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THE 
 
 PAINTER’S COMPANION, 
 
 OR, 
 
 on ^olouro: 
 
 SHEWING HOW TO MAKE THE SEVERAL SORTS FROM THEIR 
 PROPER INGREDIENTS; 
 
 Together with the most useful for 
 
 COLOURING MAPS, PRINTS, VIEWS, §-c. 
 
 , THE WHOLE BEING 
 
 PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS ON THE EXPERIMENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HON. ROBERT BOYLE. 
 
 VERY USEFUL FOR GENTLEMEN AND LADIES THAT AMUSE 
 THEMSELVES WITH PAINTING IN WATER-COLOURS, 
 
 AS WELL AS DESIGNERS, LIMNERS, &C. &C. 
 
 THE SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR R.H. LAURIE, 
 
 MAP, CHART, and PRINT, SELLER, 
 
 NO. 53, FLEET STREET, 
 
 By Weed and Rider, Little Britain. 
 
 1823 . 
 
Just Published^ 
 
 By R. H. LAURIE, No. 53, Fleet Street, 
 
 AS COMPANIONS TO THIS WORK. 
 
 1. The ART of PAINTING in OIL, rendered familiar to every 
 capacity; extracted from the Works of the most eminent 
 Masters of the Italian, Flemish, and English Schools j but 
 principally from Mr. Bard well. To which is prefixed, an 
 Explanation of the method of mixing the Colours to the va- 
 rious Teints used for Portraits, Landscapes, &c. The 
 Tenth Edition. Price One Shilling. 
 
 а. The whole ART of PAINTING in WATER-COLOURS, 
 
 agreeably to the practice of the most eminent Masters, by 
 the Author of the Artist’s Assistant, Price One Shilling. 
 
 3, The ART of DRAWING without a Master j from Monsieur 
 
 Le Clerc ; being a familiar Method of Drawing a Human 
 Figure, beginning with the first lines j neatly engraved on 
 Twenty Plates, Price One Shilling, 
 
 4. The ART of DRAWING in PERSPECTIVE} wherein the 
 > Doctrine of Perspective is clearly and concisely treated of, 
 
 upon Geometrical Principles } and a mechanical Method of 
 Perspective and Designing, invented for the benefit of those 
 who are strangers to Mathematics} illustrated with a variety 
 of Examples, on Copper-Plates, Price One Shilling. 
 
 б. The ART of PAINTING in MINIATURE, on Ivory, in the 
 
 manner at present practised by the most eminent artists in 
 that profession} comprised under the following heads ; viz. 
 The proper Colours for Painting in Miniature, the Nature 
 and Properties of each, and Manner of preparing them } the 
 mode of choosing CaroeLhair Pencils } Instructions relative 
 to the Choice of Ivory, bleaching and polishing it prepara- 
 tory to the beginning a Picture; Method of managing the 
 Colours at the different Sittings in taking the Picture from 
 Life, or in copying from another Picture; by John Payne, 
 To which is annexed, PAINTING in WAX-CRAYONS, and 
 the ART of BURNISHED GILDING on GLASS, in a variety 
 of Branches, a matter known by very few, and at present in 
 high estimation. Price One Shilling, 
 
 6. The ARTIST’S ASSISTANT in Drawing, Perspective, Etch- 
 ing, Engraving, Metzotinlo Scraping, Painting on Glass, in 
 Crayon, in Water-Colours, and on Silks and Satins, Con- 
 taining the easiest and most comprehensive Rules for the At- 
 tainment of those truly useful and polite Arts, methodically 
 digested, and adapted to the Capacities of young Beginners. 
 Illustrated with suitable Examples, engraved on Copper. 
 Price One Shilling. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MR. BOYLE’S Twentieth and Twenty-first Experi- 
 ments 1 , 2 
 
 Observations thereon 3 
 
 Various Tinctures made from Litmus 6 
 
 Lakes or Powders made from ditto 7 
 
 Mr. Boyle’s Twenty-second Experiment 7 
 
 Observations thereon 8 
 
 Several Trials on Verdigrise 9 
 
 Useful Tinctures made of it- * 10 
 
 Powders made from it, for painting in Oil and Water 1 1 
 A good Green Tincture from Verdigrise, to stain 
 
 Ivory, &c. 12 
 
 Mr. Boyle’s Twenty-fourth Experiment 13 
 
 Observations thereon 14 
 
 Several Experiments on the Cochineals • 15 
 
 Useful Tinctures made of them 16 
 
 Lakes from Cochineal IT 
 
 Tinctures from Kermes-Berries, and from Madder •• 18 
 
 Lakes from them 19 
 
 A Purple Tincture from Cochineal 19 
 
 Mr. Boyle’s Twenty-sixth and Twenty-ninth Experi- 
 ments 19, 20 
 
 Trials and Observations thereon 23 
 
 Sap-Green considered 24 
 
 Tinctures made therefrom 24 
 
 Mr. Parkinson’s Account of the Buckthorn-Berries • • . 25 
 
 Remarks thereon . • • 25 
 
 A 2 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Conjectures about the Sap-Green 35 
 
 Mr. Boyle’s Forty-ninth Experiment, &c,* 27 
 
 Observations thereon gg 
 
 A Yellow Powder from Sap-Green 30 
 
 A Yeljo^ Tincture from the Berries of Avignon 30 
 
 A Yellow Lake, or Pink, from ditto 31 
 
 Farther Remarks on the Forty-ninth Experiment • • • • 31 
 
 A Yellow Tincture from Gamboge 31 
 
 A Yellow Tincture from Woold 32 
 
 A Powder from ditto 32 
 
 A Gold-Colour Tincture fromAnotto 33 
 
 A Powder from ditto 33 
 
 A Tincture from Japan Earth 33 
 
 A powder from ditto 34 
 
 Sonae Conjectures and Thoughts concerning the Japan 
 
 Earth 34 
 
 Directions for staining Paper with the before-mentioned 
 
 Tinctures • • • 34 
 
 The Preparation of the Prussian Blue 35 
 
 A Way to make Prussian Green 36 
 
 A Purple Powder on the same Basis • • * 37 
 
 A Yellow ditto * 37 
 
 The Conclusion 38 
 
 Some additional Observations 38, 39 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 As it may be thought a presumption in me to 
 give this little work the name of Improvements on 
 Mr. Boyle’s Experiments, as if I intended there- 
 by to insinuate that those valuable Experiments 
 were imperfect, I judged it not amiss, by way of 
 apology, to assure the Reader that I have too great 
 an esteem for all the excellent performances of that 
 truly noble and experienced Author, not to pay 
 them the deference, and to peruse them with that 
 admiration, they so justly deserve. 
 
 When first I took these Essays into my hands, 
 I indeed expected (not knowing the nature and 
 design of them till I read them) to find nothing but 
 recipes ready for me to apply directly to the pur- 
 pose I wanted them for ; but I had not gone over 
 some few of them without being soon convinced of 
 ray mistake, and easily discovered that the ho- 
 nourable and generous Author had designed these 
 
PJEIEFACE. 
 
 elaborate pieces only as foundations for others to 
 improve and build upon. 
 
 This, indeed, vras a great disappointment to 
 me, and rendered the work I had in hand more 
 difficult than I could have wished; but as I was 
 determined to go through with what I had begun, 
 the repeating and varying of the processes soon 
 gave me the satisfaction of seeing my unlooked- 
 for and additional trouble well rewarded with new 
 and useful appearances and effects ; which, perhaps, 
 did not appear to that gentleman, as he acted on 
 more sublime principles, and with more extensive 
 views, than persons of my infinitely inferior capa- 
 city can pretend to. 
 
 In this sense it is, therefore, that I have taken 
 the liberty of calling the few following tentamina, 
 Improvements on Mr. Boyle’s Experiments, and 
 hope that, when taken in this light, I shall not be 
 censured by the world, as assuming an improper 
 title, or of attempting to eclipse the glory of one 
 of the greatest men the learned world has ever been 
 honoured with. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It may likewise be surmised, that the many 
 treatises that have appeared in the world on this 
 subject, both before and after the writing of 
 Mr. Boyle’s Essays, will make this work unneces- 
 sary, useless, and even superfluous : to take away 
 the force of this objection, I will only add, that as 
 my natural aversion to impose any thing upon 
 the Public, that was copied from others, (as has 
 been too frequently done, without trying whether 
 the things they published were agreeable to truth,) 
 would have been sufficient to hinder me from this 
 undertaking, so I have ofiered nothing in the 
 following sheets, but what I have myself expe- 
 rienced. And as I do not remember to have seen 
 tiny thing herein contained, in the many Authors 
 I have read on this subject, I thought my la- 
 bours might not be altogether useless, unprofit- 
 able, or unacceptable, to the curious, as well as 
 the Artist, to whose patience and favour I recom- 
 mend them, and whose approbation I shall be 
 very proud of. 
 
 i Note. — For the ease and conveniency of those 
 
 Readers that have not leisure to have recourse to 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Mr. Boyle’s Essays, and others who have not that 
 Book by them, I have transcribed from that 
 Author the Experiments whereon the following 
 were made, and placed them at the head of the 
 Improvements on each of them; whereby it will 
 at once appear what the design of those Experi- 
 ments was, and of what use my operations there- 
 on will be. 
 
 Just Published, 
 
 SMITH’S ART of HOUSE-PAINTING ; improved by W. 
 Butcher : and including every particular relating to that use- 
 ful Art, with the best and most approved Rules for prepar- 
 ing, mixing, and working, Oil-Colours, Oil- Cloth Varnish 
 and Colour, Milk-Paint, &c. The whole adapted to the 
 meanest Capacity, so as to enable any Person to paint and 
 grain, in Oil-Colours, all Sorts of Timber or Iron-work, 
 in Houses or Ships ; as Gates, Doors, Posts, Pails, Palisadoes, 
 and every thing that requires Paint, whether for Beauty or 
 for Preservation from the Influence of the Weather; with 
 the Manner of Painting Window-transparencies, and other 
 useful Recipes. Price Two Shillings. 
 
