits of tur¬ 
 pentine makes the liquid with which the pores of the wall 
 are to be saturated by copious washes. The number of 
 these washes must depend on the absorbency of the wall 
 surface, and the more absorbent that be the better. The 
 last wash should be mixed up with : 
 
 Best G-ilder’s whiting well washed 1 three parts in bulk, 
 
 and baked dry 
 
 not in weight. 
 
74 
 
 THE AKT OF MFEAL DECORATION. 
 
 Plate White around (as usual) ini j. Tjj 
 
 water, and perfectly dry . . . j one P art dltto - 
 
 to the consistency of thin cream; the surface should he 
 well covei’ed with it, indeed, in most cases, two coats of 
 this are better than one. 
 
 “ Common rough wall plaster will take two doses of the 
 transparent wash, and two with the opaque white. Each 
 wash should be allowed twenty-four hours to evaporate. 
 The object of these washes is to key the prepared surface 
 deeply into the pores of the wall with a material which 
 dries in them as hard as stone, and leaves a surface 
 white, solid, absorbent, and of a good texture for paint¬ 
 ing. When the cartoon is traced on the wall, let a part 
 of the design chosen, be enough for a day’s work, and 
 washed over thinly with oil of spike, or highly rectified 
 turpentine (the former is better, being a stronger solvent 
 of the copal), the object being to open the surface which 
 will then be painted into and dry into one solid mass, by 
 the evaporation of the volatile oils. The wash should be 
 lightly applied before the palette and colours are pre¬ 
 pared for the day’s work; the time thus employed, will 
 allow the surface to dry just sufficiently to let the 
 paint be applied without dragging up and mixing with 
 it. 
 
 “ The vehicle for painting in which the brush must be 
 dipped, must either be the same as the wall wash, only 
 twice as much diluted, or oil of spike alone—or when the 
 cost of oil of spike is an objection, by highly rectified 
 turpentine. The surface dries gradually, not skinning 
 over as oil colours do, but equally throughout by evapora¬ 
 tion. There are certain precautions to be taken which 
 
THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION, 
 
 75 
 
 are essential, viz,, not to touch any part witli a volatile 
 oil but such as is to be painted into, because those oils 
 first melt the resins ratlier than the wax, and if left 
 unpainted, will probably dry with a slight gloss which is 
 very objectionable; but painting with a good body of 
 colour into places thus softened, restores the unity 
 of the materials and dries dead. There are also 
 some peculiarities in certain colours which a little expe¬ 
 rience will soon ascertain. Cobalt, for instance, and 
 ultramarine are naturally extremely dry, and require a 
 fuller vehicle than many other colours; with them, there¬ 
 fore, plain volatile oil should not be used as a vehicle, 
 but one composed of the medium diluted with three or 
 four times its bulk of spike oil or turpentine. Ivory 
 black dries badly. It is better to mix with it a fourth 
 part of burnt umber, for all cases where black would 
 otherwise be used alone. Some colours do very well in a 
 thinner vehicle, such as emerald, oxide of chromium, 
 lake, brown and rose madders, Indian and Venetian red, 
 and others; these (mixed up of course with the medium 
 mentioned at first) may be applied with a brush dipped 
 in pure volatile oils. 
 
 “ For the preparation of the medium, put first the elemi 
 resin into a copper saucepan, and melt it gently over a 
 charcoal fire or spirit lamp, the object being to evaporate 
 from it the greater part of its essential oil. Then throw 
 in the wax, and after that is melted, let the two ingre¬ 
 dients simmer on together for ten minutes or so. Strain 
 them through fine muslin to clear away the pieces of 
 elemi bark or leaves, which if left to boil with the other 
 materials would stain them a dark brown. Into the 
 
76 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 vessel to which the elemi and wax are strained add the 
 oil .of spike and the copal, and let them boil together, 
 straining them a good deal until a white froth comes on 
 the surface. They are then mixed and may be poured 
 off into jars for use ; the medium will not dry quite into a 
 jelly. If that thicker form be required, it may be obtained 
 by using half the quantity of spike oil and by boiling the 
 whole two or three times, taking it off the fire each time, 
 till the froth disappears, and then putting it on again. 
 All this is in practice very little trouble, enough may be 
 prepared in half an hour to last the artist for weeks of 
 work. The only apparatus necessary is a strong spirit 
 lamp or charcoal fire, and the copper saucepans, tinned 
 inside ; one, a small one, to melt the elemi and wax in— 
 the other, a larger one, to mix and boil all the materials 
 together. It is a good plan that these saucepans be 
 made rather deep than broad, to avoid all access of the 
 fire to the fumes of the hot materials. A long spoon for 
 stirring, and a large graduated glass for measuring liquids 
 complete the 'list of apparatus. 
 
 “ It is necessary to make sure of the best materials. 
 
 hite wax, commonly sold by chemists, is generally much 
 adulterated with spermaceti and tallow, and would be 
 worse than useless. The best bleached wax is obtained 
 fiom wax merchants and places where it is prepared 
 carefully and pure for photography. 
 
 For merely architectural decorative work, such as 
 diapering, backgrounds, &c., where less expensive ma¬ 
 terials are. required, but at the same time durability is 
 the object in view, rectified turpentine may be substituted 
 throughout for spike oil, animi may be used for copal and 
 
THE A JET OF MURAL DECORATION. 77 
 
 elemi may be omitted altogether, but not substituted by 
 any other resin.” 
 
 This appears to us both remarkable and important. 
 In a medium consisting of four materials, wax, elemi 
 resin, copal and oil of spike, one of them may be omitted 
 at pleasure, and that where “ durability is the object in 
 view,” while two of the others may be substituted by other 
 and cheaper ingredients. It would seem as if the wax 
 basis were the one important point. Surely, therefore, 
 gum animi and turpentine might be employed on all 
 occasions instead of the more costly pure copal and oil of 
 spike, especially as we have been previously told that the 
 latter is only a strong solvent of the former. However this 
 may be, it is at least satisfactory to know that for decora¬ 
 tive work the cheaper ingredients are sufficient, as we ap¬ 
 prehend that the expense of this “ spirit fresco” medium 
 will be the chief objection to its use. There certainly 
 appears every reason for anticipating its durability, as the 
 combination of wax and resins is far from new, and has, 
 we believe, always been successful. At the same time, we 
 confess that we think for decorative work an oil vehicle em¬ 
 ployed upon an encaustic ground—that is a wall prepared 
 with wax—would answer every purpose in an ordinarily 
 dry situation. An incurably damp wall is simply hope¬ 
 less and should never be coloured. We may add that 
 Frescoes executed in this medium may be seen at High- 
 nam Church, Gloucester, and one by Mr. Leighton in 
 Lyndhurst, Hampshire. 
 
78 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 FRESCO. 
 
 The art of painting in Fresco is one that has ever been 
 esteemed of very high importance. The great durability 
 which the system ensures, the firmness of touch, breadth 
 of design and thorough knowledge of draughtmanship it 
 necessitates, together with the fact that it has always 
 been regarded with favour by the greatest artists, are 
 alone sufficient to prove its value. Indeed, the very name 
 of Fresco is most commonly, though very erroneously, 
 applied to nearly all Mural paintings of large size, though 
 they may have been executed in Tempera or even Oil media. 
 At the same time, it must be confessed that Fresco has 
 very great disadvantages, especially as regards the art of 
 Mural decoration with which alone we are concerned. 
 
 The necessity of painting and finishing while the last 
 coat of plaster, called “ intonaco” is damp, not only causes 
 a series of joins all through the picture, but also requires 
 the artist to commence no more than he can finish in the 
 day. Again, it is by no means proof against internal 
 damp, as the frescoes in the Upper Hall of the Hew Palace 
 at Westminster abundantly prove. And, lastly, the 
 palette is limited in the extreme, only receiving those 
 pigments which are not affected by lime, such as earths 
 and minerals, mostly sober in hue. Still, though not in¬ 
 cluded among those systems which are open to the 
 decorator some brief account of the manner of its execu¬ 
 tion may not be uninteresting. Cennini’s directions are 
 as follows : 
 
 “ When you are going to paint on walls, which is the 
 
THE AST OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 79 
 
 most agreeable of all kinds of painting, procure, in tlie 
 first place, lime and sand, and sift both of them well. 
 If the lime is very rich and fresh, it will require two parts 
 of sand and one of lime. Temper them well together 
 with water, and temper enough to last you fifteen or 
 twenty days. Let the lime rest for some time till it be 
 quite slacked; for if any heat remain in it, it will crack 
 the plaster. When you are going to lay on the mortar, 
 first sweep the wall, and wet it well, you cannot wet it 
 too much; and let the lime be well stirred with a trowel, 
 and spread it over once or twice till the intonaco become 
 quite even on the wall. Afterwards, when you are going 
 to work, remember to make the surface of the mortar very 
 stiff and rather rough.” 
 
 The artists’ small drawing or design of the whole com¬ 
 position was, it appears, enlarged or “ squared up” to 
 the necessary proportions which formed the cartoon, and 
 was simply executed in white and black chalk without 
 colour. Separate studies, full size, were also made of the 
 various details from which to work. The cartoon then 
 was pricked with small pin-holes, so as to make a pounce 
 by means of which the outlines were transferred to the 
 wall by dusting through powdered charcoal or some red 
 powder. If this method were not employed, the design 
 was simply traced through with a style or blunt point. 
 Cennini continues : 
 
 “ Take some of the before mentioned lime, stir it well 
 with a trowel until it be of the consistency of ointment. 
 Then consider how much you can paint in a day; for 
 whatever you cover with the mortar you must finish the 
 same day. It is true, that when you are painting on 
 
80 
 
 THE ART OE MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 walls during the damp weather in the spring, the mortar 
 will remain wet until the next day; but if you can help 
 it, do not delay, because when painting in Fresco, that 
 which is finished in one day is firmest and best, and is 
 the most beautiful work. Then spread over a coat of 
 intonaco. Next take your large hog hair brush; first 
 steep it in clean water and wet your mortar with it, and 
 then with a slip of Avood, as wide as the palm of the band, 
 rub over the intonaco, so as to remove the lime where 
 you have put too much, and put more where there is not 
 enough, and thus make your mortar quite smooth. Then 
 wet your mortar with the brush, and, if necessary, rub 
 very smoothly and evenly over the intonaco with the point 
 of the trowel.” 
 
 The directions which follow apply exclusively to figure 
 and landscape painting with their accessories. The colours 
 are to be ground fine in lime water, and applied in the 
 ordinary way. 
 
 Painting in secco resembled true Fresco in the use of 
 the plaster ground, with this great difference. The plas¬ 
 ter was allowed to dry, but before being painted upon 
 was moistened over with yolk and white of egg diluted 
 in water, the colours being mixed with yolk of egg tem¬ 
 pera. In modern usage, the plaster is wetted in the 
 evening with weak lime-water, and again in the morn¬ 
 ing before painting, the colours being ground in lime 
 water, and used as in buon fresco. 
 
THE ABT OF MUEAE DECOEATION. 
 
 81 
 
 ENCAUSTIC. 
 
 With the exception of the exact nature of Van Eyck’s 
 medium, there is no question presenting greater difficulties 
 than that of the ancient employment of the Encaustic 
 system. Erom the days of Pliny to the present time 
 there have been many to take the matter in hand; but, 
 unfortunately for the most part, these treatises only 
 involve it in greater obscurity than they found it—partly 
 from insufficient data and partly from loose and inaccu¬ 
 rate descriptions. Indeed, even Mrs. Merrifield and Sir 
 Charles Eastlake appear unable to come to any decided 
 conclusion, and leave room for much speculation after all. 
 That there were three methods anciently employed, seems 
 beyond all doubt. The first appears to have been little 
 more than modelling with a graver’s tool, or burin , in 
 heated wax ; in the second the pencil was used, and the 
 wax melted by heat, and diluted with some oil; in the 
 last an essential oil was employed as diluent; but the 
 last stage appears to have been the heating the painted 
 wall surface with a brazier of live coals until it frothed, 
 and finally bringing it up to an exquisite polish by means 
 of wax and linen cloths. Eor the benefit of those curious 
 in such matters we subjoin Pliny’s description. 
 
