Palette Of The Past - Exterior Painting

PALETTE OF THE PAST b1

PATRICK

BATY

x*J*x a typical scherne for an early-l9th-century town house. The stucco walls have been treated with a copperas wash, the ironwork is in various shades ofgreen and the verandah canopy is painted in stripes

l-Watercolour showing

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

colour, possibly based

the older house, and especially one forming part of an architectural group. A little knor'viedge of the use ofpairrt and colour in the past should limit the tendency to overgild the lily, which is often prompted by an erroneous understanding of historical

quite suitable for a green or quietly coloured door. but woe betide the Bayswater or Earl's Court house that tries it." Sixty years ago, Basil

Ionides' recommendation that such houses should be painted with either white or cream sashes and frames, and polished black doors, giving a well-kept 1ook, was supposed to suggest that the owner had always lived in the house, having altered

precedent.

nothing. The use of a yellow, red or green door was felt to express a new arrival. In terms olhistorical precedent. there is little justification for such a monochro-

matic approach. However. with the "quiet" colours characteristic of traditional lead paint no longer readily availabie, and the seemingly infi- 2-An exarnple of ttsanding", where fine writing sand was cast onto the nite range of modern paint painted surface while it was still wet, giving the appearance of stone

colours that one is faced with, it is no easy matter to choose with and the others who orefer a sembiance of exterior conlidence. The result is often a well-cared- unity and order. The bne wiil draw attention for house with over-bright or rather garish to a house, with brightly coloured front door and distinctly painted fagade, the other will paintwork (Fig 5). Of course, colour is a contentious issue, suppress this urge and give consideration to and any discussion is likely to lead to an em- the uniformitv of the street. This article is slartins from the rather ersence of the two schools those who favour variety and individual free-expression, presumptuous notion that a restrained use of

orr

historical precedent) is a useful guide for the repainting of

Tn simplified terms. the paintwork of the exterior can be broken down into three areas: the r'r oodr,r ork, ironwork and the fagade itself. A tour of the Spitalfields area, in London's East End, reveals much about our notions ofwhat colours arc corrsidered appropriate lbr the exterior of an I Bth-century town house. The example in Fournier Srreet lFig 4) demonstrales rr ell a carefullv re-

."ifr.f searched lreatmenl "f the three elements. While exceptions to the rule existed,

sashes and frames would have been

an off-white or a pale creamy "stone colour" with no picking out of mouldings. The brash

brillianiwhite. and the blue of-the house in Wilkes Street qFig 5, would not have been technicallv possible. even if desired. lhe doorcase would have marched the sashes, and the door itselfwould have been in

past used an astonishing uariety of rnaterialsrfrorn blood to road dust, to achieue special effects, but their basic palette rentained rernarkably unchanged between the lBth century and 1950s-afact oftenforgotten by house ozeners atternpting to recreate historic schentes today.

House painters of the

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

Two colours

a darker colour,

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An account of 1771

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year the gloss is go".e^

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i ffiilffit-

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roo 100 years (Figs irs; iiB and 11). The invisglccrl was more lllorc ible green IDlc finger, It it rvith yOUr Wltn your llnger, rviil come off iike'so 4 and 5-The colour of the woodwork and railings in Fournier Streeto Spitalfields, London, .qenarally used on follows historical precedent but the colours in nearby Wilkes Street (right) do not much dust.,, $arden gates and railines, and a form Lonsevitv was not assufred, and the durability of a modern creamy o{I-white), lead colour (a blue-grey), can still be seen on the signboards in the paint might i,r'ell have been welcomed by chocolate, olive gre en and invisible green. Royal Parks. It r'vas a favourite of Humphry ju*"r CrEase, a London paint manulacturei Nearly 50 years 6ter, exactly the sanie col- Repton, andrvas so named as it "harmohises ivho, in 1808, rvas recommending that ex- ours are referred to as being in general use, rvith every object, and is a background and terior "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, wick green in its various forms (Fies 6 as also to flowers". least'i. vears ' Aatrvork As Dr Ian Bristow has indicated in a of about 1811 lists the colours and 7), little had changed by the death of recent article for the Spitalfields Historic lor outside painting as white, stone colour (a Queen Victoria. tl-re iourth rl you rub the painting

rn

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Buildings Trust, darker colours

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had beeun to appear on external

ioinerv" towards' the end of the iBth ienturv. and were to continue for many years. From the 1 820s, painted iniitations of wood, in particular, oak or wainscot coloui, br-rt also mahogany, and both hiehlv varnished, .ime to be used

oriexternal doors and sashes. Examples of more recent graining

can still be seen. and in Edinbureh, for instance, the art is still practised to a high standard. Ian Cow has suggestFd th.at the pracrice of hansinq curtains over lhe front door-, w:hich would have borne the brunt of the weather, has extended the life of the grained finish, leading to the

'

considered

,' : , , '

survival of this technique (Fie 9). Turnins Lo ironwork, the use of blue misht seem an unusual choice

for the-railinss in the Fournier Street house lFig a). I{owever, blue was regarded

prestiuious

as a -l colour on ironwork in the 7rh

and I Bth centuries, and its use has been found by Dr Bristow on a number of ociasions. Whether it was used much on domestic town buildings is debatable, as it would

have been at least two or three

and doubtless the latter hue became highly unlashionable. Dur:ins the first half of the 19th centuiv certain colours were

'

-ot.