THE 
 
 PAINTER^S COMPANION, 
 
 (§rc. <Src. <Src. 
 
 PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS ON 
 COLOURS. 
 
 That the method I have taken in setting down 
 the following trials, by beginning at the Twentieth of 
 Mr. Boyle’s Experiments, may not appear strange 
 and irregular, it will not be improper to acquaint the 
 reader, that hitherto I have found nothing in any of 
 the preceding, intermediate, and the subsequent ex- 
 periments, not here taken notice of, but what either 
 not related to, or interfered with, the present sub- 
 ject, and therefore make no mention of them. This 
 being what I thought necessary to premise, shall pro- 
 ceed to the business. 
 
 EXPERIMENT XX. 
 
 ** Take good syrup of violets, impregnated with 
 the tincture of the flowers; drop a little of it upon 
 w hite paper (for by that means the change of colour 
 B 
 
2 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 will be more conspicuous, and the experiment may 
 be practised in smaller quantities), and on this liquor 
 let fall two or three drops of spirit, either of salt or 
 vinegar, or almost any other eminently acid liquor; 
 and upon the mixture of these you shall find the 
 syrup immediately turned red; and the way of effect- 
 ing such a change has not been unknown to divers 
 persons, who have produced the like by spirit of 
 vitriol, or juice of lemons, but have groundlessly as- 
 cribed the effect to some peculiar quality of those 
 two liquors, whereas (as we have already intimated) 
 almost any acid salt will turn syrup of violets red. 
 But, to improve the experiment, let me add, what 
 has not, that' I know of, been hitherto observed; 
 and has, when we first shewed it them, appeared 
 something strange, even to those that have been in- 
 quisitive into the nature of colours, namely, that if, 
 instead of spirit of salt, or that of vinegar, you drop 
 upon the syrup of violets a little oil of tartar, per 
 deliquium^ or the like quantity of solution of pot- 
 ashes, and rub them together with your finger, you 
 shall find the blue colour of the syrup turned in a 
 moment into a perfect green; and the like may be 
 performed by divers other liquors, as we may have 
 occasion elsewhere to inform you.” 
 
 The annotation on this experiment differing little 
 from what is there said, except what relates to the 
 lignum nephriticum, it is useless to transcribe it. 
 
 EXPERIMENT XXL 
 
 “ There is a weed, more known to ploughmen 
 than beloved by them, whose flowers, from their 
 colour, are commonly called blue-bottles, and corn- 
 weed, from their growing among corn. These 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 3 
 
 Howers some ladies do, upon the account of their 
 lovely colour, think worth the being candied ; which, 
 when they are, they will long retain so fair a colour, 
 as makes them a very fine salad in the winter. But 
 I have tried that, when they are freshly gathered, 
 they will afford a juice which, when newly expressed 
 ^ (for in some cases it will soon enough degenerate), 
 affords a very deep and pleasant blue. Now, to 
 draw this to our present scope, by dropping on this 
 fresh juice a little spirit of salt, that being the acid 
 spirit I had then at hand, it immediately turned, as 
 I predicted, into a red. And if, instead of the sour 
 spirit, I mingled with it a little strong solution of an 
 alcalizate salt, it did presently? disclose a lovely green; 
 the same changes being, by those different sorts of 
 saline liquors, producible in this natural juice, that 
 we lately mentioned to have happened to that ficti- 
 tious mixture, the syrup of violets. And I remem- 
 ber that, finding this liquor blue, when freshly made, 
 to be capable of serving in a pen for an ink of that 
 colour, I attempted, by moistening one part of a 
 piece of white paper with the spirit of salt I have 
 been mentioning, and another w ith some alcalizate, 
 or volatile liquor, to draw a line on the leisurely- 
 dried paper, that should, even before the ink was 
 dry, appear partly blue, partly red, and partly green; 
 but though the latter part of the experiment succeeded 
 not well, (whether because volatile salts are too fugi- 
 tive to be retained in the paper, and alcalizate ones 
 are too unctuous, or so apt to draw moisture from the 
 air, that they keep the paper from drying well), yet 
 the former part succeeded well enough ; the blue and 
 red being conspicuous enough to afford a surprising 
 spectacle to those I acquaint not with (what I willing- 
 ly allow you to call) the trick.” 
 
 There is but very little in these two experiments 
 more than for speculation; for, if a magistery be made, 
 either of the expressed juice of the violets or the blue- 
 bottles, or from the tincture made by infusing the 
 
4 
 
 THE PAINTER^S COMPANION. 
 
 flowers dried, the colours, whether green or bluel ( 
 will be no more permanent than the tinctures; forj | 
 when used in oil, they immediately turn red, and in , 
 water- colouring they will stand but a short time , 
 which may be supposed the reason why pigments o 
 these two colours, made from vegetables, have beet 
 long out of use; notwithstanding all the great enco* 
 miums of several authors on the methods of making 
 them, after the directions of Neri, in his Art of Glass^ 
 of which Mr. Boyle is likewise pleased to take some 
 notice, at the close of his 49th Experiment. 
 
 What I have now said, may also shew how likely 
 it is to make a lasting blue, not inferior to ultrama- 
 rine, from the Cyanus (mentioned in this twenty-firsti 
 experiment), after a manuscript of Mr. Boyle, saidi 
 to be obtained from the late Lord Carlton; since, by; 
 what I, as well as many more, have tried, it is not 
 only improbable, but impossible, to make that a dur- 
 able colour, which is naturally so subject to imme- 
 diate alteration on the approach of an acid, alcalizate, 
 or a sulphureous salt. It is true, that the colour 
 made from the cyanus is not quite so soon changed as 
 that from violets, the latter having more red inter- 
 mixed with the blue than the other ; yet the salts have 
 the same effect on the one as the other, which can by 
 no means be prevented. 
 
 There are no vegetable substances, at least amongst 
 the many that I have made trials upon, from which 
 blue or green tinctures, that are truly lasting, can be 
 produced. Even indigo, which has such a very 
 great body, is durable no way but in printed calicoes 
 and linen ; for, though it does last a long while in dyed 
 stuffs, it still goes off in time; and in painting in oil 
 or water-colours, it is so bad, that it is very rarely 
 used. The lately-invented liquor also prepared there- 
 of, for staining the linen and calico, if not immediate- 
 ly used, will fade and die away. And as for the pig- 
 ment called litmus, the blue tincture thereof, which 
 is sometimes made use of, is so changeable, that the 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. d 
 
 air alone, without the help of any acid, will soon 
 turn it red. Nor is the green tincture made from 
 the violets, or corn-flowers, as taught in these two 
 experiments, more lasting than the blue; the green- 
 ness, how fine soever it does appear, presently 
 changes into a dirty brown, without the addition of 
 any salt, and not to a red, as the blue colours are 
 apt to do. The red colour, also, that is produced 
 from them by an acid, is but of little value, the first 
 beauty of the colour soon flying oflT. What is men- 
 tioned in the annotation on the twentieth experiment, 
 concerning the lignum nephriticumt is of no service 
 in the way of colouring, its only use being to shew 
 the various effects the rays of light have to produce 
 and change some colours, as may be more amply 
 seen in the tenth experiment, page 199, &c. for the 
 tincture of that wood is but of a dirty yellow colour, 
 and can be turned to no other use than it is there de- 
 signed for, with respect to colours, and therefore I 
 shall take no further notice of it. In the annotation 
 on the twenty-first experiment, Mr. Boyle says, 
 “ That when he purposely dissolved blue vitriol 
 in fair water, and thereby sufficiently imbued the 
 liquor with that colour, a lixiviate liquor and a uri- 
 nous salt, being copiously poured upon distinct par- 
 cels of it, did each of them, though perhaps with 
 some diflTerence, turn the liquor not green, but of a 
 deep yellowish colour, almost like that of yellow 
 ochre, which colour the precipitated corpuscles retain- 
 ed, when they had leisurely subsided in the bottom.” 
 How that judicious gentleman came to assert this, I 
 cannot conceive, unless by mistake he mentions blue 
 in the stead of white vitriol; for the latter does yield 
 such a tincture and precipitation; which last, when 
 freed from the salts, may be used in the painting way; 
 but, upon repeated trials, I have found, that the 
 blue vitriol, treated in the manner there mentioned, 
 makes both a tincture and a powder, of a pale sea. 
 green colour. 
 
 B 3 
 
0 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 As this experiment relates chiefly to bine tmctiire®^ 
 it may not be foreign to the subject to add here what 
 use may be made of the vegetable, known in the shops ! 
 by the name of litmus^ though the Hon. Mr. Boyle 
 does particularly mention his trials thereon, in the 
 forty- fourth experiment, pages 333 and 334. 
 
 What that most ingenious author says, concerning 
 the various phaenomena that appeared upon the ad- 
 ditions of different salts, will in some cases serve to 
 our present purpose, so far as those salts are a means 
 of producing two, if not three, of the tinctures there 
 set down; for that it is not at all practicable to produce 
 a yellow from it that can be of any use, is, because 
 the yellow appearance in that experiment proceeds 
 only from the thinness of the colour, and is no more 
 than a too much diluted red changed to a yellow by 
 the rays of light falling on the surface of the liquor, 
 as may be also observed in such a diluted purple tinc- 
 ture of cochineal, logwood, and such like, that other- 
 wise have not the least tcint of yellow : for, by all 
 the various trials I have made, 1 could never pro- 
 duce a yellow tincture like that of a topaz from it. 
 
 The only tinctures, then, that I could make of it, 
 to be useful, were, a blue, a red inclining to crim- 
 son, and sometimes a purple; this last not always 
 succeeding alike, the least acidity turning it red. 
 The method that will best answer making a blue tinc- 
 ture, that will be least subject to change reddish, is 
 either to extract the colour with a strong lixivium of 
 pot-ashes, or with soap-lye: but great care must be 
 taken to let no alum, or any other acid, come to it; for 
 any thing of that kind will not only destroy the colour, 
 but precipitate it; and even in spring-water it will 
 not be so good a blue. 
 