 “ It is certain that there were two ways of painting in 
 Encaustic anciently, on wax and on ivory with a graving 
 tool, until ships began to be painted. This caused the 
 introduction of a third way of using wax melted by fire, 
 with a pencil, which system in ships is indestructible 
 
 G- 
 
82 
 
 THE AET OF MTTEAL DECORATION, 
 
 whether by heat, salt (water), or wind.”— Pliny, lib. 35. 
 And this is the varnish to preserve it. “ On a dry wall 
 let Punic wax melted in oil be applied with a hog’s hair 
 tool, then let it be heated again bv the application of 
 hot coals until the wax melts, and afterwards be rubbed 
 with wax and candles.” Thus far Pliny. It may very 
 reasonably be asked why men have wearied themselves 
 over the obscurity which enwraps the subject of Encaustic, 
 where there are other eligible vehicles ? Because the 
 idea of the employment of wax is in itself most excellent. 
 Wax is a most incorruptible and imperishable sub¬ 
 stance, and communicates these properties to the 
 pigments with which it is used, locking them up and 
 keeping them alike from damp, bad air, and mutual 
 contact. Hence modern struggles after the veritable 
 method. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the amateur decorator need not 
 perplex himself much, firstly because the old way revived 
 never so faithfully would not save his purpose with its hot 
 brazier and final waxy polish, and secondly because there 
 are one or two very simple and effectual ways in which 
 wax may be employed with all success. Now Sir C. 
 Eastlake remarks that wax may be used : 
 
 1. By a solution of wax by a lixivium, or any means 
 which will allow of its being mixed with pigments in 
 water ; of this nature is borax. 
 
 2. By solution by heat in a fixed oil, and 
 
 3. By solution in an essential oil. 
 
 This last has been mainly employed in the French and 
 German revivals of Encaustic, resins being added to give 
 strength, and there can be no doubt that this is really 
 
THE AET OF MHEAL DEC0EAT103ST. 
 
 83 
 
 tlie best and simplest way. Mrs. Merrifield in “ Ancient 
 Practice of Painting,” Yol. I. gives a receipt as used by 
 an Italian artist. In it the wall is plastered in lime as 
 in fresco, but not quite smooth. The vehicle is wax and 
 resin in turps, which makes a fluid the colour of milk, in 
 this the colours are ground and diluted with turpentine 
 as may be required in using. The pigments dry rapidly 
 and flat. A wax water-colour method invented by Miss 
 Greenland is quoted from the “ Transactions of the 
 Society of Arts ” by Mr. Pield in his book on Chromato¬ 
 graphy, page 353. “ Pour and a half ounces of gum 
 
 Arabic are dissolved in eight ounces of pure water in a 
 glazed vessel, to which seven ounces of powdered mastic 
 are to be added, and the whole stirred over a moderate 
 fire until combined in an opaque uniform paste, five 
 ounces of white wax are then to be added and stirred 
 till melted and beginning to boil, when the vessel 
 should be removed from the fire, and sixteen ounces 
 more of pure cold water gradually stirred into the 
 mixture, which will then form a cream like composition, 
 to be kept in a bottle for use.” The best and simplest 
 wax vehicle we have ever used was made by a mixture of 
 copal, wax and turpentine. The best picked copal l’esin 
 was digested in about twice its btilk of turpentine, the 
 two being put in a bottle in a warm place. To this 
 was finally added sufficient pure white wax melted to 
 render it thick and creamy. The proportions of the 
 wax are easily learned by the fact of its remaining thickly 
 fluid when cold. If it set hard the wax is in excess. 
 The colours were ground in this turpentine, being used 
 as a diluent and worked very pleasantly, drying flat. 
 
 g 2 
 
84 
 
 THIS ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 The wall surface should he prepared with two or three 
 coats of the Encaustic wash we gave before, page 50. 
 All pigments which may be used in oil or water-colour 
 may be used in this form of Encaustic. We need 
 scarcely add that neither charcoal brazier nor wax candles 
 and linen rag polish are needed. 
 
 GILDING. 
 
 Gilding, which is the art of applying thin sheets or 
 leaves of gold to any surface previously prepared to receive 
 it, is effected by means (a) of oil size, or (b) japanner’s 
 size. It is one of the most important processes in decora¬ 
 tion, and the one most difficult for an amateur to acquire, 
 demanding a correct eye and a steady and dexterous 
 hand. A little practice, however, soon overcomes the 
 timidity natural to a beginner, and by patience and care 
 any one may become a good gilder. 
 
 Some account of the method of gilding employed by 
 the mediaeval artists may be interesting, and we therefore 
 subjoin a precis of Cennini’s instructions : 
 
 “ The mordants employed in gilding in mediaeval times 
 appear to have been generally those prepared on a 
 tempera basis, or as we should now call it water gilding. 
 Armenian bole ground carefully in the white of egg mixed 
 with its own bulk of pure water was the principal. Of 
 this the panel to be gilded, received four coats, laid on 
 very smoothly, and was afterwards placed and covered up. 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 85 
 
 When it was wislied to gild, the panel was laid flat on 
 two tressels, and lightly swept with a feather to remove 
 dust, next burnished, first with a piece of linen, and next 
 with a doer’s tooth. The bole W9 jS then moistened with a 
 
 O 
 
 large pencil dipped in white of egg diluted in water, and 
 the gold applied from a piece of card, and pressed down 
 with cotton wool. The gilding was afterwards mended, 
 or “ faulted,” by the use of a gold cushion, whereon to cut 
 small pieces as used at present. For burnishing, a choice 
 is given the artist among various precious stones, as 
 £ lapis amatisto,’ sapphires, emeralds, balas rubies, to- 
 pases, rubies and granite. At the same time, not to 
 discourage the poor artist, it is considerately added that 
 the teeth of dogs, lions, wolves, cats (!), leopards, and 
 generally of all carnivorous animals are equally good. 
 One of these precious stones ground on a grindstone, and 
 then rubbed with the dust of emeralds, until no in¬ 
 equalities remained, was set in a metal handle, and 
 formed the burnisher, Gold was usually burnished in 
 slightly damp weather, the stone first being warmed and 
 rubbed so as to secure perfect dryness. Any blemishes 
 were to be mended by breathing on the gold and applying 
 a fresh piece. 
 
 “ For walls, pictures, glass, iron and every other thing, 
 a mordant prepared in oil was used. White lead and a 
 little verdigris was ground in boiled oil, and afterwards 
 boiled with a little varnish. This appears to have been 
 ready for gilding in one day. In other respects, it must 
 have resembled japanner’s gold size. Another mordant is 
 mentioned, which appears to have the quality of receiving 
 the gold at any interval, from half an hour to eternity; 
 
86 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 but from its noisome ingredients and general impractica¬ 
 bility, is not given here.” 
 
 The materials necessary for gilding are a cushion, knife 
 and tip, a large short and thick camel hair brush, cotton 
 wool, and oil and japanner’s size. 
 
 Gold leaf is sold in books of twenty-five leaves, each 
 about three inches square. It is technically reckoned by 
 the hundred, that is the contents of four books, and 
 gilders calculate a work to require so many “ hundreds,” 
 not so many books. There are thirteen varieties of tint, 
 ranging from a deep orange red down to a white approx¬ 
 imating silver. 
 
 The cushion is a piece of wood about eight inches by 
 five, covered first with baize, and then with buff leather 
 tightly stitched. At one end there is a raised edge 
 or screw of parchment, which turns partly round 
 the sides. This is to prevent the leaves being blown 
 away by any chance wind. Underneath, the cushion has 
 two, and sometimes three small loops of leather, one for 
 inserting the thumb to hold it by, the others for sticking 
 the knife and camel hair brush in. 
 
 The knife for cutting the gold leaf has a long flexible 
 blade, which should not be too sharp, set in a light handle 
 like a palette knife. 
 
 The tip is a large flat brush for taking up and placing 
 the gold leaf. It is made of very long squirrel’s hair, 
 set thinly between the flat pieces of card. Cotton wool 
 and the thick camel hair brush are used for dabbing 
 down the gold and removing superfluous pieces. 
 
 There are two kinds of gold size, fat oil and japanner’s 
 size. The former is by far the most durable and brilliant, 
 
THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 87 
 
 so that japanner’s size should never be employed save for 
 mending small places and imperfections, or where time is 
 of great importance. It is very desirable in using gold 
 size to have the very best, that you may reckon with 
 certainty upon the time the operation will take. Bad 
 size, on the contrary, is continually disappointing 
 the gilder’s expectation and upsetting his arrange¬ 
 ments. 
 
 The surface to be gilded should first of all be rubbed 
 smooth, if stone with pumice, if wood with Dutch rushes, 
 if a very bright level effect be desired. After this it 
 should have its priming of glue size, and two coats of oil 
 paint and one of flatting. To enrich the colour of the 
 gold, these last may be laid down in red or yellow. White, 
 however, is usually preferred as the darker colour renders 
 anv imperfection in the gold sizing more difficult to detect. 
 When the last coat of paint is thoroughly dry, it is as 
 well to rub it over with wash leather, to render it plea¬ 
 santly smooth and free from dust or grit. If there be 
 any patterns or figures which are to be left ungilded, they 
 should be lightly pounced over with white to prevent the 
 gold leaf adhering to them. Another way is to paint 
 them over with the white of egg diluted with water. If 
 any little piece of gold sticks to this it can easily be 
 washed, or wiped off with a moistened handkerchief. 
 When all is ready for sizing, strain as much size as you 
 think sufficient through muslin, and put some out on 
 your palette, adding to it, if you like, enough vermilion 
 mixed with oil alone to colour. Then with a stiff hog 
 hair tool commence painting it on the surface you desire 
 to cover, taking care to lay it on smoothly, and not too 
 
88 
 
 THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 thick. If it is put on too thickly it runs, and leaves 
 unseemly wrinkles in your gilding. 
 
 Size always from left to right, beginning at the top of 
 your surface, and working downwards. Move your brush 
 lightly and firmly, mapping out the surface to be sized 
 into several squares, and finishing and cross hatching 
 each before proceeding onwards. If there are patterns to 
 be left ungilded, carefully trace round their outline first 
 with a sable pencil, and then fill in the interstices. When 
 your whole surface is covered with size, give it a thorough 
 inspection to make sure there is no faulty portion, and if 
 there be, delicately touch in the size with a small pencil. 
 When very perfect gilding is required, it should be sized 
 twice, the first coat of course being allowed to dry 
 thoroughly before the second is applied. In carved work, 
 be careful to dip your brush down deep into the hollows 
 of the carving. 
 
 It is a good plan to size over night, so that you may 
 gild in the morning. But all size does not dry alike, 
 sometimes taking twelve to twenty-four or thirty hours 
 befoie it is ready for the gold leaf; in damp weather or 
 positions, always more than in dry. The readiness of 
 your size can only be ascertained by the touch. If on 
 being couched by the finger the surface daubs or comes 
 off, it, is not ready, and must be left; if, however, it feels 
 clammy and sticky, and has what painters call “ tack,” it 
 is sufficiently matured. If too dry it must be sized 
 again. 
 
 The books of gold leaf should always be placed before 
 the fire some half hour previous to use, in order to 
 thoroughly dry the gold and make it more manageable. 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 89 
 
 When all is ready, shake out several leaves upon your 
 gold cushion, and blow them towards the parchment 
 screen. Then carefully raise one leaf with the blade of 
 your knife, and place it on the cushion, gently breathing 
 on it to flatten it out. If it manifest a disposition to cockle 
 up, do not be nervous and fidgetty, but play it about 
 with your knife blade until it lies as flat as you could 
 wish. Then replace the knife in its loop under the 
 cushion, and taking the tip in your hand, pass it lightly 
 over your hair, thus acquiring sufficient greasiness to 
 enable the gold to stick to it. Lay the hairy portion of 
 the tip upon the gold leaf, and then raising it, apply it 
 to the surface sized. As in sizing work from left to right 
 be specially careful to let each leaf overlap slightly, so as 
 to avoid gaps and spaces. Lay on whole leaves as far as 
 the space allows, and then proceed to gild the curves and 
 corners which need smaller pieces. Place a leaf flat and 
 smooth on your cushion, and then taking the knife in the 
 right hand, draw the edge easily and evenly along it with 
 a gentle pressure. Divide the leaf into as many pieces as 
 you require, and lay on as before. When all your ground 
 is complete, give a very careful inspection to make quite 
 sure there are no portions ungilt, however small, and 
 mend them at once, otherwise your gilding will be faulty. 
 You may now take a piece of cotton-wool, and gently dab 
 or press your gold down all over, finally brushing off the 
 superfluous pieces either with cotton-wool or the camel 
 hair brush. It is a good plan to stipple the gold with a 
 large stiff hog hair tool, quite dry and clean, as this 
 gradually softens and removes the marks of joining, and 
 other little imperfections. You may finally smooth the 
 
90 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 gold with a clean piece of wash leather, and it is com¬ 
 pleted. 
 
 With regard to gilding with japanner’s size, the above 
 remarks hold, save as to the time necessary to wait 
 between sizing and gilding. If japanner’s size is used 
 pure, it will ordinarily be ready in from twenty to thirty 
 minutes, but better gilding can be made by mixing one- 
 third oil size with two-thirds of japanner’s size. This will 
 be ready in about two or four hours from the time of 
 putting on. It should, howfever, always be borne in 
 mind that gilding in pure oil size is not only the most 
 brilliant, but the most durable. 
 
