The Manufacture of Painter's Colours and Varnishes

Abstract

THIS work is intended for those who are more immediately interested in the manufacture of painter's colours and varnishes; and the author, as he says in his preface, has in the treatment of his subject endeavoured to combine theory and practice by giving a short account of the theory of the processes which he describes. Considering the range of the work and the great number of subjects dealt with, the information thus afforded is necessarily here and there somewhat scanty, and hardly sufficient to work upon. At the same time it appears to us that the bulk of the book might with advantage have been reduced by leaving out most of the elementary chemistry, with which nowadays we must suppose anyone would be thoroughly familiar, who intended to embark on colour-making. A colour-maker ought, above all things, to be a thorough chemist if he wishes to succeed;, and those who merely rely on the working of their stock of receipts, secret processes, and rule-of-thumb directions, will have but little chance of success in the future. The author, in his desire to make his work as complete as possible, has also given undue space to the description of numerous colours and processes which are now obsolete, and to others which attracted only a transient interest when issued from the Patent Office.

Painter's Colours, Oils, and Varnishes: a Practical Manual.

By George H. Hurst (London: C. Griffin and Co., 1892.)