Florentine lacquer
Florentine lacquer is a red lacquer that was traditionally used in painting. There are different recipes that all have the red color in common.
Colours
The Florentine lacquer is always red, depending on the composition, however, nuanced purple and sometimes bright red. It got its name from its origin in Florence, from where it was first traded. In the course of time there were other recipes and trade names such as ball lacquer , Viennese lacquer , Munich lacquer , Paris lacquer and, as a variant, Brazil wood lacquer .
Manufacturing
Florentine lacquer was originally made from cochineal , which was cooked with alum and potash until the red carmine pigment has settled ( laking ). The pigment was sold as a solid or powder and mixed with a binder as a lacquer as required . The "Spurious Florentine color" has been of a decoction of Roth woods ( Fernambukholz manufactured), which one iron-free hydrochloric acid is added until the decoction is yellow. The most beautiful Florentine lacquer is obtained by felling with zinc oxide . The wash-out water must not be calcareous and has often been acidified with hydrochloric acid. There are other dyes made from wood.
use
Florentine lacquer has to be very light, delicate and easily friable. The sales name Colombinlack referred to pigment, which was traded in small square pieces through Venice . The paint could be lightened by adding permanent white or kaolin . Florentine lacquer was the basis for the development of Berlin or Prussian blue . Contamination of the precipitate caused the unplanned color change.
literature
- Pierer's Universal Lexicon . Volume 6. Altenburg 1858, p. 362. zeno.org
- Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. Volume 6, Leipzig 1906, p. 701. zeno.org