 When all your gilding is finished, dilute one-third 
 very clean and pure parchment size in two-thirds water, 
 and brush it all over the surface of the gold to enrich 
 and preserve it. If it be necessary to gild in a position 
 much exposed to touch, as the base of a pillar, string¬ 
 courses, &c., it is as well to give the goid a coat of mastic 
 varnish thinned with turpentine. 
 
 There are various processes which tend to enrich and 
 vary the effect of gilding. 
 
 G-lazings of transparent colour are sometimes applied 
 for the purpose of deadening its lustre. Raw sienna 
 passed thinly over a sheet of gold gives it an agreeable 
 leathery appearance. Glazings of red, green and blue, 
 are not to be recommended, as they have a tinselly and 
 pantomimic effect. 
 
 A very good effect may be produced by stencilling a 
 small powdering or set diaper in umber, sienna, or Indian 
 red over gold, especially if there be foliage or arabesque 
 work upon the gilding as the small diaper affords an 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 91 
 
 agreeable amount of relief. For the manner of doing 
 this, see the account of stencilling. 
 
 If any of the figures are to have raised and gilded 
 glories or nimbi, as the paintings of the Middle Ages 
 were adorned, the following method will be found good. 
 Strike a circle from the centre of the face with a pair of 
 compasses, cover this with a smoth paste made of plaster- 
 of-paris mixed with diluted glue-size, laid on with a 
 spatula or palette knife : clear the edge of the circle from 
 any roughness of the plaster, and afterwards rub it 
 smooth as paper with pumice-stone or Dutch rushes ; it 
 may then be sized and gilded. If any pattern or fringe 
 be wished upon the nimbus, it should be engraved with 
 a steel instrument having a dull point, and these orna¬ 
 ments may afterwards be painted. 
 
 TEXT PAINTIXG. 
 
 For several reasons this little work would be incomplete 
 without some mention of text-painting, as well as to 
 guard, against its abuse as to define and describe the 
 legitimate sphere of its employment. Many as have been 
 the advantages accruing from the revival of the sister Art 
 of Illumination, yet it must be confessed that it certainly 
 has had one very pernicious result—I mean the deluge 
 of texts of all shapes, sizes, patterns, and colours, which 
 it has brought down upon our churches. Under the 
 name of “ Illuminations,” texts of all degrees of badness 
 
92 
 
 THE ART OE MURA T, DECORATION. 
 
 are perpetrated by nearly everyone who can rule a line or 
 bold a pencil, and consequently it is difficult to find' a 
 church which now has not been invaded by an army of 
 parti-coloured scrolls and devices. And yet all this had been 
 done for the most part with such good intentions, so much 
 time and labour has been expended upon these unhappy 
 scrolls, that one can only regret that the want of proper 
 knowledge and discretion has turned all this zeal and 
 labour into a wrong channel. It will not, then, be 
 a bad thing to consider a little what is the proper, and 
 what the improper use of these scrolls. 
 
 Strictly speaking, they can never be placed as orna¬ 
 ments. Letters in themselves, are far from ornamental 
 things; their only merit consists in legibility and 
 simplicity—if they have to convey an idea, it must be in 
 the simplest manner possible ; everything which impedes 
 this, turns aside from their lawful end and object. There 
 is no more beauty in a page of ordinary printing, or 
 even of an illuminated MS., than there is in a problem of 
 Euclid. It is merely an assemblage of dots, dashes, ' and 
 lines—the beauty is in the idea conveyed by those dots, 
 dashes, and lines. Of course this applies only to the 
 ordinary type—the initials and borders of a page are to be 
 considered very differently—they are pictures, not letters, 
 and whether they can be read or not, matters very little. 
 Looked at in this light, the absurdity of employing as 
 ornaments letters whose only business is to be plain and 
 useful is manifest. But again : to be of any service in a 
 church, they must be of great size and distinctness, 
 legible at almost any distance ; and, moreover, placed in 
 such positions as not to require a person to stand on his 
 
THE AET OE MUEAL DECOEATIOH. 
 
 93 
 
 head, lie flat, or recline on one side, to peruse them. And 
 yet what is the actual state of the case ? We find scrolls 
 over arches of great height, under window-sills, running 
 up eastern gables, on wall-plates, principals, rafters, and 
 in short, in every conceivable position which caprice or 
 ignorance could suggest. Employed in this wild manner, 
 they are neither useful or ornamental. But this is not 
 all: instead of being written upon a plain tablet, or in 
 a straight line, we find them in circles, triangles, ovals, 
 and devices so multiform as to lead one to suppose that 
 Euclid had been rifled to supply designs for them. Eor 
 is it alone in the position and design that these scrolls 
 offend. It really seems as if the only aim had been to 
 convert a plain text-of Scripture into an utterly unin¬ 
 telligible scrawl. Letters of all degrees of difficulty and 
 obscurity are employed. German text, old Gothic, 
 Byzantine, and Rustic letters, interspersed with mystic 
 capitals, show how easily a plain thing is made puzzling. 
 
 And what are the arguments brought forward in 
 behalf of texts or scrolls ? Their use by medievalists, 
 and the desirability of the employment of Scripture in this 
 form. Quite true, texts were occasionally used in the Middle 
 Ages, and are sometimes now discovered upon the walls 
 of our old churches—-but with this important difference : 
 they were almost used in connection with a subject¬ 
 painting to explain and illustrate it, in a similar manner 
 as we find them in 15th century glass. But do we meet 
 with them aiS independent ornaments? I think not; 
 certainly not on those hideous zinc plates which are 
 employed now. In the 17th century it is quite true they 
 were much used, from an idea that they instructed 
 
94 
 
 THE AET OF MUEAL DECOEATION. 
 
 tlie poor. Some over-zealous reformers had destroyed most 
 of the mural paintings (superstitious or not) which then 
 were supposed to he a means of instruction to the ignorant, 
 and to supply this defect, texts in the vernacular were 
 painted very generally over the church walls which the 
 poor could not read. But is there the same need of them 
 now ? Are Bibles and Prayer Books no cheaper now than 
 in the 17th century ? or is their type less legible to the 
 poor than that of the scrolls and texts ? I believe that as a 
 matter of fact our village children are far greater adepts 
 at small pica and diamond type, and Roman capitals, than 
 at Gothic and Byzantine letters. If these ornaments be 
 desired, let them be applied in a proper way ; if instruction 
 be wished, let it be given through its natural channels, 
 but do not let us have a hybrid production aiming at 
 both and attaining neither. 
 
 If I have spoken hitherto somewhat severely of the 
 employment of texts, it is that 1 regret, as I have before 
 said, to see time, labour, and money so uselessly em¬ 
 ployed. I do not exaggerate when I say that the money 
 expended in the last ten years upon zinc scrolls would 
 have gone far to decorate very many churches with that 
 beautiful kind of Polychrome which has been described. 
 It is difficult to find one architect who does not condemn 
 scrolls in churches ; all alike admit that they are un¬ 
 suitable and detrimental to the general effect. They 
 invariably give a “ spotted” appearance to the walls on 
 which they are placed, and call particular attention to 
 what does not repay inspection, and when we reflect that 
 the same amount of time bestowed on a text would suffice 
 to paint a beautiful border, which would adorn and help 
 
THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 95 
 
 its position, it is natural to desire to turn the thoughts of 
 amateur illuminators in the latter direction. 
 
 But though, as I firmly believe, inadmissible in 
 churches, yet there are certain places where texts are 
 very lawful and indeed desirable. In a bedroom, sitting- 
 room, or private oratory, and in general in any place which 
 allows of their being easily read and understood, texts may 
 be very well employed if wished. But even here they 
 cannot be too simple and unassuming. Plain black 
 gothic letters should be used with red, blue, or gold 
 capitals. The letters must be upright, with an honest 
 look about them, as if they knew their proper vocation 
 and were not ashamed of it—no fantastic tails and 
 twistings, and above all, no turned-back ends. Everyone 
 knows that the text is written on a plain piece of paper, 
 and that the ends are not really turned back; then why 
 paint a sham which can deceive no one F Put a cross at 
 the beginning of your text, write it plainly, and finish 
 with some quaint device or stop, edging the paper with a 
 narrow red or blue line ; or, if you like, a simple border ; 
 but do not use such an elaborate edge as to make it appear 
 that you painted the text for the border rather than the 
 border for the text, for the only use of a border is to 
 prevent the eye from wandering over the margin. 
 
 I feel that I shall incur the anger of a host of zealous 
 and jealous scroll-painters by what I have said, and can 
 only rejoice that I am not speaking my own opinions 
 only, but those I believe of nearly all the architects of 
 most repute. I hope, and indeed feel sure, that a little 
 reflection on the subject will show that I have not over¬ 
 stated it, and may lead to their energies being turned to 
 
96 
 
 THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 a more sensible and beautiful way of ornamenting our 
 sacred edifices. Then, perhaps, when they know the 
 pleasures of real church-painting they will forgive me my 
 rough handling of their former employment. 
 
 DESIGN. 
 
 Although, as has been said, the principles of design in 
 decorative art form no portion of the plan of this little 
 book, that being left to those artists whose special 
 education alone enables them to pronounce with au¬ 
 thority—yet, perhaps, a few hints as from one amateur 
 speaking to others may not be unacceptable to some of 
 our readers. It must be borne in mind, however, that 
 they are put forward as mere suggestions, and cannot 
 therefore lay claim to authority. 
 
 For a really successful decorative design, three things 
 are chiefly necessary : a due relation of the various parts, 
 a proper proportion of the parts, and carefully-studied 
 colour. It were idle to try and say which is the most 
 important of these three. Of one thing the amateur may 
 be certain, that without them his labour will be in vain. 
 Perhaps the first is the most neglected because it is a 
 point almost requiring special training. We frequently 
 see a design in which each part severally is good, while 
 their combination forms a bad and unpleasing whole. It 
 is simply because there is no relation between them, 
 because they do not help or bear on each other but 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 97 
 
 resemble sweet chords of music struck at random, or 
 flowers carelessly arranged. A good design must be like 
 a building in which each stone has its place and duty- 
 Each several part is incomplete without its neighbour, 
 each lending something of strength of harmony, of con¬ 
 trast to the other. And again, so.nicely must this be 
 balanced that the removal of one part in a perfect design 
 will mar all the rest. As an example, take a Gothic 
 moulding of the decorated period. At some distance, 
 all you perceive is a nicely-balanced mass of light and 
 shade. Gome a little nearer, and you begin to make out 
 the prominent features and general arrangement; while, 
 when close, you discover that all this effect is produced by 
 some half-dozen mouldings, fillets, and deep hollows, all 
 working together in their respective positions and har¬ 
 monising as one great whole. Eemove or alter the 
 position of one, and all is ruined ; put light for shade, 
 fillet for hollow, and you change all. 
 
 So then in your design, first fix on the general effect you 
 desire, then consider how best you may attain this by the re¬ 
 lation, the harmony or the contrast of your several parts. 
 Every design ought to mean something—to have something 
 to say—and to say that clearly too—so, what letters and 
 words are to your thought-containing sentences, each pat¬ 
 tern is to your whole design. Try then not to write all in 
 capitals, though this is perhaps most natural to amateur 
 beginners both in penmanship and art. Directly one 
 pattern strikes you as more prominent than the others, 
 without due reason, you may be sure that you have mis¬ 
 placed a capital and are conveying a wrong meaning. Try 
 first whether alteration of colour will right you, if not, 
 change anything which seems open to objection in the 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION'. 
 
 setting out of the pattern : if it still he too obtrusive, 
 take a convenient-sizecl brush and a pot of white paint. 
 This method is infallible. Then begin da capo. You will 
 of course before commencing any decorative design, as for 
 instance the colouring of a sitting-room, make a general 
 design roughly. This in all probability will simply be a 
 point of departure,. as it is more than likely that every 
 feature will undergo some change in the course of execu¬ 
 tion. It would be interesting if original designs were 
 always shown by the side of completed works, if only to 
 prove how much experience guides even the most educated, 
 and how frankly a man of genius will submit to alteration 
 where he sees improvement sure to follow. This rough 
 sketch, however, ought to enable you to determine the 
 balance and relative importance of your parts. It will 
 show you the relationship between walls, cornice, ceiling, 
 windows, doors, and fire-place, and the varying im¬ 
 portance of each. Altogether, if you be careful, they are 
 capable of conveying an idea and producing a perfect 
 chord ; if careless, you will merely produce a medley. 
 
 Again, in dealing with parts, be regardful of harmony 
 and contrast. Ordinarily they will be determined by the 
 nature and position of the object to be coloured. Vary¬ 
 ing surface requires contrast; even or continued surface 
 admits of harmony. And this you must aim at no less 
 by form than colour. Tor example, in Gothic work the 
 ball-flower moulding is always striking whether coloured 
 or not, because the quick shifting procession of round 
 forms is contradicted as it were and held together by 
 the two long straight boundary lines of the moulding. 
 Take those away, and you have simply a row of spots 
 devoid cf meaning. Again the repetition of a few details 
 
THE ABT OF MUBAL DECOBATION. 
 
