A current project on London's Cafe Royal reminded me that I had a wonderful catalogue of paints that were manufactured in the 1930s and that might provide useful source material. Parsons' Decorative Finishes is...
READ MORE »Parsons’ Decorative Finishes (2) – Imitation Stone
Parsons’ Decorative Finishes (1) – The Book
The recent analysis of the original decorative schemes of London's Cafe Royal proved the worth of my many years specialist-book-collecting. It is always good to be able to demonstrate to my long-suffering wife that...
READ MORE »Soft Distemper
Soft distemper on the walls of this almshouse - Geffrye Museum Soft distemper (sometimes known as Calcimine) is a traditional water-based coating for plaster surfaces. As it allows the wall beneath to ‘breathe’...
READ MORE »Tor Royal, Dartmoor
Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt & Princetown Tor Royal was built in 1785-93 by and for Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt. He had been private secretary to the Prince of Wales until 1796, when he was elected to the House of Commons as...
READ MORE »A Tint Book of Historical Colours
SOME COLOURS FROM THE DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ARTS Pompeian and Etruscan Colours "Long Acre1 in the year 1802 was an ideal situation for a firm of colour and varnish makers, the neighbourhood being the cradle of...
READ MORE »Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours
Colour charts for use in taxonomic descriptions of plants and animals were published from the last years of the seventeenth century. The page above is one of thirteen in a wonderful little volume, whose second...
READ MORE »Edwinsford, Carmarthenshire
Edwinsford Exterior - From the National Monuments Record of Wales: © Mark Baker Those in the know might be puzzled as to why I have included what is clearly a ruin amongst the buildings that I have worked in. ...
READ MORE »Barnbarroch, Wigtownshire
In the early hours of October 23rd 1941 a blaze began in one of the bedrooms of Barnbarroch House, Wigtownshire. Servants, woken by the noise, raised the alarm. Some jumped from windows, seriously injuring...
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