PALETTE OF THE PASTb1 PATRICK BATY

x*J*x

l-Watercolour showing a typical scherne for an early-l9th-century town house. The stucco walls have been treated with a copperaswash, the ironwork is in various shades ofgreen and the verandah canopy is painted in stripes

colour, possibly based orrhistorical precedent) is a use-ful guide for the repainting ofthe older house, and espe-cially one forming part of anarchitectural group. A littleknor'viedge of the use ofpairrtand colour in the past shouldlimit the tendency to over-gild the lily, which is oftenprompted by an erroneousunderstanding of historicalprecedent.

Tn simplified terms. thepaintwork of the exterior canbe broken down into threeareas: the r'r oodr,r ork, iron-work and the fagade itself.

A tour of the Spitalfieldsarea, in London's East End,reveals much about our no-tions ofwhat colours arc corr-sidered appropriate lbr theexterior of an I Bth-centurytown house. The example inFournier Srreet lFig 4) dem-onstrales rr ell a carefullv re-searched lreatmenl

"f ."ifr.f

the three elements. While ex-ceptions to the rule existed,

exterior sashes and frames would have beenan off-white or a pale creamy "stone colour"with no picking out of mouldings. The brashbrillianiwhite. and the blue of-the house inWilkes Street qFig 5, would not have beentechnicallv possible. even if desired.

lhe doorcase would have marched thesashes, and the door itselfwould have been in

"l^{ OME of the old Oueen\Anne houses olbh"l-|--r sea or \\'esrminstcl a lc

quite suitable for a green orquietly coloured door. butwoe betide the Bayswater orEarl's Court house that triesit." Sixty years ago, BasilIonides' recommendationthat such houses should bepainted with either white orcream sashes and frames,and polished black doors,giving a well-kept 1ook, wassupposed to suggest that theowner had always lived inthe house, having alterednothing. The use of a yellow,red or green door was felt toexpress a new arrival.

In terms olhistorical pre-cedent. there is little justi-fication for such a monochro-matic approach. However.with the "quiet" colours cha-racteristic of traditional leadpaint no longer readily avail-abie, and the seemingly infi-nite range of modern paintcolours that one is facedwith, it is no easy matter to choose withconlidence. The result is often a well-cared-for house with over-bright or rather garishpaintwork (Fig 5).

Of course, colour is a contentious issue,and any discussion is likely to lead to an em-ersence of the two schools those who fav-our variety and individual free-expression,

2-An exarnple of ttsanding", where fine writing sand was cast onto thepainted surface while it was still wet, giving the appearance of stone

and the others who orefer a sembiance ofunity and order. The bne wiil draw attentionto a house, with brightly coloured front doorand distinctly painted fagade, the other willsuppress this urge and give consideration tothe uniformitv of the street.

This article is slartins from the ratherpresumptuous notion that a restrained use of

House painters of the past used an astonishing uariety of rnaterialsrfrorn blood to road dust, to achieuespecial effects, but their basic palette rentained rernarkably unchanged between the lBth century and1950s-afact oftenforgotten by house ozeners atternpting to recreate historic schentes today.

3-Early colour charts. Until the 1960s there were few changes in the colours used in exterior painting. Early colour cards are a usefulaid in establishing the range ofthose in use, and the narnes given to thern

a darker colour, Two colours

r ---ElFil].'t.:\|:l:|i|l\'.,'..,.E|EFE|E|E€g|E|f='.!E1::.],l,]ii.l]ilI:'j:-iia.'e been considered $

-?EwEffiElEEE|Eigr4E|4|e=*!!r)||l.n|e-nl'n\\'n.n1en-LrruuSrr rrrlJ \vdD Il.al.|ronlstl.a|g|lt-!i@iiffiiiiE|.=F@€[F|#FtiIEl$$FE!i^l,i'.li],,.')..',]..?;,'.lorwarcl, and doors Irvere oftcn given two I

:#r rf =lll-ll-#ff1irr i'!!!,=,!!E,.exterror surlaces rs Iffi#E=- I l---r I'll]=r--Eilfalse, and based on $,,,^,arrdar\^r ^,,a^i ffi|"

-,€==i

I I t ll#FGfl5ffili 1n,,,'an,e,,'^,,,r.nc

tet.ottir.ale\\.\.eal.s.g!--ry=IElI-|l|.'i+'*ie|f!F'-'sllp.o,..i,,,.1,..,,i.o-An account of 1771 &

ffiilffit- G*Hffi [t, l-ffi roo "";;; irs; iiyear the gloss is go".e^ |rn tl-re iourth rl iyou rub the paintingrvith your finger, it