 99 
 
 is better than an endless multiplication of them. A 
 design, composed of half-a-dozen good patterns judiciously 
 grouped and well contrasted in colour, is infinitely more 
 pleasing than a Chinese puzzle-like arrangement of fifty 
 incongruous pieces. If a design or pattern be good, the 
 eye is not offended by meeting it again under different 
 circumstances and colours, just as the most agreeable 
 effects in music are produced by the repetition of a melody 
 with a change of key and time. But, however varied 
 the parts, the design and motive of the whole should be 
 easily appreciable. Thus, draw a circle and enclose it with 
 straight lines in a square, and however you fill this form 
 up with infinite variations of colour and pattern, the 
 dominant idea will still be that of rotundity enclosed in 
 squareness, because nothing can subdue these trenchant 
 forms. Hot less important is the rule of due proportion 
 because so nearly connected with that of relation. You 
 must fix on some point of sight from which you purpose 
 your chief effects to be visible, and then determine the size 
 each pattern must be with reference to its position both 
 per se and in combination with others. Of course, size 
 depends very much on the importance of the pattern in 
 question. Indeed, in many cases it is not necessary 
 for the pattern to be seen at all, so that it produce its due 
 effect of blueness, greenness, or redness as may be desired. 
 If you doubt this, colour some of the mouldings of your 
 cornice. Fix on some fillet with a deep moulding on each 
 side, and colour it vermilion. Hote the effect. Then 
 gild on this a broken pattern of rings and spots, or some¬ 
 thing simple, but so small that the details of the pattern 
 are invisible below. How look up and observe the 
 change. Your coarse strong Vermillion has passed into 
 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 THE AET OP MUEAL DECORATION. 
 
 the most lovely golden orange, full of changing broken 
 colour and mystery, and the pattern is nowhere. The 
 individual pattern has patriotically sacrificed itself for the 
 well-being of the whole. Enlarge and define it so as to 
 be plainly seen below, and instantly it becomes com¬ 
 mon-place and tame. Again; on your proper pro¬ 
 portion depends entirely the effect you produce of size or 
 the reverse. Note the bad effect of large-patterned paper¬ 
 hanging and furniture in a small room. Arrange your 
 diapers and patterns so as to cover their ground and fill 
 their space pleasantly, neither to look squeezed or in¬ 
 flated, teasing in their minuteness, or overwhelming in 
 their magnitude. Perhaps, on the whole, the safest way 
 to determine both relation, proportion, and colour, is to 
 try each pattern on paper in its proper position and judge 
 what alterations are necessary in size, &c. Lastly—colour. 
 And than this we may say there is nothing more impor¬ 
 tant, for while bad colour cannot be redeemed by any 
 amount of proportion, defective proportion and indifferent 
 drawing may sometimes be condoned by thoroughly good 
 colour. And yet spite of its importance, there is very 
 little to be said respecting it in the way of rule or advice. 
 And that mostly negative. Colour is a special gift, an 
 instinct powerful to some, but almost impossible to reduce 
 to rules beyond the simplest. If the reader wishes to be 
 convinced on this point, let him fortify himself and take a 
 tour through Field, Chevreul, Hay, and Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson. If he have any ideas left at the end, he will 
 perceive that every theory is excellent until upset by its 
 contradictory, and that beyond the first really simple 
 rules, demonstrable to any eye, the path becomes beset 
 by ranging sphinx-like monster theories which devour the 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 101 
 
 insolvent student. In a word, if you Lave an eye and 
 feeling for colour, you will colour well and without effort; 
 but if not, not all the theories of secondaries, tertiaries, 
 proportional parts, rainbows, prisms or musical chord- 
 arguments will not make you colour otherwise than vilely, 
 badly, hopelessly and uselessly. If you want to learn, go 
 to ISTature, and remember that before you can colour well 
 you must see well. It is wonderful how many un- 
 consciously-blind people there are, and sometimes how 
 really difficult it is to see. Often you may see a lovely 
 colour in an autumn leaf, which perhaps you would 
 pronounce purple ; go nearer, it looks brown ; pick it, and 
 it turns out to be dark green. 
 
 There are a few hints which we really may learn from 
 nature and reduce to art—few, because not possessing 
 her receipt for setting her palette, her medium, vehicle, 
 and materials, we cannot take all the liberties she does. 
 Let us observe first that she almost never uses crude 
 unbroken colour; how she breaks her colour, how she 
 obtains those delicious subtle gradations and passages 
 from tint to tint, or hue to hue, is a mystery, but at least 
 observe and grant the fact. At a distance, a rose appears 
 one piece of carnation, look close, and each leaf differs 
 from its neighbour, each leaf is one glow of gradated 
 colour. And even in some flowers, where £ our lack lustre’ 
 eyes are unable to see the subtle change of tint, nature 
 effects it by light or shadow influencing its position. How 
 to reduce this to practice ? In a very partial manner, 
 thus. Let the reader try an experiment for himself. 
 Describe a circle, and then rubbing up some coeruleum, 
 colour it, taking care to apply the colour evenly and flat. 
 Now describe a second circle, and on the back of a plate 
 
102 
 
 THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 rub up without regard to position small unequal portions 
 of cceruleum, ultramarine, iudigo, Veronese green, burnt 
 sienna, and perhaps a touch of gamboge. V/Iiile moist, 
 place the jiaper on which the second circle was described 
 upon this plate and then remove, blow see which of your 
 circles you prefer, the flat wash of coeruleum, or the 
 mysterious splash of all colours mingled—we will venture 
 to say you will decide on the latter. The first is dead, 
 the second flashing with life. And to apply this further, 
 inasmuch as a wall cannot be decorated by reversing 
 smudged palettes : in painting any pattern where you 
 would have set your palette with one red, one blue and 
 one green, use many tints of the same colour. Dip your 
 brush, or stencil-tool, at random into them, and ivork 
 them in as you proceed. Do you know, as Gennini would 
 say, what the effect will be P The horror of professional 
 writers and decorators, and the pleasure of all who under¬ 
 stand and love colour. But remember that this is applica¬ 
 ble only in a limited degree. If you have to colour a 
 large space, as ground for a diaper, you cannot for many 
 reasons afford to break this, it must be a flat wash, the 
 flatter the better. But you will reserve your broken 
 colours for delicate little pieces—small patterns—the 
 grounds on which emblems or devices stand, little gems 
 as it were to which your broad spans of flat colour may 
 serve as frames and back-ground. And even in large 
 spaces where broken colour cannot actually be used, a 
 broken effect may be produced by the judicious choice of 
 colours in diapering. Thus lighter tints of the ground 
 colour may be always employed with safety. Salmon tint 
 on Indian red, light on dark green, vermilion on chocolate, 
 and even the reverse of these, i.e., dark on light will have 
 
THE ART OF MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 103 
 
 tlie desired effect of mellowing, softening, and breaking 
 colour in large masses. And another hint, avoid crude co¬ 
 lour, mix your tints freely. A green compounded of blue, 
 yellow, brown, and a dash of red or purple will always be 
 far more lovely than any flat colour your box possesses. 
 The most agreeable colours are those difficult to name, 
 which seem to tremble on the verge of another colour. 
 And this is a rule absolute, for both white and black are 
 in nearly every case enriched and improved by judicious 
 tempering with other colours. Thus for white, add a 
 dash of yellow or red for warmth, blue or green for cold¬ 
 ness, so that a green-tinted white will look best in a 
 pattern where there is much Indian red, and a pinky 
 white may be opposed to much blue or grey. Black is 
 always improved by the addition of a little blue in which 
 we follow nature, who rarely employs pure black unmixed 
 with other colour. Black is after all a relative colour and 
 one producible by contrast Thus, under certain circum¬ 
 stances and effects, Indian red or burnt umber may be 
 made to stand for it where the introduction of anything 
 darker would be harsh and unpleasant. 
 
 Of all unpleasant colours, perhaps, emerald green is 
 most so, because it is so terribly self-assertive and resolved, 
 and yet even this has its place and use, which brings us 
 to our last hint. Brilliant colours in great quantity are 
 by no means necessary for brilliant effects, they should be 
 reserved as heightening touches. In colouring, as in life, 
 extravagance demoralises the mind, and where high 
 colours are used in profusion, the eye refuses to recognise 
 their value and becomes wearied. To prove this, colour 
 any simple pattern with vermilion, ultramarine at its full 
 power, emerald green and brown, putting in a little 
 
104 
 
 THE ART OF MURAD DECORATION, 
 
 gilding. Then taking the same pattern, use Indian red for 
 vermilion, indigo for ultramarine, white for green, leaving 
 the gold. Note the contrast, one looks dull, heavy and 
 gaudy, the other delicate, and full of light. The battle 
 of colour has after all to be fought with the four colours, 
 Indian red, indigo, ochre and wbite, employing for en¬ 
 richment, black tempered with umber. If a good effect 
 cannot be produced with these, the colour-box may be 
 closed in despair. Rely on these for your general effect, 
 and employ your brightest colour, like jewels, rarely but 
 judiciously. The greatest proof of good colouring is a 
 pleasant sense of warmth and breadth, a perception of 
 general effect to the exclusion of details. If every friend 
 who inspects your design or work fixes on some particular 
 detail for praise, be sure you have made some blunder 
 and paint it out forthwith, cheerfully but firmly. It had 
 no business to be so self-assertive. 
 
 No one can be more aware how crude and fragmentary 
 the above hints are—nay, possibly, how mistaken some may 
 be—than the author. Still, as the friendly hints of an 
 amateur of some little experience are they put forward, 
 rather than the dogmatic declarations of an authorized 
 teacher. And as the remarks of a child sometimes open 
 up reflection and suggest fruitful ideas, so possibly these 
 notes may induce useful trains of thought to those 
 better able to pursue and carry them out in their entirety 
 than the author. 
 
 THE END. 
 
WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 LIST OF 
 
 COLOURS AND MATERIALS 
 
 FOB 
 
 X 
 
 WATER COLOUR PAINTING, 
 OIL COLOUR PAINTING, 
 
 PENCIL DRAWING, &c. 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 WATER AND OIL COLOURS, BRUSHES, PENCILS, 
 
 DRAWING PAPERS AND STATIONERY, PREPARED CANVAS, STEEL WARE, 
 JAPANNED WARE, CABINET WARE, ARTISTS’ CHINA WARE, 
 
 AND PUBLICATIONS ON THE FINE ARTS. 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, 
 
 Manufacturing Artists’ Colourmen by Special Appointment to 
 HER MAJESTY, 
 
 &nti ffifjeir ISognl fgtgbntsses tlje prince anti ^rntems of ESEaLs. 
 
 38, RATHBONE PLACE, LONDON. 
 
WINSOR & NEWTON’S WATER COLOURS. 
 
 Pievious to the establishment of the House of AW ins or and Newton 
 (in 1832), the evil repute of want of permanence attached to the 
 Water Colours in ordinary use; and the most beautiful productions 
 of Water Colour Art were inevitably fugitive through the instability 
 of the materials employed. Complaints on this head were borne 
 out by facts almost incredible to artists of the present day, whose 
 predecessors used Spanish Liquorice, Dutch and Eose Pints, Eed 
 Lead, Orpiment, Verditer, Green Bice, and even washes of 
 tobacco-j uice. 
 
 This deplorable state of so beautiful and purely English an art, 
 urged Winsor and Newton to earnest inquiry and research, with a 
 view of raising the character of the material employed. 
 
 The high standard of excellence sought by Winsor and Newton 
 entirely set aside all common recipes and pernicious compounds, 
 and rendered indispensable the aid of Chemical Science. Therefore 
 perfectly appointed Chemical Works were established by them in 
 1844, with steam apparatus and all the appliances auxiliary to 
 modern Chemical Art. 
 
 The advantageous results of the establishment of these Works 
 were apparent in the production of colours totally different from 
 those of all the other manufacturing colour houses. The old colours 
 were improved and new ones introduced. Madders, Lakes, Carmines, 
 Chinese White, Genuine Ultramarines, Chromes, Lemon Yellows, 
 Cadmium Yellows, Aureolin, Viridian, &c., have attested by their 
 superior qualities to the skill bestowed upon "their production. The 
 great advantages secured have been First, Increased power and 
 brilliancy; and Secondly, Thq improvement in permanence of 
 colours previously bearing but a faulty reputation in this respect, 
 and this may he said of nearly all the chemically made colours. 
 
 Of Winsor & Newton’s Water Colours, therefore, it may be 
 stated, that sound chemical knowledge and complete laboratory 
 plant and apparatus,—powerful and specially adapted machinery,— 
 and the matured experience of many years, ensure 'purity of Pigment , 
 exquisite fineness, and a most perfect form of preparation for the 
 Artist's palette. 
 
4 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 FINELY PREPARED WATER COLOURS 
 
 IN DRY 
 
 CAKES AND HALF CAKES. 
 