 To make a red tincture of litmus is not so difficult, 
 almost every thing, even the air itself, contributing 
 thereto, as may be seen from the cautions just now 
 given about the blue. To effect this, you need only 
 to infuse a sufficient quantity of litmus in alum- water. 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 7 
 
 acidulated with a few drops of aquafortis, or spirits of 
 salt, and you will have a most beautiful red tincture, 
 which, being mixed with a little gum-water, will serve 
 for illuminating maps and prints, for writing, or any 
 other purposes where tinctures are useful. 
 
 Lastly, To make a purple tincture, there is no 
 other way than by extracting the colour in limpid 
 water, with the help. of any salt, and if it is to be 
 used with gum, no other will do but shreds of leather, 
 or gum tragacanth, boiled in water; for gum arabic, 
 or Senegal, will help to make it red. It must also be 
 observed, that to make a red tincture, more litmus 
 is required in proportion to water, than for the other 
 two colours, the acid not drawing the colour out so 
 well as a lixiviate salt will do. 
 
 It will perhaps be here expected, that I should 
 shew the way of making powders or magisteries from 
 the above tinctures; but I found the making of them 
 so difficult, and so much inferior to others that will 
 be hereafter mentioned, that I thought it needless to 
 speak of it; yet if any body should be desirous to try 
 what may be done by them, it will be necessary to 
 observe, that a purple powder cannot be made from 
 the litmus, and that powders are made from the other 
 two tinctures, by precipitating them with the con- 
 trary menstruums, viz. the blue with alum-water, and 
 the red with pot-ash water, which produces a very 
 odd effect; for the blue tincture will yield a reddish 
 colour, and the red a bluish one. 
 
 EXPERIMENT XXII. 
 
 "Our next experiment will perhaps seem to be 
 of a contrary nature to the two former, made upon 
 syrup of violets and juice of blue- bottles. For as in 
 
8 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 them, by the infusion of oil of tartar, a bluish liquoi 
 is made green, so in this, by the sole mixture of the 
 same oil, a greenish liquor becomes blue. The hint! 
 of this experiment was given us by the practice ol 
 some Italian painters, who being wont to counterfeit 
 ultramarine azure, as they call it, by grinding verdi- 
 grise with sal-ammoniac, and some other saline ingre- 
 dients, and letting them rot (as they imagine) for a 
 good while together in a dunghill, we supposed that 
 the change of colour wrought in the verdigrisc, by 
 this way of preparation, must proceed from the ac- 
 tion of certain volatile and alcalizate salts, abound- 
 ing in some of the mingled concretes, and brought 
 to make a farther dissolution of the copper abound- 
 ing in the verdigrise, and therefore conjectured, that 
 if both the verdigrise and such salts were dissolved in 
 fair water, the small parts of both being therein more 
 subdivided and set at liberty, would have better ac- 
 cess to each other, and thereby incorporate much 
 more suddenly : And accordingly we found, that if, 
 upon a strong solution of good French verdigrise 
 (for it is that we are wont to employ as the best) jou 
 pour a just quantity of oil of tartar, and shake them 
 well together, you shall immediately see a notable 
 change of colour, and the mixture will grow thick, 
 and not transparent; but if you stay awhile, till the 
 grosser part be precipitated to, and settled in, the 
 bottom, you may obtain a clear liquor of a very lovely 
 colour, and exceedingly delightful to the eye. But 
 you must have a care to drop in a competent quan- 
 tity of oil of tartar, for else the colour will not be so 
 deep and rich ; and if, instead of this oil, you em- 
 ploy a clear lixivium of pot-ashes, you may have an 
 azure somewhat lighter or paler than, and therefore 
 differing from, the former. And if, instead of 
 either of these liquors, you make use of spirit of 
 urine, or of hartshorn, you may, according to the 
 quantity and quality of the spirit you pour in, obtain 
 a farther variety (though scarce considerable) of ce- 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 9 
 
 iruleous liquors : And yet, lately, by the help of this 
 urinous spirit, we made a blue liquor, which not a 
 few ingenious persons, and, among them, some 
 whose profession makes them conversant in colours, 
 have looked upon with wonder. But these azure- 
 coloured liquors should be free from the subsiding 
 matter, which the salts of tartar, or urine, precipi- 
 tate out of them, rather by being decanted, than by 
 filtration: for by the latter of these ways, we have 
 sometimes found the colour of them very much im- 
 paired, and little superior to that of the grosser sub- 
 stance that is left in the filtre.” 
 
 Although the subject of this experiment was not 
 much for my purpose, I was nevertheless willing to 
 make it as useful as I could to others, and therefore 
 was induced to make the following remarks thereon : 
 — As for the hint the author gives of the practice of 
 some Italian painters, who coimterfeit the colour of 
 the ultramarine, by grinding verdigrise with sal- 
 ammoniac, &c., and burying it so for some time in 
 a dunghill ; I cannot see how that could answer the 
 design, because the strong acidity that is contained 
 in the verdigrise is so corrosive, that it not only de- 
 stroys all the colours it comes near, or is mixed with, 
 but it is also impossible, by any means, •either by 
 volatile or alkalizate salts, to prevent its turning green, 
 as well when used in oil as in water; the air itself 
 soon taking off all resemblance of blue. Neverthe- 
 less I had a mind to try if I could not find out some 
 means to deprive the verdigrise from its corroding 
 quality, or at least so to blunt the points of the salts, 
 as to render it more useful and less offensive than it 
 is at present: For this purpose I chose rather to 
 make use of distilled, than of crude, verdigrise, the 
 latter yielding so little colour in proportion to its bulk ; 
 whereas the other entirely dissolves almost in all 
 menstruums, and, in some, so well as to need no fil- 
 tration. 
 
10 
 
 THE painter's COMPANION. 
 
 After having made as many trials as I thought 
 worth while, there were but two, out of a great num- 
 ber, that to me seemed to deserve notice; of both 
 which I will set down the processes and use. 
 
 First, I took an ounce of the distilled verdigrise, 
 and having reduced it to a very fine powder, dis- 
 solved it in four ounces of spirits of hartshorn, which 
 produced a very beautiful deep ceruleous tincture: 
 But though this colour did appear of such a rich blue 
 hue, that it rather inclined to a purple than a green, 
 yet, being put into a phial, and held between the eye 
 and the light, the surface discovered a faint resem- 
 blance of a blue green, and being wrote with, or 
 spread on white paper, there was, as soon as dry, a 
 manifest strong appearance of a sea-green; which, 
 therefore, I judged to be serviceable to gentlemen 
 that delighted in colouring perspective views, 
 maps, &c. 
 
 But to make the use of this tincture as extensive 
 as possible, I was desirous to try what effect it would 
 have to precipitate the verdigrise. To do this, I pro* 
 ceeded according to the usual method of precipitating 
 acids with alkalies, as before mentioned; but I found 
 myself deceived by the ev^ent; for the verdigrise, 
 though an acid, would not be struck down with a 
 lixiviate alkaleous liquor or salt; wherefore I was 
 obliged to have recourse to another method, and took 
 some of my alum-water, (which is made by boiling 
 an uncertain quantity of alum in water till all is dis- 
 solved, and, when quite cold, decanted from the 
 alum that subsides,) and added to it an equal propor- 
 tion of the tincture in a large phial, when, after a 
 little effervescence, I had the pleasure to see a fine 
 blue-green powder settle to the bottom ; which, being 
 washed well with warm water, till the water came 
 off as sweet as it was put on, I spread on clean white 
 tiles to dry, in a place free from dust. But if it hap- 
 pens that the colour does not all precipitate at first. 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 11 
 
 then the tinctured liquor must be poured off in an- 
 other phial, and precipitated with fresh alum-water, 
 till all the colour is taken out of the menstruum; 
 though this last powder does not come off so deep as 
 the first, because of the additional quantity of alum. 
 By this method I perceived, however, with great 
 satisfaction, that, notwithstanding that the precipita- 
 tion was performed with an acid, the powder was 
 almost entirely free from those corroding noxious 
 qualities, so pernicious and oflensive in the verdigrise, 
 which I imputed to its being dissolved in the alkali- 
 zate spirit. This powder will readily incorporate 
 with gum* water or oil, and makes a very lively plea- 
 sant colour in both ways of painting. I will freely 
 acknowledge that it has not so great a body as the 
 verdigrise, nor will bear so much white lead as that: 
 but then, on the other hand, it is not so nauseous, 
 and covers better without white than the other does. 
 
 The second way that I found best to free verdigrise 
 from its bad qualities, and to make it more durable, 
 even in the air, (on both which accounts most people 
 are deterred from using it,) was by dissolving the fine 
 powder in alum-water, and precipitating it with a 
 sufficient quantity of oil of tartar, per deliquium, or a 
 lixivium of pot-ashes, by either of which a green 
 powder is obtained, which, being washed and dried, 
 as above, became equally useful to the first. 
 
 From these two processes it will be easily conceived 
 how unlikely it is to bring verdigrise to the hue of 
 ultramarine; for if, by dissolving it in the most active 
 alkalizate spirit, or precipitating it with the strongest 
 lixivial salt, nothing better than a sea-green powder 
 can be produced, how can it with reason be supposed, 
 that grinding it with sal-ammoniac (which is an acid), 
 though mixt with lime, to make the salt more vola- 
 tile and active, and burying it in a dunghill, should 
 so much alter the colour as to make it a permanent 
 blue; and even to equal ultramarine? For it will, J 
 
12 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 believe, be allowed by all who are acquainted with 
 the nature of volatiles, that, let the change that is 
 occasioned thereby in colours be what it will, as soon 
 as the volatile particles are gone oflf, the original mat- 
 ter differs little, if at all, from its pristine state; so 
 that if any lasting change can be produced, it must, 
 in my humble opinion, be done by a fixed alkalizate 
 salt; and yet I have found, by experience, that ver- 
 digrise ground with lime, which/ 1 think is as little 
 liable to lose its strength as any alkali whatsoever, 
 though as well incorporated as possible, will, when 
 mixt up with oil for painting, soon acquire a perfect 
 green teint, though, beforfe mixture, a beautiful blue. 
 