100 years (Figs B

and 11). The invis-ible green was moreWltn yOUr llnger, It IDlc glccrl was lllorc

rviil come off iike'so 4 and 5-The colour of the woodwork and railings in Fournier Streeto Spitalfields, London, .qenarally used onmuch dust.,, follows historical precedent but the colours in nearby Wilkes Street (right) do not $arden gates and

Lonsevitv was railines, and a formnot assufred, and the durability of a modern creamy o{I-white), lead colour (a blue-grey), can still be seen on the signboards in thepaint might i,r'ell have been welcomed by chocolate, olive gre en and invisible green. Royal Parks. It r'vas a favourite of Humphryju*"r CrEase, a London paint manulacturei Nearly 50 years 6ter, exactly the sanie col- Repton, andrvas so named as it "harmohisesivho, in 1808, rvas recommending that ex- ours are referred to as being in general use, rvith every object, and is a background andterior "rails, gates etc (to) be done in three and, apart from the appeara,nce of B_runs- foil to the foliage.of fields, trees, and plants,vears at least'i. wick green in its various forms (Fies 6 as also to flowers".' A rvork of about 1811 lists the colours and 7), little had changed by the death of As Dr Ian Bristow has indicated in a

lor outside painting as white, stone colour (a Queen Victoria. recent article for the Spitalfields Historic

Buildings Trust, darker colourshad beeun to appear on externalioinerv" towards' the end of theiBth ienturv. and were to con-tinue for many years. From the1 820s, painted iniitations of wood,in particular, oak or wainscot col-oui, br-rt also mahogany, and bothhiehlv varnished, .ime to be usedoriexternal doors and sashes. Ex-amples of more recent grainingcan still be seen. and in Edin-bureh, for instance, the art is stillpractised to a high standard. IanCow has suggestFd th.at the prac-rice of hansinq curtains over lhefront door-, w:hich would haveborne the brunt of the weather,has extended the life of thegrained finish, leading to thesurvival of this technique (Fie 9).

Turnins Lo ironwork, the use ofblue misht seem an unusual choicefor the-railinss in the FournierStreet house lFig a). I{owever,blue was regarded as a prestiuiouscolour on ironwork in the -l 7rhand I Bth centuries, and its use hasbeen found by Dr Bristow on anumber of ociasions. Whether itwas used much on domestic townbuildings is debatable, as it wouldhave been at least two or three

times the price of the more commonly usedlead or stbne colour. both of which wouldhave been the more usual choice.

Equally, smalt, a cobalt glass pigment.described as being the most "glorious colourin the world'', r,iould appear an unlikelypisment for the paintin'e'of early exterioriro-"nwork. Not oniy was iiexpensive. but themethod of applitatiott *is particularlylabour-intensive. and troublesome whencontendins with ihe elements. To apply it,the surface would have been painted withwhite lead and, while still racky. dusted overwith the blue, before being stroked with a

soose quill to make the glassy particles lieto*n. bespite the prestiEe assciciated withsuch an effect. it w-as admitted that it wasonlv "the most lovely blue of all others" ifseen from a distance,'and experiments witha modern smalt have shown how uneven theresult can be (Fig 10).

From the 17-30s onwards, it was inevi-table that the recently discovered Prussianblue would have taken over to a larse extentfrom smalt for its ease of applicaiion andeven finish. The aesthetic appeal of a green-blue rather than a purple-blue seems to havelargely been influenced by technical factors,

,' and doubtless the latter hue be-came highly unlashionable.

Dur:ins the first half of the' 19th centuiv certain colours were

considered -ot. upp.opriate thanothers for the paintirie of iron.

,' Repton describes this cleariy, de-crying the use oilead colour for its.ereniblunce to an inlerior metal,

: and white and sreen to Painted, wood, adding ".". . but if we wish

it to resembie metal, and not aP-, pear of an inferior kind, a pow-' dering ofcopper or.gold dust on

a green ground, makes a bronze.an-d perhaps it is the best colour ofall ornamental rails of iron."

This bronze colour was achie-ved using a number of quite d1&.-ent.recip?s. some producing a bluepatinated form, some rather ereeneriFie 6; and both either dustdd withbronze oowder or not. It was nolrestricte'd to ironwork, being foundon doors and shutters, too.