 CAKE. HALE CAKE. 
 
 Cakes, Is. each. 
 
 Antwerp Blue 
 Bistre 
 Blue Black 
 British Ink 
 Bronze 
 Brown Ochre 
 Brown Pink 
 Burnt Sienna 
 Burnt Umber 
 Chinese White 
 Chrome Yellow 
 Cologne Earth 
 Deep Chrome 
 Dragon’s Blood 
 Emerald Green 
 Elake White 
 Gamboge 
 
 Hooker’s Green, Ho. 1. 
 Hooker’s Green, No. 2. 
 Indian Bed 
 Indigo 
 Italian Pink 
 
 -Hale Cakes, 6d. each. 
 
 Ivory Black 
 King’s Yellow 
 Lamp Black 
 Light Bed 
 Naples Yellow 
 Neutral Tint 
 New Blue 
 Olive Green 
 Orange Chrome 
 Payne’s Grey 
 Prussian Blue 
 Prussian Green 
 Baw Sienna 
 Baw Umber 
 Boman Ochre 
 Sap Green 
 Terre Yerte 
 Yandyke Brown 
 Venetian Bed 
 Y ermil-ion 
 Yellow Lake 
 Yellow Ochre 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c. 
 
 Cakes, Is. 6d. each.—H ale Cakes, 9 d. each. 
 
 Black Lead 
 
 Brown Madder 
 
 Constant White 
 
 Purple Lake 
 Homan Sepia 
 Rubens’ Madder 
 
 Crimson Lake 
 
 Scarlet Lake 
 
 Indian Yellow 
 
 Scarlet Vermilion 
 
 Mars Yellow 
 
 Sepia 
 
 Neutral Orange 
 
 Warm Sepia 
 
 Cakes, 2s. each.—H ale Cakes, Is. each. 
 
 Cobalt Blue 
 
 Orange Vermilion 
 
 Violet Carmine 
 
 Cakes, 3s. each.— Hale Cakes, Is. 6d. each. 
 
 Aureolin 
 
 Green Oxide Chromium 
 
 Burnt Carmine 
 
 Indian Purple 
 
 Cadmium Yellow, Pale 
 
 Intense Blue 
 
 Cadmium Yellow 
 
 Lemon Yellow 
 
 Cadmium Orange 
 
 Pink Madder 
 
 Carmine 
 
 Pure Scarlet 
 
 French Blue 
 
 Rose Madder 
 
 (or French Ultramarine) 
 
 (or Madder Lake) 
 
 Gallstone 
 
 Viridian 
 
 Cakes, 5s. each.—H ale Cakes, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 Field’s Orange Vermilion 
 
 Purple Madder 
 
 Madder Carmine 
 
 Smalt 
 
 Mars Orange 
 
 Ultramarine Ash 
 
 Cakes, 21s. each.—H ale Cakes, 10s. 6 d. each. 
 Quarter Cakes, 5s. 6d. each. 
 
 Genuine Ultramarine. 
 
WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 PBEHCH POLISHED M^HOO-A-ItTEr 
 
 WHOLE CAKE 
 
 BOXES OF WATER COLOURS. 
 
 “SLIDE” 
 
 A BOXES. 
 
 6 Cake “ Slide ” Box, with, brushes 
 12 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 IS Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 24 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 “LID” 
 
 6 Cake “Lid” Box, with brushes, &c. 
 
 “LOCK” 
 
 12 Cake “Lock ” Box, with fittings 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 0 6 0 
 
 0 12 0 
 
 0 18 0 
 
 14 0 
 
 BOX. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 0 10 6 
 
 BOXES. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 0 15 0 
 110 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c 
 
 7 
 
 I £ s. d. 
 
 12 Cake “ Lock and Drawer ” Box, with fittings . . I 0 18 0 
 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto . . « . ! 1 5 0 
 
 “LOCK AND 
 
 BOXES. 
 
 12 Cake “ Complete ” Box, with fittings 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto . 
 
 24 Ditto ditto ditto. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 110 
 1 11 6 
 
 2 2 0 
 
8 
 
 WINSOR Sc NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 12 Cake “ Caddy Lid ” Box, with full fittings 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 24 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 & s. d. 
 
 1 11 6 
 
 2 2 0 
 
 3 3 0 
 
 “CABINET LID” boxes. 
 
 12 Cake “ Cabinet Lid ” Box, with varied fittings 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 24 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 | £ j. d. 
 . 2 12 6 
 .330 
 . I 4 14 6 
 
 ARCHITECT’S AND SURVEYOR’S BOX. 
 
 Containing 16 Cake Colours, Indian Ink, Brushes, and 
 complete fittings ........ 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 5 5 0 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c. 
 
 9 
 
 “HANDSOME” boxes. 
 
 
 
 
 & 
 
 s. 
 
 12 Cake“ 
 
 Handsome” Box, 
 
 with first class fittings 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 18 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 4 14 
 
 24 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 36 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 12 Cake “ 
 
 Extra Handsome 
 
 ” Box, with choice fittings . 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 18 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 24 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 36 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 50 Ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 ditto 
 
 21 
 
 0 
 
 d. 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
10 
 
 WINSOR 8c NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOK & NEWTON’S 
 
 CFIiEIiTCH: POLISHED IIYE ^ IE OGLIN' 
 
 HALF CAKE 
 
 BOXES OF WATER COLOURS. 
 
 6 Half Cake “ Slide ” Box, with, brushes. 
 
 12 Ditto ditto ditto .... 
 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto .... 
 
 24 Ditto ditto ditto .... 
 
 s. d. 
 
 4 0 
 6 6 
 9 6 
 12 6 
 
 6 Half Cake “Did” Box, with brushes .... 
 
 s. d. 
 
 5 0 
 
 12 Half Cake “Lock” Box, with fittings .... 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto .... 
 
 s. d. 
 
 9 0 
 12 0 
 
 12 Half Cake, “Lock ahd Drawer” Box, with fittings 
 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto ditto 
 
 s. d. 
 12 0 
 15 0 
 
 12 Half Cake “ Complete ” Box, with fittings . 
 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 s. d. 
 
 14 0 
 18 0 
 
 12 Halt Cake “ Caddy Lid ” Box, with full fittings . 
 
 18 Ditto ditto ditto 
 
 s. d. 
 20 0 
 25 0 
 
 R.B. Whole Cake Water Colour Boxes, manufactured of Spanish 
 Mahogany, Rosewood, Rbony, Walnut, and other choice Woods, in 
 the first style of workmanship, and variously fitted with every 
 requisite for Miniature, Figure, or Landscape Fainting, Engineering, 
 ofc., from £30 to £100. Also Brass Bound Boxes for India, fyc. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 IX 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS 
 
 IN PORCELAIN PANS. 
 
 Winsob and Newton’S Moist Water Colours are prepared after 
 peculiar processes, and by a system of treatment known only to the 
 Makers. Their characteristic qualities of easy solubility and prompt 
 readiness for use are retained, unimpaired, for an unlimited period of 
 time ; so that a box of them, which may have been laid aside for two 
 or three years, when required for use will he found no less serviceable 
 than when first purchased. Climate also fails to affect these colours, 
 which are found to be, and to remain, no less “ Moist ” in Tropical 
 countries than in England; accordingly, they are confidently recom¬ 
 mended to persons who are going to India, and to all residents in 
 the East. While having this valuable quality of solubility in their 
 solid form, they possess another and all important one, in drying 
 perfectly firm on the paper when in use. Their tints, too, are pure 
 and luminous, and their washes clear and even. 
 
 In Sketching from Nature, and, when representing transient and 
 evanescent effects, the superiority of the Moist Colours is at once felt 
 and appreciated. Ever ready for instant application, they enable the 
 desired tint to be produced at once —a result unattainable by the old 
 tedious method of rubbing dry cakes, which not unfrequently permits 
 the effect, and with it the thought of the artist to vanish, before the 
 material can be obtained. It was this quality which, on their first 
 introduction, secured for Winsor and Newton’s Moist Colours the 
 eminent popularity that they still enjoy with both professional and 
 amateur artists. 
 
 The Moist Colours are placed in pans (in their size resembling the 
 ordinary dry-cakes) of thin porcelain, and they are afterwards enclosed 
 in tin-foil for greater security. When required for use, the foil is 
 removed. A surface of colour is then presented to the artist, which 
 is obtainable in any quantity, simply by the application of a wet brush. 
 
12 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS, 
 
 IN N 
 
 ■whole: -A-intd hah cavicei pobcelain iela-hs. 
 
 WHOLE CAKE PAN. 
 
 HALE CAKE PAN. 
 
 Whole Pans, Is. each.- 
 
 —Hale Pans, 6d. each. 
 
 Antwerp Blue 
 
 Light Bed 
 
 Bistre 
 
 Naples Yellow 
 
 Blue Black 
 
 Neutral Tint 
 
 Brown Ochre 
 
 New Blue 
 
 Brown Pink 
 
 Olive Green 
 
 Burnt Sienna 
 
 Orange Chrome 
 
 Payne’s Grey 
 
 Burnt Umber 
 
 Chinese White 
 
 Prussian Blue 
 
 Chrome Yellow 
 
 Prussian Green 
 
 Cologne Earth 
 
 Eaw Sienna 
 
 Deep Chrome 
 
 Baw Umber 
 
 Emerald Green 
 
 Boman Ochre 
 
 Gamboge 
 
 Hooker’s Green, No. 1. 
 
 Sap Green 
 
 Terre Verte 
 
 Hooker’s Green, No. 2. 
 
 Yandyke Brown 
 
 Indian Bed 
 
 Venetian Bed 
 
 Indigo 
 
 Y ermilion 
 
 Italian Pink 
 
 Yellow Lake 
 
 Ivory Black 
 
 Lamp Black 
 
 Yellow Ochre 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS’ COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 13 
 
 Whole Pans, Is. Qd. eacli.—H alf Pans, 9 d. each. 
 
 Brown Madder 
 Crimson Lake 
 Indian Yellow 
 Leitch’s Blue 
 (or Cyanine Blue) 
 Mars Yellow 
 Neutral Orange 
 
 Purple Lake 
 Boman Sepia 
 Rubens’ Madder 
 Scarlet Lake 
 Scarlet Yermilion 
 Sepia 
 
 Warm Sepia 
 
 Whole Pans, 2s. each—H alf Pans, Is. each. 
 
 Cobalt Blue 
 Orange Yermilion 
 Yiolet Carmine 
 
 Whole Pans, 3s. each.—H alf Pans, Is. 6d. each. 
 
 Aureolin 
 Burnt Carmine 
 Cadmium Yellow, Pale 
 Cadmium Yellow 
 Cadmium Orange 
 Carmine 
 French Blue 
 
 (or French Ultramarine) 
 Gallstone 
 
 Green Oxide Chromium 
 Indian Purple 
 Intense Blue 
 Lemon Yellow 
 Pink Madder 
 Pure Scarlet 
 Rose Madder 
 (or Madder Lake) 
 Yiridian 
 
 Whole Pans, 5s. each.— Half Pans, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 Mars Orange 
 Purple Madder 
 Smalt 
 
 Ultramarine Ash 
 
14 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 PATENT-FLEXIBLE-DIVISION 
 
 JAPANNED TIN BOXES OE 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS. 
 
 (See illustration on opposite page.) 
 
 It has long been felt as a considerable inconvenience, that in 
 ordinary Boxes of Moist Colours the pans cannot be removed 
 (without breakage or damage), in consequence of their 
 having to be fastened to the bottom of the box to prevent 
 their falling out. Virtually it is impossible for the purchaser 
 to alter the arrangement of the colours, and generally nothing 
 but the breakage of the empty pan, (and sometimes the 
 division of the box as well,) will enable him to replace a spent 
 colour. 
 
 Winsor & Newton’s Patent-Flexible-Division Box obviates 
 these annoyances, and permits of colours being inserted and 
 taken out, or re-arranged at pleasure. 
 
 N.B .— Winsor Sf Newton''s Japanned Tin Boxes for Moist Water 
 Colours are light and strong, with flaps of a dead white colour, serving 
 as palettes. The Selections of Colours placed in them have been made 
 with much care, and after due study of the various lists of the first 
 Water Colour Artists. 
 
 N.B. In all cases of Boxes of Moist Water Colours the prices quoted 
 are for the Box and the Moist Colours contained therein only; 
 no general fittings being included. 
 
WINSOR & NEWTON’S PATENT-FLEXIBLE-DIVISION MOIST COLOUR BOX. 
 
 'V 
 
 (For Prices see pages 16 and 17.) 
 
16 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON : 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 PATENT-FLEXIBLE-DIVISION 
 
 JAPANNED TIN BOSES OP 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS. 
 
 (See illustration on previous page.) 
 
 (Empty, 3s. 6 d.) 2 Cake Box. Fitted, 5s. 6d. 
 
