Pigments through the Ages

              
/ em • ruhld   green /
Emerald green 
 
   

     
 

  1.  Overview  
  2. History
of use
 
  3. Making the
pigment
 
  4. Technical
details
 
  
  How Emerald green is made:
        
Artificial variety of pigment
Reaction of sodium arsenite with copper(II)-acetate.
19th century recipe
Dissolve in a small quantity of hot water, 6 parts of sulphate of copper; in another part, boil 6 parts of oxide of arsenic with 8 parts of potash, until it throws out no more carbonic acid; mix by degrees this hot solution with the first, agitating continually until the effervescence has entirely ceased; these then form a precipitate of a dirty greenish yellow, very abundant; add to it about 3 parts of acetic acid, or such a quantity that there may be a slight excess perceptible to the smell after the mixture; by degrees the precipitate diminishes the bulk, and in a few hours there deposes spontaneously at the bottom of the liquor entirely discolored, a powder of a contexture slightly crystalline, and of a very beautiful green; afterwards the floating liquor is separated.

  The ground pigment:   
        
Pile of ground Emerald green:
Bottle of (poisonous) Emerld Green

(Source: Deutsches Museum, Munich)


Other greens        
(intro) - Cobalt green - copper resinate - Emerald green - Green earth - malachite      
verdigris - viridian        

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