With regard to the fagade itself,many survivine lease agreementsrell us that whiie the ouGide wood

' and ironwork tended to be painted"twice over with good and properoil coiours" durinlg the first'haliolthe 19th century. the stucco was tobe "re-coloured.and re-jointed in

imitation of Bath stone". The colour of thestucco was not to be varied, "but always tobe kept in imitation of Bath stone"'

This treatment and that of sandins havebeen described bv Dr Bristow in Traniactionsof the Association for the Study andConservation of Historic Buildings. Theformer was usually carried out in a wash ofcopperas, or ferrous sulphate, and lime. "ex-ecilied with.judgement, and finished-withtaste. so as to produce a picturesque effect".Furthermore; the stucco was Iiied in imi-tation of blocks oIstone, and "promiscuously

touched with rich tints of umber". lFigs I

(To't) 1-Hand-painted colour chart showing (clockwise frorn_ 1op feftJ .1.._lt, Prussian blue, bronze greenr purple brown, lightir,,lrr*ick g"""1, invisible green, lead colouio Ltor.r" green. (Aboie left) 7-Light Brurrswick green and creatn painted woodwork,characteristic of the 1920s. 1fulaai"1B-Mid-lgth-century treatrnent of c-opperas-washed stucco . (Risht) 9-Walnut-grained front door

and B). Very occasion-ally, the effect of lichenor weather staining couldthen be superimposedusing the technique of"splaihing'', using 6lood.milk, or oil as a me-dium. However, thisform ofdeceit tended tobe reserved for "Gothicbuildings of a consid-erable size", or cottages,suggesting that it sawIittle use on the townhouse.

What the Gothic rc-vival architect A. W. N.Pugin thought aboutthese early Victorianpaint effects is not re-corded, although hisharsh comments aboutthe "restless torrent ofRoman-cement (stucco)men" are well knowrr.Perhaps it was the com-bination of his pressure,and the blackening cau-sed by the atmosphericpollution of a smok;city, that Ied to oil paintqradually replacing theferruginous washes.

. Although,the inten-tron was no longer todeceive the eye by sug-gesting blocks of un-evenly coloured stone,the stucco fagades oftown houses still tendedto be jointed, whilepainted in a uniformstone colour. Mid- 19th-century leases andpaintine schedules in-dicate ihat, with theappearance ofPortlandcement, the cooler greyof Portland stone col-oured paint came tobe seen alongside thatof the warmer Bathvariety.

References to thepracl ice. of,sanding ap-pear at the t,egrnnrng ofthe lBth century. andcan still be found insources from the middle ':.. ,

mas(ic-a form of ce-ment) were to be lightlysanded with Portlandstone dust to "corres-pond as nearly as prac-ticable with the colourof the Portland cementused on the walls". Thedesire was presumablyfor camouflage ratherthan the added protec-tion that this

-would

have offered, as thestonework of the porticowas to be treated in thesame way.

While in the earlyyears, protection of thesubstrate seems to havebeen a major factor inthe strewing of pow-dered stone) or moreusually, fine white, orwriting, sand (Fig 2), itappears to have beensuperseded bv the useol certarn proprretarypaints in the early l9thcentury.

Loudon refers tothe Anti-corrosion orLithic paint being pre-pared from groundglass bottles. the slagfrom lead-works, oreven burnt oyster-shells, and mixed withcolourins matter andlinseed o-il. One Lon-don colourman waseven using road dust,gra.ndlf. called Crotia,and wrth rt made a va-riety of greens, choco-late, black, lead colour,stone colour and abrowny red. Such wasits durability that whenapplied to iron. well-seasoneo LlmDer, ormasonry, it rarely re-quired renewal duringa man's lifetime. Painr-ers, as a result, "seldomrecommend it".

TechnoloSy, ofcourse, has removedmany of the earlier con-straints, and the idea ofa particular colour be-ing used to indicate sta-tus has gone. Nowadays,when one colour coststhe same as the next, the

equivalent is perhaps to choose withcare lrom thi'paleite of the past.

Photograpis:2-5, 7 13,' Gerr2Toung; 1 4, the author.

flhstrations: I, Gereml,t Butler/British Architectural Library, RIBA,London; 6, Papers and Paints Ltd.

14-A nurnber of layers of paintfound on sorne early-l9th-centuryrailings seen in cross-section underthe rnicroscope, an essential toolfor assisting with the interpretation

ofearly texts

of the next century.Alfred Bartholomew's (op) lO and ll-Late-l7th-century railing head painted with srnalt, and (rrgftt) rnid-Specffications for Practical 18th-century railing head in purple brown. (Aboae) 12 and l3-Regency ironworkArchitecture, of 1846, in- inbronze green, and(right\ early-l9th-centuryrailingheadpaintedininvisible greentriguingly refers to thepainting of .rainwater,pipes "toimitate stone", presumably not justin the ubiouitous "stone colour"that he usually referred to. Couldthis have implied the painterlyapplication of multi-colouredwashes, or the lexturing of thesmooth iron by the casting of drysand on to wet oaint?

The l865 soecification forworks to be carried out on one ofthe Pall Mall ciubs describes howthe dressings and cornices to allthe windows (which were all of