A painted swatch of Bone black:
Brief description of Bone black:
Bone black is blue-black in color and fairly smooth in texture and also denser than lamp black. It contains about 10% carbon, 84% calcium phosphate and 6 % calcium carbonate. It is made from charring of bones or waste ivory. It was used from antiquity until the 19th century. Ivory Black is therefore the least pure form of carbon black, containing a high percentage of calcium phosphate.
Names for Bone black:
| Pronounciation: | bone blak | ||||||
| Alternative names: | ivory black, bone charcoal | ||||||
| Non-English names: |
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| Color Index (C.I.) | PBk 9 | ||||||
| Chemical name: | calcium phosphate + calcium carbonate +carbon |
Source of Bone black:
This charred bone has been identified as an astragalus, one of the ankle bones, of a fossil hippo. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol.
Example of use by artists:
Rembrandt loved bone black
Rembrandt, portrait of Phillips Lucasz, National Gallery, London.
Studies of several paintings by Rembrandt using the technique of neutron activation autoradiography have shown the widespread use of the bone black in the initial wash-like sketch over the ground layer. Unusually, unmixed bone black pigment was used to paint the darkest parts of the clothing in the portrait of Phillips Lucasz.
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