 Chinese White, and Sepia. 
 
 (Empty, 4 s.) 3 Cake Box. Fitted, 6s. 6d. 
 
 Chinese White, New Blue, and Sepia. 
 
 (Empty, 4s. 6 d.) 4 Cake Box. Fitted, 8s. 6 d. 
 
 Baw Sienna, Light Red, Cobalt, and Vandyke Brown. 
 
 (Empty, 5s.) 6 Cake Box. Fitted, 10s. Qd. 
 
 Gamboge, Yellow Ochre, Crimson Lake, Light Red, Prussian Blue, 
 and Vandyke Brown. 
 
 (Empty, 6s.) 8 Cake Box. Fitted, 14s. 
 
 Gamboge, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Crimson Lake, Light Red, 
 Cobalt, Indigo, and Vandyke Brown. 
 
 (Empty, 6s. 9 d.) 10 Cake Box. Fitted, 18s. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin (^), CadmiumYellow (J), Yellow Ochre, Burnt 
 Sienna, Crimson Lake, Light Red, Cobalt, Indigo, Brown Pink, 
 and Vandyke Brown. 
 
 (Empty, 7s. M.) 12 Cake BOX. Fitted, £1 Is. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin (J), Cadmium Yellow (j), Yellow Ochre, Burnt 
 Sienna, Crimson Lake, Light Red, Vermilion (-),), Indian Red (J), 
 Cobalt, Indigo, Brown Pink, Vandyke Brown, and Neutral Tint. 
 
 (Empty, 8s. 3d.) 14 Cake BOX. Fitted, £1 5s. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin (J), Cadmium Yellow (£), Yellow Ochre, Burnt 
 Sienna, Crimson Lake, Light Red, Vermilion (J), Indian Red (i), 
 Brown Madder, Cobalt, Indigo, Brown Pink, Vandyke Brown, 
 Neutral Tint, and Sepia. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 17 
 
 (Empty, 9s.) 16 Cake Box. Fitted, £1 11 s. 6 d. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin (J), Pale Cadmium Yellow (J), Yellow Ocbre, 
 Cadmium Yellow (1), Cadmium Orange (|), Burnt Sienna, Bose 
 Madder, Crimson Late, Light Bed, Vermilion (£), Indian Bed (J), 
 Brown Madder, Cobalt, Indigo, Emerald Green Q), Viridian (|), 
 Brown Pink, Vandyke Brown, and Neutral Tint. 
 
 (Empty, 10 s. 6d.) 18 Cake Box. Fitted, £1 15s. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin (1), Pale Cadmium Yellow Q), Yellow Ochre, 
 Cadmium Yellow ($), Cadmium Orange (i), Burnt Sienna, Bose 
 Madder, Crimson Lake, Light Bed, Vermilion (J), Indian Bed (1), 
 Brown Madder, Purple Lake, Cobalt, Indigo, Emerald Green (J), 
 Viridian (J), Brown Pink, Vandyke Brown, Neutral Tint, and Sepia. 
 
 (Empty, 12 s.) 20 Cake Box. Fitted, £2 2 s. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin, Baw Sienna (|), Pale Cadmium Yellow (^), 
 Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow (J), Cadmium Orange (i), Burnt 
 Sienna, Bose Madder, Crimson Lake, Light Bed, Vermilion (5), 
 Indian Bed (|), Brown Madder, Purple Lake, Cobalt, French Blue, 
 Indigo, Emerald Green (|), Viridian (4), Brown Pink, Vandyke 
 Brown, Neutral Tint, and Sepia. 
 
 (Empty, 15s.) 24 Cake Box. Fitted, £2 12s. 6d. 
 
 Gamboge, Aureolin, Lemon Yellow (1), Baw Sienna Q), Yellow 
 Ochre, Pale Cadmium Yellow ( 5 ), Cadmium Orange (-J), Cadmium 
 Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Bose Madder, Crimson Lake, Light Bed, 
 Vermilion ( 5 ), Indian Bed (J), Brown Madder, Purple Lake, Cobalt, 
 French Blue, Prussian Blue, Indigo, Viridian (|), Emerald Green (£), 
 Terre Verte (J), Oxide of Chromium ( 5 ), Olive Green, Brown Pink, 
 Vandyke Brown, Neutral Tint, and Sepia. 
 
 (Empty, 18s.) 30 Cake Box. Fitted, £4 4s. 
 
 Gamboge, Pale Cadmium Yellow (J), Lemon Yellow (J), Aureolin, Baw 
 Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Mars 
 Orange, Burnt Sienna, Bose Madder, Carmine, Crimson Lake, 
 Light Bed, Orange Vermilion, Vermilion (J), Indian Bed (^), 
 Brown Madder, Purple Madder, Burnt Carmine, Violet Carmine, 
 Smalt (^), Intense Blue (-^), Emerald Green (^), Viridian (J), 
 Ultramarine Ash, Cobalt, French Blue, Prussian Blue, Oxide of 
 Chromium (l,), Terre Verte (£), Brown Pink, Vandyke Brown, 
 Neutral Tint, and Sepia. 
 
18 
 
 WINSOR 8c NEWTON, LONDON 
 
 WINSOK AND NEWTON’S 
 JAPANNED TIN BOXES OF 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS. 
 
 JAPANNED TIN BOX OE MOIST WATER COLOURS. 
 
 Tlie Lists of Colours are the same as placed in the Patent-Flexible- 
 Division Boxes of Moist Water Colours, (Pages 16, and 17). 
 
 WHOLE CAKE. 
 
 Empty. 
 s. d. 
 
 3 0 
 
 
 Pitted with 
 Colours. 
 
 Empty. 
 
 
 Pitted with 
 Colours. 
 
 2 Cake . . . 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 0 5 6 
 
 s. d. 
 
 6 9 
 
 14 Cake . . . 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 15 0 
 
 3 3 
 
 3 „ . . . 
 
 0 6 6 
 
 7 6 
 
 16 „ . . . 
 
 1 11 6 
 
 3 6 
 
 4 „ ... 
 
 0 8 6 
 
 8 3 
 
 18 „ . . . 
 
 1 15 0 
 
 4 0 
 
 6 ,, ... 
 
 0 10 6 
 
 9 0 
 
 20 „ . . . 
 
 2 2 0 
 
 4 6 
 
 8 „ ... 
 
 0 14 0 
 
 9 9 
 
 22 „ . . . 
 
 2 5 0 
 
 5 3 
 
 10 „ . . . 
 
 0 18 0 
 
 10 6 
 
 24 „ . . . 
 
 2 12 6 
 
 6 0 
 
 12 . 
 
 110 
 
 12 6 
 
 30 „ . . . 
 
 4 4 0 
 
 HALF CAKE. 
 
 Empty. 
 s. d 
 
 3 3 
 
 4 0 
 
 4 6 
 
 5 0 
 
 5 6 
 
 3 Half Cake 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 ;• 
 
 )) 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 Pitted with 
 
 
 Colours. 
 
 Empty. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 0 5 0 
 
 6 0 
 
 0 7 6 
 
 6 6 
 
 0 9 0 
 
 7 0 
 
 0 10 6 
 
 7 6 
 
 0 12 6 
 
 8 6 
 
 14 Half Cake 
 16 „ 
 
 18 „ 
 
 20 „ 
 
 24 
 
 | Pitted with 
 Colours. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 0 15 0 
 
 0 18 0 
 
 110 
 15 0 
 1 11 6 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 19 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S THUMB-HOLE BOXES. 
 
 Empty. 
 s. cl. 
 9 0 
 
 10 6 
 13 0 
 
 THUMB-HOLE BOX. 
 
 11 Cake Moist Water Colour Thumb-hole Box 
 17 „ ditto .... 
 
 21 „ ditto .... 
 
 Fitted w itli 
 Colours. 
 
 £ ,v. d. 
 
 15 0 
 
 1 15 0 
 
 2 5 0 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S PALETTE-BOXES. 
 
 Empty. 
 s. cl. 
 5 0 
 
 5 6 
 
 6 0 
 C 6 
 
 PALETTE BOX. 
 
 6 Half Cake Moist Water Colour Palette Box 
 with Patent Flexible Divisions 
 8 Ditto ditto ditto . 
 
 10 Ditto ditto ditto . 
 
 12 Ditto ditto ditto . 
 
 Fitted with 
 Colours. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 0 8 0 
 
 0 10 0 
 
 0 12 6 
 
 0 15 0 
 
THE OVAL-POCKET-BOX. 
 
 
 20 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 •21 
 
 WINSOE & NEWTON 7 kS 
 
 REGISTERED 
 
 JAPANNED TIN BONES OF 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS. 
 
 THE 0 VAL-POCKET-BOX. 
 
 REGISTERED NO. 257,752. 
 
 (As illustrated on opposite page.) 
 
 Yery convenient for the pocket, both in shape and size. Contains 
 twelve Colours, and has a division for brushes. 
 
 Fitted with twelve Colours, Price 15?. 
 
 THE LOCKET BOX. 
 
 REGISTERED NO. 257,753. 
 
 A neat, light, bijou Box, that can be carried on a watch-guard or 
 chain, and containing six Colours. 
 
 Fitted with six Colours, Price 6s. 6 d. 
 
THE PORTE-COULEUR. 
 
 22 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON 
 
 WINSOK & NEWTON’S 
 
 rR-EO-ISTIEIRIEr) TIXST BOXES OE 
 
 MOIST WATER COLOURS. 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 tf 
 
 D O 
 Vr§ 
 
 P -to 
 
 H ^ 
 
 o 
 
 PH.g 
 
 hs 
 
 W 
 
 H 
 
 Fitted icith twelve Colours, Price 10.?. 6d. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 23 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S MOIST WATER COLOURS 
 
 JILT COLLAPSIBLE TUBES. 
 
 Moist Tube Colours, though somewhat wasteful and troublesome in use, are of 
 assistance as furnishing quickly a quantity of colour, and affording facilities for power 
 of touch and vigour of effect. They should, however, be used within reasonable time, 
 as they do not°keep so long or so well as the ordinary solid or “ Pan ” form of Moist 
 Colour. 
 
 Is. each. 
 
 Antwerp Blue 
 
 Bistre 
 
 Blue Black 
 
 Brown Ochre 
 
 Brown Pink 
 
 Burnt Sienna 
 
 Burnt Umber 
 
 Chinese White 
 Chrome Yellow 
 
 Deep Chrome 
 Emerald Green , 
 Gamboge 
 
 Indian Bed 
 
 Indigo 
 
 Italian Pink 
 
 Ivory Black 
 
 Lamp Black 
 
 Light Bed 
 
 Naples Yellow 
 Neutral Tint 
 
 New Blue 
 
 Olive Green 
 
 Orange Chrome 
 Payne’s Grey 
 Prussian Blue 
 Prussian Green 
 
 Baw Sienna 
 
 Baw Umber 
 Boman Ochre 
 Terre Verte 
 Vandyke Brown 
 Venetian Bed 
 Vermilion 
 
 Yellow Lake 
 Yellow Ochre 
 
 
 Is. 6c£. 
 
 each. 
 
 
 Brown Madder 
 
 Leitch’s Blue 
 
 Purple Lake 
 
 Scarlet Vermilion 
 
 Crimson Lake 
 
 (or Cyanine Blue) 
 
 Boman Sepia 
 
 Sepia 
 
 Indian Yellow 
 
 Mars Yellow 
 
 Neutral Orange 
 
 Scarlet Lake 
 
 Warm Sepia 
 
 2s. each. 
 
 Cobalt Blue | Orange Vermilion | Violet Carmine 
 
 3s. each. 
 
 Aureolin 
 Burnt Carmine 
 Cadmium Y ellow, Pale 
 Cadmium Yellow 
 
 Cadmium Orange 
 Carmine 
 Trench Blue (or 
 Trench Ultramarine) j 
 
 Gallstone 
 
 Green Oxide Chrom. 
 Indian Purple 
 Pink Madder 
 
 Bose Madder 
 (or Madder Lake) 
 Viridian 
 
 5s. each. 
 
 Mars Orange J Purple Madder | Ultramarine Ash j Smalt 
 
 JAPANNED TIN BOXES OF MOIST TUBE WATER COLOURS, 
 
 Containing 13 Moist Tubes £1 Is.; 15 ditto, £1 11s. U .; 30 ditto, £3 3s.; 
 
 24 ditto, £2 12s. U .; 30 ditto, £3 13s. U. 
 
24 
 
 IVINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOE & NEWTON’S 
 
 GLASS-COVERED MOIST WATER COLOURS 
 
 EOE 
 
 Jlluramatum anti fEissal fainting, 
 
 Decorative and Ornamental Work, &c. 
 
 (See illustration on opposite page?) 
 