 I have continued longer on the subject than I should, 
 only to shew that the greatest men are not only en- 
 tirely free from the impositions of artful ill-designing 
 men, who can, for the sake of lucre, occasionally 
 assume the appearance of honesty and ingenuity to 
 deceive mankind, without distinction, or fear of being 
 detected. 
 
 Yet, before I leave treating on this drug, it may 
 not be altogether unacceptable if I add a process com- 
 municated to me some years ago by a friend of mine, 
 and which I have since often made use of with great 
 satisfaction. The recipe is as follows: — 
 
 Take of distilled verdigrise one pound; rhenish 
 tartar four ounces ; let both be reduced to a very 
 fine powder, and put into two quarts of water, and 
 a pint of the best vinegar ; when it has stood to digest 
 three days and three nights, and the vessel shaken 
 often in that time, filter the liquor through a paper, 
 and boil it over a gentle fire in the open air, to the 
 quantity of a pint ; but great care must be taken that 
 it boils not too fast, lest the colour be burnt and 
 spoiled. This is an excellent green tincture for co- 
 louring maps, prints, &c., and may be used a sink. 
 It will likewise serve, before it is boiled, for staining 
 of ivory green, by laying the ivory therein for some 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 days, till it acquires a deep colour. The smell of the 
 verdigrise may he taken off by putting the stained 
 ivory a day or two in clear urine. 
 
 N.B. This method of staining has been approved 
 of by several curious persons, as the best that has of 
 late years been practised. 
 
 EXPERIMENT XXIV. 
 
 ** It may (Pyrophilus) somewhat serve to illustrate, 
 not only the doctrine of pigments and of colours, but 
 divers other parts of corpuscular philosophy, as that 
 explicates odours and many other things, not as the 
 schools, by airy qualities, but by real, though ex- 
 tremely minute, bodies; to examine how much of 
 the colourless liquor a very small parcel of a pigment 
 may imbue with a discernible colour: and though 
 there be scarce any thing of preciseness to be expect- 
 ed from such trials, yet I presumed, that, at least, 
 I should be able to shew a much farther subdivision 
 of the parts of matter into visible particles, than I 
 have hitherto found taken notice of, and than most 
 men would imagine; nobody, that I know of, having 
 yet attempted to reduce this matter to any measure. 
 The bodies the most promising for such a purpose, 
 might seem to be the metals, especially gold, because 
 of the minuteness of its parts, which might be argued 
 from the incomparable closeness of its texture. But 
 though we tried a solution of gold, made in aquaregia 
 first, and then in fair water, yet in regard we were 
 to determine the pigment we employed, not by bulk, 
 but weight; and because, also, that the yellow colour 
 of the gold is but a faint one in comparison of the 
 deep colour of cochineal, we rather choso/this to 
 make our trials with. But among divers of these, it 
 will suffice to set down one, which was carefully 
 
14 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 made in vessels conveniently shaped, (and that in the 
 presence of a witness or assistant,) the sum whereof 
 I find among my adversaria, registered in the fol- 
 lowing words: To which I shall only premise, to les- 
 sen the wonder of so strange a diffusion of the pig- 
 ment, that cochineal will be better dissolved, and 
 have its colour far more heightened, by spirit of urine, 
 than (I say not by common water itself, but) by rec- 
 tified spirit of wine itself. The note I spoke of is 
 this: — One grain of cochineal dissolved in a pretty 
 quantity of spirit of urine, and then dissolved farther 
 hy degrees in fair water, imparted a discernible, 
 though but a very faint colour, to about six glassfuls 
 of water, each of them containing about forty-three 
 ounces and a half, which amounts to above a hundred 
 and twenty-five times its own weight.” 
 
 N.B. A few other trials on cochineal are set down 
 in the 32d and 44th experiments ; but as they were 
 almost the same with these, I thought it needless to 
 transcribe them. 
 
 Mr. Boyle has treated of cochineal not only here, 
 but promiscuously with other things in several expe- 
 riments, viz. 32d and 44th. But as his tentamina 
 are often occasional, and sometimes only in order to 
 shew the great variety of phaenomena and changes 
 hi the juices and tinctures of vegetables, and other 
 drugs, by alkalizate or acid salts, I thought it would 
 best agree with my design to render those useful hints 
 and speculative trials practicable, to bring all that to 
 me appeared likely to be serviceable under one article, 
 that the reader might not have the trouble of turning 
 over many leaves for what could be brought into a 
 narrower compass; I shall, therefore, set down the 
 improvements upon the several experiments in the 
 same order as I have from time to time made them, 
 without regard to the course of the experiments them- 
 selves. 
 
 This little insect, called cochineal, abounds with 
 so much colour, that (as the learned author truly 
 
THE, painter's COMPANION. 
 
 observes) there are but few things in the animal, 
 vegetable, or mineral kingdoms, whose tincture can 
 be so extensively diffused ; but then it is as certain, 
 that there is scarce any tincture more difiiculty made 
 permanent, than this of cochineal. Spirit of urine, 
 or any other alkalizate spirit, or lixivial salt, does 
 indeed most powerfully draw out and exalt the colour, 
 but it does at the same time act so violently, that in 
 a very short time the colour will, from a very deep 
 crimson, be thereby changed into a dirty brown, 
 inclining to yellow; though Mr. Boyle, in his thirty- 
 second experiment, assures us, that, by all his trials, 
 he could not make the tincture of cochineal incline 
 to a yellow. 
 
 This extraordinary operation of the urinous spirits, 
 &c. plainly shewed me that they were not proper to 
 be employed to make a tincture of cochineal, unless 
 for curiosity’s sake, and accordingly put me upon 
 trying in what kind of menstruum the tincture could 
 be made most durable. I found that spirits of wine 
 produced an exquisite bright colour, inclining pretty 
 much to the scarlet, particularly when the spirit had 
 first been acidulated with a few drops of single aqua- 
 fortis; but when I tried to write, or draw lines there- 
 with on paper, I perceived, that, by its spreading or 
 flowing, it would be unfit for such a use, the letters 
 and lines appearing very rough and ragged, which 
 could not be prevented by gum, nor any other method ; 
 so that the only use I found it would be proper for, 
 was to make a transparent spirit varnish, where it 
 makes a very beautiful colour. Nevertheless the fine 
 colour of the tincture tempted me to try to make a 
 scarlet lake thereof, by a precipitation either with an 
 acid or an alkali ; and, accordingly, to some of the 
 tincture I added some lixivium of pot-ashes; but this 
 had no other effect than to incorporate therewith, and 
 turn the colour on the purple hue; I then added to 
 some more of the same tincture a quantity of alum- 
 water, expecting thereby to see the colour struck 
 
16 
 
 THE painter's COMPANION. 
 
 down; but, instead of that, the alum was precipita- 
 ted by the spirit alone, in a white powder, and the 
 colour left suspended in the liquor. These trials con- 
 vinced me that a tincture made with spirit of wine 
 was no farther useful than before mentioned, and 
 obliged me to think of other methods. 
 
 After several experiments, all which it will be 
 needless to take notice of, as they varied only in a 
 few inconsiderable particulars, two of them only suc- 
 ceeded according to my wish, the processes whereof 
 is as follows: — 
 
 The most lasting tincture that can be made to be 
 useful, is thus performed r—Boil two ounces of rhe- 
 tiish (or, for want of that, half an ounce of cream of) 
 tartar, powdered, in a pint of soft water, about an 
 hour ; after which, when it is cold and settled, de- 
 cant off the water, and mix with it an equal quantity 
 of alum-water, adding ten or twelve drops of single 
 aqua-fortis. Into this mixture put two drachms of 
 the best cochineal, powdered; let it infuse near five 
 hours hy a gentle heat, or in the warm sun ; and after 
 that, first strain it through a linen cloth, pressing all 
 the liquor from the faeces, and then filter it through 
 paper, w hen you will have a fine deep scarlet tincture, 
 which may he mixed with gum- water, or a decoction 
 of shreds of leather, will serve for writing and colour- 
 ing, and may be, by the addition of a little rose- 
 water, preserved a long time without growing mo- 
 thery, and from decay, being kept close stopped. 
 
 Another rich tincture can also be made by boiling 
 or infusing the cochineal in alum-water alone, which 
 will be as durable as the former, and may do very 
 well for some intentions ; hut as it is notliing of a 
 scarlet, but a bright crimson colour, I thought it 
 sufficient slightly to mention it, and chiefly as the 
 next following process for making a good lake is for 
 the most part upon the same basis. 
 
 All the methods that I have read for making a red 
 lake, are either fallacious or good for little; for as 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 17 
 
 •they are principally made from cochineal, or rather 
 shreds of scarlet cloths or stuffs, boiled in a lixivium 
 of pot- ashes, and precipitated with alum-water, the 
 lake can never be but of a purplish hue, and that not 
 quite so beautiful as it should be, because the activity 
 of alkalizate salt does somewhat impair the colour of 
 the cochineal before the precipitation is performed ; 
 and that made from the shreds is so weak, unless ex- 
 tracted with exceeding strong lixivium, that the lake 
 cannot have half body enough to satisfy the limners. 
 
 Therefore, after repeated trials, I thought the two 
 subsequent methods were not unworthy to be recom- 
 mended as preferable to those above taken notice of. 
 
