Peculiar Paints

In a former chapter of this life, I dabbled in interior design and historic preservation so it should come as no surprise that I would become fascinated in paints that have unusual histories. I have been keeping Arsenic Green and Haint Blue in the back of my mind as a blog post, but it wasn't until a character in Neil Gaiman's short story "Black Dog" mentioned Mummy Brown that the post came together.

Farrow & Ball Arsenic No. 214

Arsenic Green is no longer made with arsenic. It was once called Sheele's Green and later Paris Green and it most definitely contained arsenic. The color was very popular in the nineteenth century and was used not only as wall paint, but to dye fabric, wallpaper, candles, and even toys. I've even read it was used as a food dye! People that were around it for any length of time became sick and some even died. There is a great blog post by The Pragmatic Costumer concerning this deathly color if you want to know more.

The Little House, Hilton Head Island

Haint Blue has a very murky past. If you've ever visited Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA you probably noticed that the porch ceilings are often painted with shades of turquoise and blue. If you look at most websites they will tell you that the word haint meant spirit or ghost in the Gullah/Geechee culture of that area and that the color Haint Blue helped to ward off evil spirits. It's a story everyone loves, but like most legends, the story of Haint Blue probably contains only some kernel of truth. The word haint is more likely germanic and Felder Rushing, whom I admire greatly, helps to make some sense of this legend in his post on Bottle Trees. An interview with a representative of the Gullah/Geechee Nation also has things to say about this legend, but for this blog post I'll just say that the story that has grown up around Haint Blue is fun and reality can be so boring. So paint away and keep the evil spirits at bay.

Mummy Brown Pigment

Mummy Brown paint has it's beginnings somewhere in the sixteenth century and one of the ingredients was ground up human and feline mummies from Egypt. Yep, you read that right. Mummy Brown had a rebirth (ha!) in the nineteenth century with the Pre-Raphaelite painters who apparently liked the tone and transparency. The Journal of Art in Society has an interesting post about the history of Mummy Brown which was manufactured well into the twentieth century. It's production stopped when they ran out of mummies. There is a funny story about painter Edward Burne-Jones learning that his brown paint was made from mummies and burying his paint tube with a proper funeral. Good stuff.