 The complete separation effected by the Colours being contained 
 in separate Gallipots, the protection afforded by the glass lids, and the 
 convenience of seeing tints through them, cause this form of colour 
 to be most useful in all cases vrhere it is of importance to avoid dust, 
 diit, and accidental admixture of tints. Winsoe and Newton’s 
 Glass-Covered Moist Colours, being preserved clean and unsullied 
 while in use, have been adopted generally for Illumination, and all 
 kindred arts. 
 
 Colours, and Prices same as those of Moist Water Colours in Pans. 
 
 Pages 12 and 13. 
 
 WINSOE & NEWTON’S 
 FITTED BOXES 
 
 OF SIASS-COVERED COLOURS AND MATERIALS 
 
 FOE 
 
 Illumination anti Jtosat Painting, 
 
 DECOKATIVE AND OENAMENTAI WO ILK, &c. 
 
 -Containing seven Half Colours in Pans, and 
 
 Half Guinea Box.- 
 
 fittings. 
 
 Guinea Box. Containing eight Glass-covered Colours, and Materials. 
 Guinea and a Half Box. —Containing twelve ditto ditto. 
 
 Two Guinea Box. —Containing sixteen ditto ditto. 
 
 Three Guinea Box. —Containing twenty-one ditto ditto. 
 
 Five Guinea Box. Containing twenty-four ditto and complete 
 Materials. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See, 
 
 25 
 
 (See opposite page.) 
 
 GLASS-COVERED MOXsX WATER COLOUR. 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 JAPANNED TIN BOX OF COLOURS AND MATERIALS FOR 
 PAINTING ON GLASS, 
 
 Price £2 2s. 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S FRENCH POLISHED MAHOGANY 
 
 CADDY LID BOX OF COLOURS AND MATERIALS FOR 
 
 f&eraltuc i&lajonmg* 
 
 Price £3 3.s. 
 
 “ surer super ” indxan ink.— (Size of Stick.) 
 
 Per stick. 
 s. d. 
 
 Good, small size 80 to the lb. 0 6 
 
 Best, small size, „ „ 10 
 
 Very Choice “Super, Super” . 
 
 , Per stick. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Best, larger, 40 to the lb. 1 6 
 Best, larger, 32 „ 2 6 
 
 . per stick 7 6 
 
26 
 
 WINSOR 8c NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 PERMANENT CHINESE WHITE. 
 
 Winsor and Newton’s Oxide of Zinc, sold under the name of 
 
 CHINESE "W" ZEE I TE. 
 
 A peculiar preparation of White Oxide of Zinc, the only eligible 
 White Pigment for Water Colour Painters. 
 
 PRICE Is. PER BOTTIE. 
 
 It is now upwards of thirty-seven years since Winsob and Newton 
 turned their attention to remedying a want that was much felt by the 
 Water Colour Painters of that day, viz.: of a White that should combine 
 perfect permanency with good body in working. The invention and 
 introduction of the pigment named by them “ Chinese White ” was the 
 result, and its superior body and freedom of working immediately 
 attracted the notice of the leading Water Colour Painters. 
 
 The late Mr. J. D. Harding being particularly desirous of ascertaining 
 its permanency, and by submitting it to the examination of one of the 
 greatest Chemists in Europe (the late M. Faraday), having satisfied 
 himself that it might be employed with perfect safety, strongly re¬ 
 commended it in preference to all other white pigments. In his 
 “Principles and Practice of Art,” he wrote :— 
 
 “When this pigment, which is prepared by Winsor and Newton under the name of 
 1 Chinese White ’ was first put into my hands, some years ago, I applied to one of my 
 friends, whose name as a chemist and philosopher is amongst the most distinguished in 
 our country, to analyze it for me, and to tell me if I might rely on its durability; the 
 reply was, that if it would in all other respects answer the purpose I required of it, I 
 had nothing to fear on account of its durability.” 
 
 Ever since that time (1834) Winsor and Newton’s Chinese White 
 has been in use by all the Eminent Water Colour Artists, and it is a 
 source of great satisfaction to Winsor and Newton that they are able 
 to say, that in no instance has any work of art, in which their White 
 has been used, suffered from its employment, while prior to its introduc¬ 
 tion the complaints of Whites changing were of every day occurrence. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 27 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 WATER COLOUR LIQUIDS, MEDIUMS, &c. 
 
 BOTTLE OF LIQUID COLOUR. 
 
 (Size of the bottle.) 
 
 Liquid Indelible Brown Ink, for Outlines or for 
 
 Sketching.per bottle 
 
 Liquid Prout’s Brown. . 
 
 Liquid Sepia » 
 
 Liquid Asphaltum. (In bottles similar to illus¬ 
 tration on opposite page) .... „ 
 
 Liquid Carmine.. 
 
 Liquid Indian Ink, for Architects, Surveyors, &c. „ 
 
 Colourless Liquid Ox Gall .... » 
 
 Artist’s prepared Gum Water; pure, clear, and 
 
 strong ..... small bottles . ,, 
 
 Ditto ditto middle bottles „ 
 
 Ditto ditto large bottles . „ 
 
 Water Colour Megilp.. 
 
 Illuminating Body, for Illumination, Missal 
 
 Painting, &c. ...... » 
 
 Raising Preparation, for Illumination, Missal 
 
 Painting, &c... 
 
 Water Mat Gold Size .... per gallipot 
 Prepared Ox Gall ..... „ 
 
 s. d. 
 1 6 
 1 6 
 1 6 
 
 1 6 
 1 6 
 1 0 
 1 0 
 
 0 6 
 0 9 
 1 0 
 1 6 
 
 1 6 
 
 1 6 
 1 6 
 0 6 
 

 28 WINSOR 8c NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 
 FINEST 
 
 BROWN OR RED SABLE BRUSHES 
 
 IInT QUILLS 
 FOE 
 
 WATER COLOUR PAINTING. 
 
 Crow. 
 
 Small Goose. 
 
 Extra Goose. 
 
 Extra Small Swan. 
 
 Large Swan. 
 
 WATER COLOUR SABLES IN QUILLS. 
 
 (Sizes of the Brushes.) 
 
 k 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c 
 
 29 
 
 
 WINSOR & 
 
 NEWTON’S 
 
 
 
 
 FINEST BROWN OR RED SABLES IN QUILLS. 
 
 
 
 ( See illustrations 
 
 on opposite page) 
 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 
 s. 
 
 Crow 
 
 . . . each 0 6 
 
 Extra Small Swan . 
 
 each 
 
 4 
 
 Duck 
 
 . . . „ 0 8 
 
 Small „ 
 
 55 
 
 6 
 
 Goose 
 
 . 1 0 
 
 Middle „ 
 
 55 
 
 8 
 
 Extra Goose . . „ 1 6 
 
 Large „ .. 
 
 55 
 
 10 
 
 fine SIBERIAN HAIR brushes IN QUILLS. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 S. 
 
 Crow . . . each 0 2 
 
 Extra Small Swan . each 1 
 
 Duck . . .,,-0 4 
 
 Small „ . „ 2 
 
 Goose . . .,,06 
 
 Middle „ „ 3 
 
 
 Large „ . „ 5 
 
 CAMEL HAIR BRUSHES IN QUILLS. 
 
 Crow 
 
 . each 
 
 s. 
 
 0 
 
 d. 
 
 1 
 
 Extra Small Swan . 
 
 each 
 
 s. 
 
 0 
 
 Duck 
 
 • 55 
 
 0 
 
 1 
 
 Small „ 
 
 55 
 
 1 
 
 Goose 
 
 • 55 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 Middle „ 
 
 55 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Large „ . 
 
 55 
 
 2 
 
 d. 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 d. 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 d. 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
H Ol CO ^ 
 
 30 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 FINEST BROWN OR RED WATER COLOUR 
 SABLES IN ALBATA.— FLAT. 
 
 1'lat water colodr sables in ALBATA.— (Sizes of the Brushes.) 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d- 
 
 . each 1 0 
 
 No. 
 
 5 . 
 
 # 
 
 . each 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 . „ 1 3 
 
 55 
 
 6 . 
 
 . 
 
 • 55 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 . „ 1 6 
 . . „ 2 0 
 
 5 5 
 
 7 . 
 
 • 
 
 * 55 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 N.B.—These Brushes have Ebony Handles, and are marked with 
 three nerls on their Albata Ferrules. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 
 
 31 
 
 DITTO— EXTRA LARGE SERIES. 
 
 No. 1 
 ,, 2 
 
 s. d. 
 each 6 0 
 
 „ 9 0 
 
 „ 12 0 
 
 No. 4 
 
 » 5 
 „ 6 
 
 each 15 0 
 
 „ 18 0 
 „ 21 0 
 
 Note. —Nos. 4, 5 and 6 made in Brown Sable only. 
 
If*- CO t« M 
 
 32 
 
 WINSOR 8c NEWTON, LONDON ; 
 
 WINSOR & NEWTON’S 
 FINEST BROWN OR RED WATER COLOUR 
 SABLES IN ALBATA.—ROUND. 
 
 HOUND WATER COLOUR SABLES IN ALBATA .—(Sizes of the Brushes.) 
 
 N.B.—These Brushes have Ebony Handles, and are marked with 
 three nerls.on their Albata Ferrules. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c. 
 
 33 
 
 DITTO-EXTRA LARGE SERIES. 
 
 hound sables in albata.—extea laege seeies.— (Sizes of the Brushes.) 
 
 No. 1 
 „ 2 
 
 s. d. 
 each 6 0 
 „ 9 0 
 
 No. 3 each 12 0 
 „ 4 „ 15 0 
 
 No. 5 
 „ 6 
 
 s. d. 
 each 18 0 
 „ 21 0 
 
 Note. —Nos. 4, 5 and 6 made in Brown Sable only. 
 
WINSOR & NEWTON’S POCKET SABLES IN ALBATA. 
 
 34 WINSOR & NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 These Brushes are made to accompany any of the Registered Boxes of Moist Colours (pages 21 and 22) ; 
 thus supplying a light and instantly available means of sketching, tinting, or making colour notes. 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c 
 
 35 
 
 BROAD RED SABLE BEUSHES IN ALBATA. 
 
 broad red sable in albata. (Size of the 1 inch Brush,.) 
 
 I, f, 1, 1J, 2, and inches wide. Price 5,?. per inch. 
 
 SKY OE WASH BEUSHES. 
 
 wash dyed sables in albata. (Sizes of the Brushes'.) 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Siberians in Tin, Flat . . each 1 6 
 
 Ditto in Quill, Pound . . 2 6 
 
 Wash Dyed Sables in Tin, Flat or Round . . . „ 3 6 
 
 Ditto in Albata, Flat or Round . . . .,,50 
 
 PLAT CAMEL HAIR BEUSHES IN TIN. 
 
 POLISHED GEDAB HANDLES. 
 
 From h inch to 4 inches wide. Price iOd. per inch. 
 
36 
 
 WINSOR Sc NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 ARTISTS’ DRAWING PAPERS. 
 
 Messrs. "Winsor & Newton pay particular attention to 
 this department of their business, and keep constantly on hand 
 a very large and varied stock of first class Drawing Papers, 
 comprising every description needed for the Fine Arts. 
 
 EXPLANATION OP SURFACES. 
 
 IN. —“Not”—or ordinary surface; having a slight grain. 
 
 H.P.—“ Hotpressed ”—or perfectly smooth surface. 
 
 K.—“ Rough ”—or very eoarse surface; of large and open grain. 
 
 ORDINARY DRAWING PAPERS (WHATMAN’S). 
 
 
 SUEEACES. 
 
 
 SIZE. 
 
 
 Per Sheet. 
 
 Demy 
 
 N. and HP. 
 
 about 
 
 20 inches bv 15J 
 
 S. 
 
 0 
 
 a. 
 
 2 
 
 Medium 
 
 H. and HP. 
 
 )j 
 
 22 
 
 
 17} 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 Royal 
 
 H. and HP. 
 
 55 
 
 24 
 
 
 19} 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 Imperial 
 
 N. HP. and R. 
 
 55 
 
 30f 
 
 
 22} 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 Double Elephant 
 
 N. HP. and R. 
 
 5} 
 
 40 
 
 
 27 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 Antiquarian 
 
 N. . 
 
 99 
 
 52} 
 
 }J 
 
 30} 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 ARTISTS’ SEAMLESS DRAWING PAPERS 
 (WHATMAN’S). 
 
 SURFACES. WEIGHT 
 
 Thick Imperial N. HP. and R. 90 lbs. to the ream 
 
 Extra Thick Imperial N. HP. and R. 140 
 
 Ex. Thick Dble. Elephant N. . .235 ” 
 
 Per Sheet. 
 s. d. 
 
 0 9 
 
 1 3 
 
 2 6 
 
 GRIFFIN ANTIQUARIAN. 
 
 A PURE, CHOICE, AND FIRST CLASS HAND MADE DRAWING PAPER 
 MANUFACTURED BV WHATMAN FOR WINSOR & NEWTON. 
 
 Per sheet of about 53 inches by 31 ins., N. or R. . . 7 s . Qd. 
 