 The first is made by infusing a drachm of fine pow- 
 dered cochineal into a pint of alum-water, placing it 
 near a gentle fire to boil softly about four or five hours ; 
 then let it grow cold and settle ; after which, pour it 
 off from the subsiding feces into a clean vessel : On 
 the feces I put another half-pint of alum-water, and 
 boiled it as before, about half an hour, to draw out 
 all the colour of the cochineal; this I strained through 
 a cloth, pressing all the tincture out of the powder, 
 and added to it the other tincture, and filtered altoge- 
 ther through a paper, into a clean phial : then I made 
 a solution of an ounce of salt of tartar in a quart of 
 water, and after having filtered that too, added it to 
 the tincture of cochineal, in a large, clean, glazed 
 pan, or a glass, that the ebulition may not go over 
 the edge of the vessel. After the effervescence is 
 over, the red powder will subside, from which the 
 liquor was gently poured off; and. if that still retain- 
 ed a deepish colour, some more of the solution of 
 salt of tartar was put thereto, that all the colour 
 might be precipitated, and the almo&t colourless 
 water poured oft'; after that, a large quantity of dis- 
 tilled, or other water, was put on the powder, to be 
 washed therewith till it came off as insipid as it was 
 poured on, observing always to let the colour settle 
 well before the water was decanted from it : this done, 
 
 C 3 
 
18 
 
 THE painter's COMPANION. 
 
 I dried tlie powder by spreading it on tiles, as be- 
 fore mentioned in making the green, and I had the 
 satisfaction of obtaining a fine lake, nothing inferior 
 to the Florentine, which might have been made np 
 into little grains, in the manner lakes are met with 
 in the shops. Though I would rather advise the 
 maker to keep this, and all other colours, in the 
 powder, because, to make them up in these little 
 grains, they must be ground up with starch, or other 
 matter, to make them stick together, whereby the 
 hody of the colours is not only weakened, but like- 
 wise makes them apt to grow fat, and unwilling to 
 dry, as is experienced by those that use them in oil. 
 I^ut as I perceived that this, like the Florentine lake, 
 inclined a little too much towards the purple, against 
 which quality the limners might exclaim, 1 employed 
 my thoughts to find out one that should not be liable 
 to that objection, and for that purpose made trials on 
 many of the vegetables that jield red tinctures; many 
 of these I found to be, either not at all durable in air, 
 or subject to change on the approach of saline and 
 sulphureous qualities, or naturally very nearly border 
 on the purple. Of all the drugs I tried, kermes- 
 Ferries and madder best answered my desires; but 
 as the first are scarce and dear, I confined myself to 
 the latter, which is cheaper and easier to be had. 
 Of this I made a tincture, by infusing two ounces of 
 the best crap in a pint of alum-water, near a gentle 
 fire, about the space of two hours, and then, after 
 having let it settle about twenty-four hours, I filter- 
 ed it through a paper. Of this tincture alone a scar- 
 let lake was made, by precipitating the tincture with 
 a lixivium of salt of tartar, and after w'ards washed 
 and dried as before directed. But as I did not think 
 this lake from the madder, per se, beautiful enough, 
 I mixed the tincture of madder w ith about a fourth 
 of its quantity of the above-mentioned tincture of co- 
 chineal, and then precipitated it as before, which 
 produced a much finer lake. Yet this must be oh- 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 19 
 
 served, that, as all madder does not give an equal 
 quantity of colour, it will be necessary to make a few 
 trials before you proceed to make the lake. The 
 kermes- berries do likewise make a fine scarlet tinc- 
 ture, by boiling an ounce of them in about a pint of 
 roch-alum-water, adding a few drops of oil of sul- 
 phur. 
 
 N.B. By putting a little sal martis, or a piece of 
 steel, into the tincture of cochineal, it will be chang- 
 ed into a lovely purple; which is not only directly 
 contrary to the operation of all other acid or metal- 
 lic salts, whereby the tincture of cochineal is usually 
 turned towards a yellow ; but it is even more than 
 can be effected by any alkali that I know of. 
 
 EXPERIMENT XXVI. 
 
 And (first) I thought fit to try the operation of 
 the acid salts upon vegetable substances, that arc al- 
 ready, and by their own nature, red. And, accord- 
 ingly, I made trial upon syrup of clove July-flowers, 
 the clear expressed juice of the succulent berries of 
 spina cervina, or buckthorn (which I had long kept 
 by me for the sake of its deep colour), upon red roses, 
 infusion of brazil, and divers other vegetable substan- 
 ces, on some of which, crushed (as is often men- 
 tioned) upon white paper, which is also to be under- 
 stood in most of these experiments, if no circum- 
 stances of them can argue otherwise ; spirit of salt 
 either made no considerable change, or altered the 
 colour but from darker to a lighter red. How it will 
 succeed in many other vegetable juices and infusions 
 of the same colour, I have at present so few at hand, 
 tliat I must leave you to find it out yourself. But as 
 for the operation of other sorts of salts upon these red 
 substances, 1 found it not very uniform, some red or 
 
20 
 
 THE PAINTER’S COMRANIOl^. 
 
 reddish infusions, as of roses, being turned thereby 
 into a dirty colour, but yet inclining to green. Nor 
 was the syrup of clove July-flowers turned by the 
 solution of pot-ashes to a much better colour. An- 
 other sort of red infusion was by an alkali, not turned 
 into a green, but advanced into a crimson, as I shall 
 have occasion to note ere long. But there were other 
 sorts, as particularly the lovely-coloured juice of 
 buckthorn berries, that readily passed into a lovely 
 green.” 
 
 EXPERIMENT XXIX. 
 
 It may be of some use towards the discovery of 
 the nature of these changes, which the alimental 
 juice receives in some vegetable, according to the 
 different degrees of their maturity, and according to the 
 different kinds of plants of the same denomination, to 
 observe what operation acid, urinous, and alkalizate 
 salts, will have upon the juices of the several sorts 
 of the vegetable substances I have been mentioning. 
 To declare my meaning, by an example, I took, from 
 the same cluster, one blackberry full ripe, and an- 
 other that had not yet gone beyond a redness, and 
 rubbing a piece of white paper with the former, I 
 observed that the juice adhering to it was of a dark 
 reddish colour, full of little black specks, and that 
 this juice, by a drop of strong lixivium, was imme- 
 diately turned into a greenish colour, deep enough; 
 by as much urinous spirit, into a colour much of kin 
 to the former, though somewhat differing, and faint- 
 er; and by a drop of spirit of salt, into a fine and 
 lightsome red: whereas, the red berry being in like 
 manner rubbed upon paper, left on it a red colour, 
 which was very little altered by the acid spirit newly 
 named, and by the urinous and lixiviate salts received 
 changes of colours, differing from those that had been 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 21 
 
 just before produced in the dark juice of the ripe 
 blackberry. I remember, also, that though the in- 
 fusion of damask roses would as well, though not so 
 much as that of red, be heightened by acid spirits 
 to an intense degree of redness, and by lixiviate salts, 
 be brought to a darkish green, yet having for trial- 
 sake taken a rose, whose leaves, which were large 
 and numerous, like those of a Province rose, were a 
 perfectly yellow, though, in a solution of salt of tar- 
 tar, they afforded a green bluish tincture, yet I did 
 not by an acid liquor obtain a red one; all that the 
 saline spirit 1 employed performed, being to dilute 
 somewhat the yellowness of the leaves. I would 
 also have tried the tincture of yellow violets, but 
 could procure none. And if I weredn those islands 
 of Banda, which are made famous as well as rich, 
 by being the almost only place where cloves will 
 prosper, I should think it worth my curiosity to try 
 what operation the three different kinds of salts, I 
 have so often mentioned, w^ould have upon the juice 
 of this spice (ex-pressed at the several seasons of it), 
 as it grows upon the tree. Since good authors in- 
 form us (of what is remarkable) that these, whether 
 fruits or rudiments of fruits, are at first white, after- 
 wards green, and then reddish, before they are beat- 
 en off the tree, after which, being dried before they 
 are put up, they grow blackish, as >ve see them. 
 And one of our late herbalists informs us, that the 
 flower grows upon the top of the clove itself, consist- 
 ing of four small leaves, like a cherry-blossom, but 
 of an excellent blue. But to return to our own ob- 
 servations, I shall add, that I the rather choose to 
 mention to you an example drawn from roses, be- 
 cause that though I am apt to think, as 1 elsewhere 
 advertise, that something may be guessed at about 
 some of the qualities of the juices of vegetables, by 
 the resemblance or disparity that we meet with in the 
 changes made of their colours, by the operation of 
 the same kinds of salts; yet that those conjectures 
 
12 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 should be very warily made, may appear among other 
 things, by the instance I have chosen to give in roses. 
 For though (as I formerly told you) the dried leaves, 
 both of the damask and of the red ones, give a red 
 tincture to water sharpened with acid salts, yet the 
 one sort of leaves is known to have a purgative facul- 
 ty, and the other are often, and divers ways, em- 
 ployed for binding. 
 
 “ And I also choose to subjoin this twenty- ninth 
 experiment to those that precede it, about the change 
 of the colours of vegetables by salts, for these two 
 reasons :-^The first, that you may not easily enter- 
 tain suspicions, if, in the trials of an experiment of 
 some of the kinds formerly mentioned, you should 
 meet with an event something differing from what 
 my relations may have made you expect. And the 
 second, that you may hereby be invited to dis- 
 cern, that it may not be amiss to take notice of the 
 particular seasons wherein ycu gather the vegetables, 
 which in nicer experiments you make use of. For 
 if it were not hindered both by haste and some jus- 
 tifiable considerations, 1 could perhaps add consider- 
 able instances to those lately delivered, for the 
 making out of this observation; but for certain rea- 
 sons I shall at present substitute a remarkable pas- 
 sage to be met with in that laborious herbalist Mr. 
 Parkinson, where, treating of the virtues of the al- 
 ready divers time mentioned buckthorn- berries, he 
 subjoins the following account of several pigments 
 that are made of them, not only according to the 
 several ways of handling them, but according to the 
 different seasons of maturity at which they are ga- 
 thered : And I remember that I tried, with a suc- 
 cess that pleased me well enough, to make such a 
 kind of pigment, as painters usually call sap-green, 
 by a way not unlike that delivered here by our author, 
 but I cannot find any thing relating to that matter 
 among my loose papers. ' And my trials were made 
 fio many years ago, that I dare not trust my memory 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION; 
 
 23 
 
 for circumstances; but I will rather tell you, that in 
 a noted colour-shop I brought them, by questions, 
 to confess to me, that they made their sap-green much 
 after the ways by our botanist here mentioned. And 
 on this occasion I shall add an observation which, 
 though it does not strictly belong to this place, may 
 well enough be mentioned here; namely, that I find, 
 by an account given us by the' learned Clusius of Ala^ 
 ternus that even the grosser parts of the same plant 
 are some of them one colour, and some another; for 
 speaking of that plant, he tells us, that the Portu- 
 guese use the bark to dye their nets into a red colour, 
 and with the chips of the wood, which are whitish, 
 they dye a blackish blue.” 
 