upp.opriate than

others for the paintirie of iron. Repton describes this cleariy, decrying 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 aPpear of an inferior kind, a powdering ofcopper or.gold dust on a green ground, makes a bronze. an-d perhaps it is the best colour of all ornamental rails of iron." This bronze colour was achieved using a number of quite d1&.ent.recip?s. some producing a blue patinated form, some rather ereener iFie 6; and both either dustdd with bronze oowder or not. It was nol restricte'd to ironwork, being found on doors and shutters, too. With regard to the fagade itself, many survivine lease agreements rell us that whiie the ouGide wood and ironwork tended to be painted "twice over with good and proper oil coiours" durinlg the first'haliol the 19th century. the stucco was to

be "re-coloured.and re-jointed in

(To't) 1-Hand-painted colour chart showing (clockwise frorn_ 1op feftJ .1.._lt, Prussian blue, bronze greenr purple brown, light ir,,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 of the times the price of the more commonly used soose quill to make the glassy particles lie imitation of Bath stone". The colour to "but always varied, not to be was stucco prestiEe with assciciated bespite the to*n. would lead or stbne colour. both of which such an effect. it w-as admitted that it was be kept in imitation of Bath stone"' have been the more usual choice. This treatment and that of sandins have Equally, smalt, a cobalt glass pigment. onlv "the most lovely blue of all others" if in Traniactions described as being the most "glorious colour seen from a distance,'and experiments with been described bv Dr Bristow Study and for the Association of the the how uneven have shown smalt a modern an unlikely in the world'', r,iould appear Conservation of Historic Buildings. The pisment for the paintin'e'of early exterior result can be (Fig 10). From the 17-30s onwards, it was inevi- former was usually carried out in a wash of iro-"nwork. Not oniy was iiexpensive. but the method of applitatiott *is particularly table that the recently discovered Prussian copperas, or ferrous sulphate, and lime. "exlabour-intensive. and troublesome when blue would have taken over to a larse extent ecilied with.judgement, and finished-with contendins with ihe elements. To apply it, from smalt for its ease of applicaiion and taste. so as to produce a picturesque effect". the surface would have been painted with even finish. The aesthetic appeal of a green- Furthermore; the stucco was Iiied in imiwhite lead and, while still racky. dusted over blue rather than a purple-blue seems to have with the blue, before being stroked with a largely been influenced by technical factors,

tation of blocks oIstone, and "promiscuously

touched with rich tints of umber". lFigs

I

mas(ic-a form of ce-

and B). Very occasion-

ment) were to be lightly

ally, the effect of lichen

sanded with Portland stone dust to "corres-

or weather staining could

then be superimposed using the technique of

pond as nearly as prac-

"splaihing'', using 6lood. milk, or oil as a me-

ticable with the colour of the Portland cement

form ofdeceit tended to be reserved for "Gothic buildings of a consid-

desire was presumably

used on the walls". The

dium. However, this

for camouflage rather than the added protection that this -would have offered, as the

erable size", or cottages, suggesting that it saw

stonework of the portico was to be treated in the same way.

Iittle use on the town house.

What the Gothic rcvival architect A. W. N.

While in the early years, protection of the substrate seems to have

Pugin thought about these early Victorian paint effects is not recorded, although his

been a major factor in

the strewing of powdered stone) or more usually, fine white, or writing, sand (Fig 2), it appears to have been superseded bv the use ol certarn proprretary paints in the early l9th

harsh comments about the "restless torrent of Roman-cement (stucco) men" are well knowrr. Perhaps it was the combination of his pressure, and the blackening cau-

century.

sed by the atmospheric

Loudon refers to the Anti-corrosion or Lithic paint being prepared from ground glass bottles. the slag from lead-works, or even burnt oystershells, and mixed with colourins matter and linseed o-il. One London colourman was even using road dust, gra.ndlf. called Crotia,

pollution of a smok;

city, that Ied to oil paint qradually replacing the ferruginous washes. . Although,the inten-

tron was no longer to deceive the eye by suggesting blocks of unevenly coloured stone, the stucco fagades of town houses still tended

to be jointed, while painted in a uniform

and wrth rt made a variety of greens, chocolate, black, lead colour,

stone colour. Mid- 19th-

century leases and

paintine schedules indicate ihat, with the appearance ofPortland

stone colour and

cement, the cooler grey of Portland stone col-

oured paint came to be seen alongside that

of the warmer Bath

variety.

ers, as a result, "seldom

References to the

recommend it".

pracl ice. of,sanding appear at the t,egrnnrng of

TechnoloSy, of

course, has removed

the lBth century. and can still be found in

middle of the next century. ':.. Alfred Bartholomew's (op) sources from the

a

browny red. Such was its durability that when applied to iron. wellseasoneo LlmDer, or masonry, it rarely required renewal during a man's lifetime. Painr-

many of the earlier constraints, and the idea of

,

a particular colour bell-Late-l7th-century railing head painted with srnalt, and (rrgftt) rnid- ing used to indicate staSpecffications for Practical 18th-century railing head in purple brown. (Aboae) 12 and l3-Regency ironwork tus has gone. Nowadays, Architecture, of 1846, in- inbronze green, and(right\ early-l9th-centuryrailingheadpaintedininvisible green when one colour costs the same as the next, the triguingly refers to the equivalent is perhaps to choose with painting of .rainwater,pipes "to care lrom thi'paleite of the past. imitate stone", presumably not just Photograpis:2-5, 7 13,' Gerr2 in the ubiouitous "stone colour" lO and

that he usually referred to. Could this have implied the painterly

Toung;

1

4, the author.

flhstrations:

I,

Gereml,t

Butler/

application of multi-coloured washes, or the lexturing of the

British Architectural Library, RIBA,

The l865 soecification for

found on sorne early-l9th-century railings seen in cross-section under the rnicroscope, an essential tool for assisting with the interpretation

smooth iron by the casting of dry sand on to wet oaint?

works to be carried out on one of the Pall Mall ciubs describes how the dressings and cornices to all

the windows (which were all of

London; 6, Papers and Paints Ltd.

14-A nurnber of layers of paint

ofearly texts