 N.B —The initials of the Firm (W. & N.) are in the Water mark : 
 and at the comer of every sheet is stamped their trade mark (Griffin). 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS’ COLOURMEN, &c. 
 
 37 
 
 OLD AND CHOICE DRAWING PAPERS. 
 
 Messrs. Winsor & Newton have succeeded in getting together 
 a choice stock of Whatman’s Drawing Papers of mature age. 
 
 PRICES, DOUBLE THOSE ON OPPOSITE PAGE. 
 
 (The Stock consists principally of extra thick Imperial and 
 Double Elephant Papers .) 
 
 Imitation Creswick’s Drawing Papers. 
 
 Stout Imperial Is. per sheet. Stout Double Elephant 2 s. per sheet. 
 
 J. D. Harding’s Drawing Papers. 
 
 Imperial 6d. per sheet. Extra Thick Imperial Is. per sheet. 
 
 Tinted Crayon Papers. (Machine made). A great variety of Tints. 
 Royal 3 d. per sheet. Imperial 5 d. per sheet. Double Elephant 
 8 d. per sheet. (Pattern Books on application.) 
 
 Handmade Tinted Papers.—Stout Imperial 7 d. per sheet. 
 
 Vellum Paper. (A highly finished and toned Paper, resembling 
 Yellum.) Extra Thick Royal Is. per sheet. 
 
 Hollingworth or White Pencil Paper.—Demy Id. Medium 2 d. 
 Royal 3 d. Imperial 4 d>. Double Elephant Gd. per sheet. 
 
 Cartridge Papers.—Medium Id. Royal 1 \d. Thin Log 2 d. Thick 
 Log 2\d. Thin Engineers’ 3d. Thick Engineers’ 4 d. per sheet. 
 
 Cartoon, or Continuous Drawing Cartridge Paper, 4 ft. 6 in. wide. 
 Thick White Is. per yard. Thin White Gd. per yard. 
 
 Ontsides, Drawing Papers, various. 
 
 14 lb. Parcels of variously assorted kinds and surfaces, each 12s. 
 
 (These Outsides have to be taken as assorted in the parcels , and 
 cannot be specially selected .) 
 
 Tracing Papers. Tracing Cloth. Transfer Papers. 
 
38 
 
 WINSOR 8c NEWTON, LONDON: 
 
 TURNBULL’S LONDON DRAWING BOARDS, 
 
 Foolscap 15 inches by 12 
 Demy 18 „ 14 
 
 Medium 20J „ 15£ 
 
 Royal 22 „ 1.7^ 
 
 
 2 sheet. 
 
 3 sheet. 
 
 4 sheet. 
 
 6 sheet. 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 each 
 
 0 4 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 .9 
 
 1 0 
 
 55 
 
 0 6 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 1 0 
 
 1 6 
 
 55 
 
 0 9 
 
 1 
 
 2 . 
 
 1 6 
 
 2 3 
 
 55 
 
 1 0 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 .2 0 
 
 3 0 
 
 TURNBULL’S MOUNTING BOARDS, 
 
 Demy 
 
 Half Imperial 
 Royal 
 Imperial . 
 
 .. 18 inches by 14 
 
 . *20^ „ 14 
 
 • 22 „ 17J 
 
 . 28 -20i 
 
 
 3 sheet. 
 
 4 sheet. 
 
 6 sheet. 
 
 
 
 d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 each 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 0 6 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 55 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 8 
 
 0 10 
 
 55 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 0 9 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 55 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 1 3 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
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42 
 
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44 
 
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48 
 
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AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c. 
 
 49 
 
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 Bronze, Gold Paper, Gold Leaf. 
 
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 Drawing Pins, Gd., Is., Is. 6d., 2s., and 2s. 6d. per dozqn. 
 
 VARIOUS SUNDRIES. 
 
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 —The following will be found in the after portion of the 
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 Erasers and Knives (Page 84). 
 
50 
 
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 Sketching from Nature— Comprising the Art of Sketching from 
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 Landscape Painting in Water Colours— Comprising the Art of 
 Landscape Painting in Water Colours, and a System of Water 
 Colour Painting. 
 
 Marine Painting. —Comprising the Art of Marine Painting in 
 Water Colours, and the Art of Marine Painting in Oil Colours. 
 
 Portrait Painting. —Comprising the Art of Portrait Painting in 
 Water Colours, and the Art of Portrait Painting in Oil Colours. 
 
 Figure Drawing.— Comprising the Art of Figure Drawing, and an 
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 Transparency Painting— Comprising Transparency Painting on 
 Linen, and the Art of Transparent Painting on Glass. 
 
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AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, See. 51 
 
 J. D, Harding’s Works, 
 
 EDITED BY W. WALKER. 
 
 Lessons on Art. —Imperial 8vo. 
 
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 Bound in Cloth . . . . . . . .76 
 
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 Mural or Monumental Decoration. By W. Cave Thomas. 
 
 Demy 8yo. Bound in Cloth.16 0 
 
 Barnard’s Trees. Imperial Folio, 22 by 15. 
 
 The Work, 30 Plates and letterpress complete . . 42 0 
 
 Half Bound, handsomely, in one Yol. . . . . 52 6 
 
 Separate Parts of 10 Plates and letterpress . . . 14 0 
 
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 Impl. 4to. Bound in Cloth, with 30 full plate illustrations 42 0 
 
52 
 
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 TURNER’S ‘LIBER STUD10RUM.’ 
 
 I.-—Mountain and Marine Subjects. 
 
 II.—Architectural and Historical Subjects. 
 
 Ill—Pastoral and Elegant Pastoral Subjects. 
 
 t 
 
 Being the Comx>lete Series of Autotype Prints of these well- 
 known Studies, seventy-one in number, reproduced from an early 
 Subscriber’s Copy of the Work in the best condition. The Plates 
 are printed in Sepia, as nearly as possible the colour of the original, 
 and are guaranteed to be absolutely peemaneyt. For the conve¬ 
 nience of Purchasers the Series has been divided into Three Volumes, 
 in the way in which the Artist himself classified them. They thus 
 furnish excellent manuals for all Students of Art. 
 
 Handsomely bound in Cloth in Three Volumes, 4to. Imperial size. 
 
 Single Volumes ..... 
 The Work complete in Three Volumes 
 
 each 
 
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 CLAUDE’S ‘LIBER VERITATIS.’ 
 
 A Selection of Seventy-two Autotype Prints of the choicest 
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 Turner’s ‘Liber Studiorum.’ Beproduced in Autotype from the 
 Etchings by Eichabd Eaelom. For the convenience of Purchasers, 
 the Series has been divided into three volumes containing : 
 
 I.—Marine Subjects. 
 
 II.—Landscapes. 
 
 III.—Pastoral Subjects. 
 
 Handsomely bound in Cloth in Three Volumes, 4to. Imperial size. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Single Volumes ........ each 220 
 
 The Work complete in three Volumes . . .550 
 
AND LOCAL ARTISTS' COLOURMEN, &c. 
 
 53 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 A Selection from tlie Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, from 
 Proofs (by the most eminent Contemporary Engravers) in the British 
 Museum. Mounted on Half Imperial tinted boards. This Section 
 is invaluable to all who study Portraiture, and contains one hundred 
 and fifty Autotype Prints in three volumes complete, 
 
 £> s d 
 
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 3 Volumes complete.15 15 0 
 
 AN ARCHITECT’S NOTE-BOOK 
 
 IN 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Principally Illustrating the Domestic Architecture of that Country. 
 
 BY M. DIGBY WYATT, M.A., E.S.A., &c, &c. 
 
 A Series of one hundred admirable Sketches, which that accom 
 pushed Architect, Sir Digby Wyatt, made in Spain, in 1869, from 
 subjects _ as novel m character as they are important for the History 
 .Architecture in that, country. Each. Sketch is accompanied by 
 Critical Notices, in which Sir Digby explains the salient points of 
 interest which he observed in the subjects selected for illustration. 
 
 Post 4to., with 100 Autotype Reproductions of the 
 Author’s Sketches 
 
 BRUSH-NOTES IN HOLLAND. 
 
 BY ROBERT TAYLOR PRITCHETT E.S.A. 
 
 A Series of Nineteen Sketches, One Volume, half imperial 
 handsomely hound, with Explanatory Text. 
 
 These Sketches are admirable examples of facile execution, and 
 are most faithfully rendered in Autotype. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 . | 5 5 0 
 
 £ s. 
 
 2 12 
 
 d. 
 
 6 
 
 The Volume complete 
 
54 
 
 WINSOR Sc NEWTON, LONDON. 
 
 STUDIES 
 
 jkom 
 
 THE GREAT MASTERS. 
 
 A very carefully selected Series of Autotype Prints, reproduced in 
 fac-simile from Drawings in Chalks, Pencil, &c., by the Great Masters. 
 
 , i 
 
 In Parts (4to. Impl.) each containing Six Studies, per Part 5s. 0 d 
 The Work, bound complete (containing 48 plates) £1 5s. 
 
 Parts 1, 2, 3. studies oe hands. 
 
 After Drawings by Andrea del Sarto, Bouchardon, Caracci, Coypel, 
 Domenichino, Albert Diirer, Greuze, Holbein, Besueur, Lebrun, 
 Michael Angelo, Eaffaelle, Bigaud, Eubens, Yandyck. 
 
 Part 4. studies oe eeet. 
 
 After Drawings by Andrea del Sarto, Coypel, Tehran, Mieris, 
 Michael Angelo, Eaffaelle. 
 
 Part 5 . studies oe children and youths. 
 
 After Drawings by Boucher, Carlo Dolci, Correggio, Diirer, Bra 
 Bartolomeo, Eaffaelle. 
 
 Part 6. STUDIES OE heads and children. 
 
 After Drawings by Andrea del Sarto, Bouchardon, Coypel, Zucchero. 
 
 Part 7. STUDIES OE INEANTS AND YOUTHS. 
 
 After Drawings by Boulogne, Carlo Dolci, Lebrun, Eaffaelle. 
 
 Part 8. studies oe heads, childken, youths. 
 
 After Drawings by Boucher, Bouchardon, Correggio, Caracci, Lebrun, 
 Eubens. 
 
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 •V, 
 
 16 (* 7 .\ 
 
 GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 
 
 o o 
 
 m 
 
 vJ 
 
 125 00017 4009 
 
 J * 
 
ONE SHILLIN G H AN D-BO OKS. ON ART, 
 
 With Illustrations, &c. 
 
 THE ART OF BOTANICAL DRAWING. 
 
 AN ARTISTIC TREATISE ON THE 
 HUMAN FIGURE. 
 
 THE ART OP LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN 
 OIL-COLOURS. 
 
 SYSTEM OP WATER-COLOUR PAINTING. 
 
 A MANUAL OP ILLUMINATION. 
 
 A COMPANION TO MANUAL OF 
 
 
 ILLUMINATION. 
 
 THE ART OP TRANSPARENT PAINTING 
 ON GLASS. 
 
 THE ART OP WOOD ENGRAVING. 
 
 THE ARTISTIC-ANATOMY OP THE 
 HQRSE. 
 
 THE ART OP MARINE PAINTING IN 
 WATSRrCOLOURS. 
 
 MU* I 
 
 X- 
 
 Vj 
 
 THE ART OP LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN 
 WATER-COLOURS. 
 
 THE ART OP PORTRAIT PAINTING IN 
 WATER-COLOURS. 
 
 ARTISTIC ANATOMY OP THE HUMAN 
 FIGURE. 
 
 TRANSPARENCY PAINTING ON LINEN 
 - o - 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OP COLOURING IN / 
 PAINTING. 
 
 i THE ART OP SKETCHING Flj^M 
 NATURE. * 
 
 , . *. j 
 
 Drawing- modeest and their uses 
 
 ^ K 
 
 THE AR^ OP iIaRINE PAINTING IN 
 OlicOLOUHS. 
 
 THE ARTISTIC ANATOMY OP CATTLjj! 
 AJTD SHEEP. 
 
 '0- - o - • 
 
 THE ART OF PORTRAIT PAINTING IN 
 dlL-COLOURS. 
 
 THE ELEMENTS OP PERSPECTIVE 
 
 THE ART OT? FIGURE DRAWING. 
 
 HINTS EOR SKETCHING IN WATER- 
 COLOUR PROM NATURE. 
 
 THE ART OF FLOWER PAINTING. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF FORM IN 
 ORNAMENTAL ART I 
 
 ART OF MINIATURE PAINTING. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLEANING, 
 REPAIRING,, LINING AND RESTORING 
 OIL PAINTINGS. 
 
 THE ART OP MURAL DECORATION. 
 
 THE ART OP PAINTING AND DRAWING 
 ' IN COLOURED CRAYONS. 
 
 Winsor and Newton, 38, Rathbone Place, London. 
 
 “OLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS AND ARTISTS’ COLOUEMEN.