 The trials that come next to be taken notice of, are 
 but a part of these experiments (the rest being of no 
 use to my present design), yet I hope what I have 
 set down relating thereto, will be serviceable. In 
 my search for a good green, I tried, amongst other 
 things, what this juice of buckthorn-berries would do ; 
 but I soon perceived that not much could be effected 
 therewith, for when I had inspissated it to a thick 
 extract, with the greatest caution to prevent its burn- 
 ing, it yielded but a very bad dirty green : Besides 
 that, the tincture of the juice is so faint, that it re- 
 quired a great deal of trouble and expense to inspis- 
 sate a quantity of juice sufficient to make proper trials 
 upon; both which, as w'ell as the change that the 
 acids made in the colour, discouraged me from 
 attempting any thing further wdth it. I had, how- 
 ever, recourse to a pigment, said to be made of this 
 juice, called in the shops by the name of sap-green, 
 which was not only ready prepared to my hand, but 
 promised something considerable to be performed by 
 it. There are two sorts of this sap-green sold ; the 
 one English, the other French. The first does not 
 so readily dissolve in water as the latter, and inclines 
 much more to the yellow ; therefore I chose to make 
 use of the last. To make a green tincture of any de- 
 
24 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 gree of strength, far exceeding the juice of the buck- 
 thorn, there needs no more trouble than to dissolve 
 it in fair cold water, in which it will serve for colour- 
 ing maps, prints, &c. without the addition of any gum : 
 and if a little vinegar is put into the water, it will 
 turn it more green; but it must be observed, that it 
 will require to be made fresh as often as the colour 
 appears to decay, or turn yellowish. To make this 
 tincture of a more pleasant green, some fine powder 
 of distilled verdigrise may be added at pleasure ; only- 
 giving it a proper time to dissolve and incorporate 
 therewith, whereby the colour may be varied, more 
 yellow or green, and deeper or paler, as occasion 
 shall make it necessary. I must also put you in 
 mind, that, with or without the verdigrise, the tinc- 
 ture should be filtered through paper before it is 
 used. 
 
 The second use that is to be made of this sap-green, 
 is to procure from it a fine lemon-yellow tincture, 
 that will answer the end of the green-gathered buck- 
 thorn-berries, which Mr. Parkinson says are used 
 for that purpose. To do this, take twenty-four grains 
 of the sap, dissolve it (finely powdered) with an 
 equal quantity of salt of tartar, in four ounces of warm 
 water, and in three or four hours’ time you will have 
 a beautiful colour, which must likewise be filtered, 
 and will be fit for any of the above-mentioned uses. 
 
 This last process should more properly have been 
 inserted where I treat of the experiments relating to 
 yellow pigments, but as it was on the basis of the 
 sap-green, I thought it would not come in amiss here, 
 it being the subject of these experiments. There 
 may also be made of this drug, a fine red tincture, 
 that will serve instead of some of the reds before 
 spoken of; and this is done only by dissolving it in 
 water, acidulated with a few drops of single aqua- 
 fortis; but of this red tincture no red powder or lake 
 can be made; for upon precipitation, which must be 
 performed by an alkali, the powder will be of a green- 
 ish yellow colour: nor can there be a green powder 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 25 
 
 made of it, because it can be dissolved in no acid or 
 saline menstruum, except vinegar, to make a green 
 tincture, and then, whatever it is precipitated with 
 will turn it a yellow. I should now proceed to the 
 forty-ninth experiment, but I will first say something 
 relating to Mr. Boyle’s quotation from Parkinson, 
 concerning the buckthorn-berries and sap-green, in 
 the latter part of the twenty-ninth experiment. 
 
 Mr. Parkinson says, ** That of these berries are 
 made three several sorts of colours, as they shall be 
 gathered, that is, being gathered while they are green, 
 and kept dry, they are called sap-berries; which 
 being steeped or fresh bruised into some alum-water, 
 they give a reasonable fair yellow colour, which 
 painters use for their work, book-binders to colour 
 the edges of books, and leather-dressers to colour 
 leather; as they use also to make a green colour, 
 called sap-green, taken from the berries when they 
 are black, being bruised and put into a brass or cop- 
 per kettle or pan, and there suffered to abide three 
 or four days, or a little heated upon the fire, and 
 some beaten alum put into them, and afterwards pres- 
 sed forth, the juice or liquor is usually put in great 
 bladders, tied with strong thread at the head, and 
 hung up till it be dry ; which is dissolved in water, 
 or wine, or sack, which last he affirms is the best to 
 preserve the colour from starving or decaying, and 
 make it hold fresh the longer. The third colour is 
 a purplish, made from the berries, suffered to grow 
 upon the bushes till the middle or end of November, 
 when they are ready to drop from the trees.” 
 
 The truth of this account I cannot contradict, hav- 
 ing never had opportunity nor leisure to try the 
 berries of these different degrees of maturity; but 
 will beg leave to observe, on the first part thereof, 
 that the yellow colour used by painters (called in the 
 shops Dutch pink), and the tincture wherewith, I 
 think, book-binders generally colour their leaves, and 
 leather-dressers their leather, is made of French 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 THE PAINTER’S COMPANION. 
 
 . berries of Avignon, that grow on the box-thorn, and 
 are called sap-berrieS) as may be seen in Pomet’s 
 History of Drugs, page 21, which berries differ in 
 all respects from those of the spina cervina, or buck- 
 thorn. 
 
 The second part of the account concerning the sap- 
 green is confirmed, as well by Mr. Boyle, in the 
 same twenty-ninth experiment, as by Pomet’s His- 
 tory of Drugs, Book IX. page 223, in the article of 
 Koucou. But, nevertheless, I think there is some 
 reason to doubt whether all, or the best, sap-green 
 is made of the buckthorn-berries; for, besides what 
 I have before hinted about inspissating the juice, I 
 could never find that alum would change the tincture 
 of sap-green red, as Mr. Boyle asserts of this juice, 
 but to a bright yellow, as appears from the before- 
 mentioned fine lemon-coloured tincture. Possibly 
 the English sap is made of the buckthorn-juice, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Parkinson’s relation, because I al- 
 ways found that to have less body, more yellow, and 
 harder to dissolve, than the French. To this might 
 be added, that, if the sap-green is made of the juice 
 of buckthorn-berries, it is something of a wonder it 
 has not yet been introduced into physic, as a cathar- 
 tic (having been known long enough), instead of the 
 juice, which can be had but onee a year, and requires 
 so much trouble and room to preserve it all the year; 
 when the sap may be had always, and is dissolved 
 in a few minutes, if the quantity for a dose is once 
 fixed. Wherefore I should rather imagine the sap- 
 green to be made from young leeks (as the Greek 
 name prasinoHy and Latin prasinus or porraceus, im- 
 ports), or from some other plant that abounds with 
 a more deep-tinctured green juice, than that of the 
 buckthorn-berries. But, as this is my private no- 
 tion, which I have not had experience enough to be 
 assured of, I will submit to the authority of these 
 two gentlemen, that have obliged the world with such 
 excellent works. What is contained in the third 
 
THE painter's COMPANION. 
 
 27 
 
 part I know nothing of, there being at present no 
 purple-colour to be met with in the shops, besides 
 turnsole; which, according to Mr.' Parkinson's ac- 
 count, quoted by Mr. Boyle in his thirty -sixth ex. 
 periment of this essay, is made of another berry : so 
 shall leave this subject, and go on to my trials on ex- 
 periment forty-nine. 
 
 EXPERIMENT XLIX. 
 
 Meeting the other day, in an Italian book, that 
 treats of other matters, with a way of preparing 
 what the author calls a lacca of vegetables, by which 
 the Italians mean a kind of extract fit for painting, 
 like that rich lacca in English, commonly called lake, 
 which is employed by painters as a glorious red : and 
 finding the experiment not to be inconsiderable, and 
 very defectively set down, it will not be amiss to ac- 
 quaint you with what some trials have informed us, 
 in reference to this experiment ; which, both by our 
 Italian author, and by divers of his countrymen, is 
 looked upon as no trifling secret. 
 
 “ Take then the root called in Latin curcuma, and 
 in English turmerick, which I made use of because it 
 was then at hand, and is, among vegetables, fit for 
 that purpose, one of the easiest to be had ; and when 
 it is beaten, put what quantity of it you please into 
 fair water, adding to every pound of water about a 
 spoonful, or better, of as strong a lixivium or solu- 
 tion of pot-ashes as you can well make, clarifying it 
 by filtration before you put it to the decocting water. 
 Let these things boil, or rather simmer, over a slow 
 fire, in a clean glazed earthen vessel, till you find, by 
 the immersion of a sheet of white paper (or by some 
 other way of trial) that the liquor is sufficiently im- 
 pregnated with the golden tincture of the turmerick ; 
 
28 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 then take the decoction off the fire, and filter or 
 strain it, that it may be clean, and leisurely dropping 
 into a strong solution of roche-aluni, you shall find 
 the decoction, as it were, curdled, and the tinctured 
 part of it either to emerge, to subside, or to swim up 
 and down like little yellow flakes: and, if you pour 
 the mixture into a funnel lined with cap-paper, the 
 liquor that filtered formerly so yellow, will now pass 
 clean through the filter, leaving its tincture, and as 
 it were curdled part, in the filter, upon which fair 
 water must be so often poured, till you have dulci- 
 fied the matter therein contained; the sign of which 
 dulcification is, when the water that has passed 
 through it, comes from it as tasteless as it was when 
 poured on it. And if, without filtration, you would 
 gather together the flakes of this vegetable lake, you 
 must pour a great quantity of water upon the decoc- 
 tion, after the affusion of the aluminous solution, and 
 you shall find the liquor to grow clearer, and the lake 
 to settle together at the bottom, or emerge to the 
 top of the water, though sometimes having not poured 
 out a sufficient quantity of fair water, we have observ- 
 ed the lake partly to subside, and partly to emerge, 
 leaving all the middle of the liquor clear. But to 
 make this liquor fit for use, it must, by repeated af- 
 fusions of fresh water, be dulcified from the adhering 
 salts, as well as that separated by filtration, and be 
 spread and suffered to dry leisurely upon pieces of 
 cloth, with brown paper, or chalk or bricks, under 
 them, to imbibe the moisture.” 
 
 In the margin of this experiment, the author refers 
 the curious reader for farther information to the 
 seventh book of Neri’s Art of Glass, englished and 
 illustrated with learned observations, by the inquisi- 
 tive and learned Dr. Charles Merret: but, as I have 
 not that book by me at present, I cannot oblige the 
 reader with a transcript from it ; therefore, must con- 
 tent myself with setting down what I have experi- 
 enced from that book, and to recommend those who 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 29 
 
 are desirous to know something of Neri’s method, to 
 the first nine chapters of Blancourt’s Art of Glass, 
 which, as near as I can remember, contain what is 
 taught by Neri. 
 
 The four annotations subjoined to this experiment, 
 I shall not need to transcribe, as they are only re- 
 marks on the foregoing, concerning the different ef- 
 fects of the several kinds of salts upon the tinctures 
 of vegetables and other drugs. I shall, therefore, only 
 take a cursory notice of such parts thereof as any 
 ways relate to my design. 
 
 Part of this experiment, and the annotations there- 
 on, treating of the method of producing lakes (as they 
 are called) of all colours from vegetables, according 
 to the doctrine of Ant. Neri, whose experiments the 
 author praises, I shall first take the liberty (suppos. 
 ing Mr. Boyle not to have tried them all) to mention, 
 wherein I think Neri has left to posterity, a wrong 
 account, and where my learned author has too much 
 credited him ; and then proceed to communicate what 
 has occurred to me upon trial, particularly concern- 
 ing yellow tinctures and pigments, having already 
 spoke of the other colours. 
 
 I have, in my notes on some of the foregoing ex- 
 periments, taken notice, that the way of making 
 green and blue lakes from plants is altogether useless, 
 if not impracticable, so that I shall only, in a few 
 words, now shew, that if Mr. Boyle had but reflected 
 on what he himself said in the annotation, ** that lix- 
 iviate salts, though by piercing and opening the bodies 
 of vegetables they pare and dispose them to part rea- 
 dily with their tinctures; yet some tinctures not only 
 draw out, but likewise alter them, as might be easily 
 made appear (says he) by man}^ experiments set down 
 in the same treatise,” he certainly would not have 
 spoke in such general terms to favour Neri’s pretence 
 to make magisteries or lakes from rue, and other the 
 like plants, that could be useful and acceptable to 
 artists. It is true, that in the latter part of the third 
 D 3 * 
 
30 
 
 THE painter's COMPANION, 
 
 annotation on this forty.ninth experiment, he does 
 declare some diffidence in the matter; hut yet, in my 
 humble opinion, he lays too much stress on the au- 
 thority of Neri and Dr. Merret's observation; for 
 though I will allow that green and blue lakes, or ma- 
 gisteries, may be made from some deep-tinctured 
 juices of plants, yet am, at the same time, certain 
 that they must change their colours in oil. But, as 
 I believe most of Neri's disciples, as well as myself, 
 have, at their own expense and trouble, too often 
 experienced the insufficiency of his laborious proces- 
 ses, I shall leave this subject, and go on with what 
 I can affirm, from my own practice, to be fact and 
 practicable. 
 
 I have already, under the article of sap-green, 
 shewn the way to make a fine lemon-coloured tinc- 
 ture from that pigment, so need only mention here, 
 that from that tincture a beautiful lake of the same 
 colour is to be made, that is durable as well as useful, 
 by precipitating that tincture with a sufficiept propor- 
 tion of alum- water; and, afterwards washing off the 
 salts, and drying, as directed in former processes. 
 
 The second yellow pigment (called Dutch pink) 
 is made, as before hinted, of the French berries of 
 Avignon (used also by the calico-printers), by infu- 
 sing twenty-four grains of them in about three ounces 
 of alum-water, and after they have been boiled over 
 or near a slow fire, an excellent yellow tincture will 
 be procured, which (being filtered, will serve for 
 colouring maps, &c.) must be precipitated with lix- 
 ivium of pot-ashes, and washed to sweetness, as 
 formerly directed ; but, if the precipitation is perform- 
 ed with a lixivium of salt of tartar, the colour will 
 be much the better for it, and beyond any thing that 
 is sold under the name of brown or yellow pink, for 
 beauty, body, and transparency, provided it is not 
 afterwards ground up with cuttle-bone, or some 
 other material, for lucre's sake, by which means 
 many good colours are spoiled, such like things mak- 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 31 
 
 ing them grow fat (as the colour-men term it), and are 
 long in drying, which is a very bad quality. 
 
 The yellow made from the turnierick, mentioned 
 by Mr. Boyle in this experiment, is not so good in a 
 tincture as saffron, and the magistery made from it is 
 not lasting in oil, the sun soon drawing it all away, 
 as I have more than once tried : but, as a lake in 
 water-colours, it may be of some service. 
 
 Another yellow tincture, that is no less useful in 
 washing and colouring maps and prints, can be made 
 from gamboge. I know this drug is already used in 
 the water-colour way, but it is only by dissolving it 
 in water, which way I disapprove, and would by no 
 means recommend, because of its hurtful quality, 
 and therefore offer this as more eligible, useful, and, 
 on all accounts, better. 
 
 Take an equal quantity of gamboge and salt of tar- 
 tar, powder them together, and dissolve in a due 
 proportion of boiling water, so as to make a deep 
 tincture. When perfectly dissolved, let it be filtered 
 through paper, and put into a clean phial for use. 
 If it should not be glutinous of itself, and be apt to 
 sink or spread, a little thick gum- water may be added. 
 This tincture can be made to any degree of deepness, 
 according to the quantity of water that shall be em- 
 ployed. The proportion that I found to make a good 
 tincture, was twenty-four grains of each ingredient 
 in half a pound of water. It will serve all the inten- 
 tions of the common way, and as the salt of tartar 
 does in a great measure correct the acrimony of the 
 gamboge, it must be less attended with the bad ef- 
 fects that are often occasioned by putting the pencil 
 into the mouth. Another tincture, though not a 
 transparent one, may be made of this drug, with spirit 
 of wine and water; but, as I have before observed, 
 that tinctures made with a vinous spirit are not very 
 useful, did not think it needful to set down the pro- 
 cess. There can likewise be made from the first of 
 these tinctures a magistery ; but it cannot be used in 
 
32 
 
 THE painter’s companion. 
 
 oil, and di^Ters so little from the inspissated juice it- 
 self, that it is not worth making. 
 
 There are many other vegetables, besides the last, 
 (of which Mr. Boyle takes no notice,) from which yel- 
 low colours can be procured, the tinctures and seeds 
 of most plants having a natural tendency that way; 
 but few of them are fine and lasting, which, therefore, 
 I shall forbear to set down, to prevent expense and 
 trouble : yet there is one that I must not pass over, 
 and that is the plant called woold or weld in English, 
 and luteola in Latin, well known to our dyers for its 
 excellent use in dying yellow, as any body may be 
 farther informed by having recourse to the ingenious 
 Mr. Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary. If this is treat- 
 ed in the manner as directed about the French ber- 
 ries, both a fine durable tincture and a lake is made. 
 
 Thus much for yellow : I will now only add two 
 colours more, that, because of their affinity to the 
 last, ought to be placed under this head. 
 
 The first is a pigment, known in the colour- shops 
 by the name of anotto, and is of a deep gold- colour, 
 inclining to red. Twelve grains of this, dissolved with 
 four-and-twenty grains of salt of tartar in four ounces 
 of water, makes a noble rich tincture, which, when 
 filtered, with the addition of a little gum-water, is 
 useful in all cases where a tincture is required. Of 
 this tincture may also be made a very strong-bodied 
 lake, in the same manner as other magisteries, which, 
 though not to be recommended for painting in oil, be- 
 cause it almost all flies off in a short time, especially 
 in the sun ; yet may be of service in the miniature and 
 and fan painting way, to heighten other colours, and, 
 if rightly managed, will do the office of gallstone, the 
 colour of which it nearly resembles. 
 
 This, I think, is the drug which the French call 
 roucou, and the Dutch orlean; and is said to be an 
 ingredient in that precious colour, carmine; though 
 I very much doubt of the truth of the assertion, not 
 only because the roucou would shew itself as soon 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 33 
 
 ks the carmine is put into water (for that fine colour 
 is not made by precipitation, as other lakes or pow- 
 ders are), but because I have some reason to believe, 
 that almost the whole process of the carmine is given 
 wrong by all authors that treat thereof, there being 
 one ingredient in it, which is easily separated from it, 
 and is very different from any that are mentioned to 
 be in the composition of that colour, as I shall take 
 an opportunity, some time or other, when I have lei- 
 sure, to make further trials thereon, to acquaint the 
 world with. 
 
 As to the roucou, or anotto itself, those that are 
 curious to know farther 'about its culture and manu- 
 facture, may be satisfied by consulting Mons. Pomet’s 
 History of Drugs, at the latter end of Book IX. 
 
 The other drug I am to speak of, is Japan earth. 
 Of this a tincture is made by dissolving in water only ; 
 but if a small proportion of alkalizate salt be dissolved 
 first in the water, it will do sooner. This may be used 
 instead of tincture of soot, which is very disagreeable, 
 as many other colours at present in use are, in the 
 room of which I would recommend these contained 
 in this treatise, as more elegant and more pleasant. 
 
 Of the tincture made with the salt, a bright brown 
 powder is made by precipitating it with an acid, or 
 alum-water, and afterwards managed by several ab- 
 lutions, and drying, as in former processes. 
 
 What this is the juice of, is as yet uncertain, for 
 that it is the juice of a plant, though it still retains the 
 improper name of earth, is, I believe, by every body 
 allowed; yet I am inclined to surmise, from some 
 experiments I have made, that it is the concentrated 
 or inspissated juice of tea, particularly of Bohea tea, 
 which I have found to yield a tincture so much like 
 the other, both in colour and taste, that I could not 
 discern any difference. I have not, indeed , tried them 
 in a medicinal way (that being out of my province); 
 but as the Japan earth is a little austere on the tongue, 
 and leaves a sweet flavour in the throat, so does the 
 
34 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 tea, and therefore I am apt to believe them originally ' 
 the same : and, according to the description given of 
 both in the dispensatories, they agree in being astrin- 
 gent and balsamic. To conclude, I believe that, if 
 a proper extract was made of the tea, so as to answer 
 the strength of the Japan earth, it would in effect ap- 
 pear to be the same thing; but the trial hereof I will 
 leave those gentlemen to whom it more properly be- 
 longs, and content myself with giving the hint. 
 
 Thus far I have communicated what has fallen in 
 my way, in my working on Mr. Boyle’s experiments, 
 and others of my own, thinking some of them might 
 be profitable to those that either do or are desirous to 
 prepare colours for the limners, and other artists : I 
 shall only subjoin a particular use that may be made 
 of the before-going tinctures, which is to stain or dye 
 paper of all colours, and then conclude this little tract, 
 with adding the process for making the Prussian blue ; 
 not for the sake of making that colour, which I believe 
 is already sufficiently known, but to teach a way to 
 make two or three other colours on that basis, with a 
 little variation and addition, which has not hitherto 
 been done by any body else, that I know of. 
 
 The first thing, then, that I purpose to do, is to 
 shew in what manner paper may be dyed with the 
 before-mentioned tinctures. To do this well, it is ne^ 
 cessary to observe, that the paper must be without 
 stiffening, or alum, as the filtering paper is prepared. 
 Secondly, there must be an earthen, stone, or wooden, 
 shallow trough, a little larger than a sheet of paper, 
 made to contain the tinctures : And, thirdly, the paper 
 must be dipt in the tincture, which will soon soak 
 through: and, when hung across a line to drain and 
 dry, will be of an even colour. After it is dry, the 
 paper may be stiffened and glazed fit for fans, and 
 other uses ; or it may be used as it is, according to 
 what it is intended for. 
 
 N.B. Besides this way of staining paper, it can 
 likewise be performed by the juices of flowers, fruits, 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 85 
 
 and plants, when they are fullest; but this must be 
 done on paper that is already stiffened, as writing- 
 paper is; because the other sort of paper will imbibe 
 the juice too much, and be unpleasant. However, 
 this I leave to the option of the operator. 
 
 Now I will proceed to the last thing I intended, 
 viz. to set down the process for making the Prussian 
 blue, in English, because I do not remember to have 
 seen it published any where but in one of the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 381, 
 for the months of January and February, 1724, where 
 it is inserted in Latin ; but chiefly because I intend to 
 shew, as I already hinted, what is to be done on the 
 same basis, for making some other different colours, 
 which I believe is not only unknown to the public, but 
 even to the Royal Society itself. 
 
 THE 
 
 PREPARATION of the PRUSSIAN BLUE. 
 
 Sent from Germany to John Woodward, M.D. 
 Professor of Physic at Gresham College^ and Fellow 
 of the Royal Society, 
 
 Take of crude tartar and crude nitre, of each four 
 ounces ; let them be powdered fine, and mixt together; 
 then put them thus mixt in a crucible, into a charcoal 
 fire, till it is detonated or melted, and by this means 
 you will have four ounces of extemporaneous salt of 
 tartar. This salt being yet hot, let it be gently pow- 
 dered, and add four ounces of ox’s blood, well dried 
 and powdered ; these being well mixt, put all toge- 
 ther into the crucible, and in the fire, till a third part 
 is diminished : then, being covered in the fire, let the 
 crucible be surrounded with fresh charcoal, that it 
 may kindle by degrees, and that the materials may not 
 
36 THE painter's COMPANION. 
 
 flame, boil, and burn too violently. In this manner 
 the materials must remain in the fire, till the flame 
 and boiling ceases. After that, take the crucible from 
 the fire, and pour the matter into an iron mortar, and 
 let it be gently powdered; and have at hand four 
 pounds of hot rain or distilled water, in which put 
 the warm matter, and let it boil for the space of half 
 an hour; being boiled, strain it through a cloth, and 
 pour fresh water on the remaining black matter, which 
 set on the fire to boil, and strain it as before; repeat- 
 ing this so often till the water comes off quite insipid, 
 which will shew that all the saltness and acrimony of 
 the materials is extracted. The residue in the cloth 
 must be well pressed out ; after which, all the liquor 
 must be put into one vessel, and again set on the fire, 
 till there remains but four pounds, which may be set 
 by for use; mark it No. 1. 
 
 Then take of English vitriol, calcined to whiteness, 
 one ounce, dissolve it in six ounces of rain-water; and, 
 when filtered through paper, mark it No. 2. 
 
 Lastly, Take eight ounces of crude alum, and dis- 
 solve it in four pounds of warm water, till all is melted. 
 This being rightly performed, join to it the solution 
 of vitriol. No. 2, and heat them on the fire in a large 
 pot; to which pour the lixivium No. 1, after it has like- 
 wise been separately heated, w^hereupon a strong 
 ebullition will ensue, and there will appear the colour 
 of mountain-green, or borax (commonly called chri- 
 socolla) : during this ebullition, pour it several 
 times out of one vessel into another, and when it ceas- 
 es, set it by to settle. When it is well settled, pour 
 it into a fine linen filter, that all the water may drain 
 off, and nothing but the colour remain in the cloth. 
 When no more water drops away, with a wooden 
 ladle put it out of the cloth into a smaller vessel ; after 
 that, pour upon the colour two or three ounces of 
 spirit of salt, and there will immediately appear a 
 beautiful blue colour; to which, when it has stood a 
 night, must be put a large quantity of clear rain or 
 
THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 37 
 
 distilled water, stirring it well with the ladle; and 
 when it is again settled, the water must be gently 
 poured off, and fresh water put on so often, till the 
 water that is decanted is entirely sweet and insipid; 
 when the colour must be again put into a linen filter, 
 and after all the water is drained off, it may be spread 
 on the cloth, and dried by a gentle warmth, fit for use. 
 
 N.B. Upon the calcination, the success of the pro- 
 cess wholly depends ; for the light or dark blue, and 
 all diversity of colour, proceeds from the slight, mid- 
 dling, or strong, calcination of the blood with the salt 
 of tartar. 
 
 The warm liquors must be added together at once, 
 in the speediest manner that can be. 
 
 Now, as from the above process, with some small 
 variations, three other good and useful colours can 
 be made, I suppose it needless to give the whole 
 course of each of them, and therefore shall only men- 
 tion the particulars wherein they differ. 
 
 To make the green, you must put sixteen penny- 
 weights of bruised French berries of Avignon into a 
 pound of the solution made with vitriol and alum, 
 which must be gently boiled, after it has stood a day 
 to make a deep yellow tincture, then it must be strain- 
 ed and added to an equal quantity of the lixivium with 
 blood, as is directed in making the blue; thus you 
 will have a good deep green powder, which must be 
 also well washed and dried for use, and makes a good 
 colour in oil. 
 
 The purple is made by boiling an ounce of powdered 
 cochineal in twenty ounces of the solution of vitriol 
 and alum, and added to twenty ounces of the lixivium 
 with blood, proceeding in all other respects as in mak- 
 ing the Prussian blue, except the addition of the 
 spirit of salt, which must not be used for this; nor is 
 it very necessary in the green, unless it should be 
 imagined that the colour can be thereby amended. 
 
 The yellow is made without the blood ; that is, by 
 the solution of vitriol and alum, with an equal pro- 
 
38 
 
 THE painter’s COMPANION. 
 
 portion of a lixivium made with the detonated tartar 
 and nitre only ; but the operation must he performed 
 whilst the liquors are fresh. This last colour is also 
 of good use in oil, but will not glaze. 
 
 To these things I might add the processes of two 
 beautiful and lasting greens, the one for limners, and 
 the other for common use, instead of verdigrise ; and 
 likewise a fine beautiful scarlet lake ; but as they cost 
 me a great deal of labour and expense, I cannot con- 
 descend as yet to part with them to the world, at so 
 easy a rate as the profit of such a small treatise as this 
 can import; so shall conclude with only saying, that 
 I hope some people will find it worth the while to in- 
 troduce these colours into use, which I have not lei- 
 sure to do, to prevent the mischiefs that many artists, 
 as well as others, that are constantly conversant with 
 the poisons now made, labour under, which alone 
 will be sufficient to make me think my time, for bring- 
 ing these few experiments together, well spent. 
 
 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 1. Several of the pigments from which the fore- 
 going tinctures are made, may also be used for liquid 
 colours, by infusing them either in limpid water, with- 
 out the help of any kind of salts, or in rose-water, 
 in which the colour will continue longest without 
 growing mothery ; and by tempering these tinctures 
 with thick gum-water, which way will rather be more 
 agreeable and elegant for gentlemen and ladies, who 
 love to divert themselves with colouring prints and 
 drawings, or painting oh silk. 
 
 2. Although I have hinted that tinctures made 
 with spirit of wine are of no use for the purposes 
 mentioned above, yet there are several drugs that 
 yield deep tinctures in that menstruum; such as