Purple Brown is of a reddish-brown color. It should be used with boiled oil—and a little varnish and driers for outside work.
Burnt Sienna is produced by burning raw sienna. It is the best color for shading gold.
Brown Pink is a vegetable color often of a greenish hue. It works well in water and oil, but dries badly, and will not keep its color when mixed with white lead. Spanish brown and brown ochre are clays colored naturally by various oxides.
Reds.—Carmine, made from the cochineal insect, is the most brilliant red color known. It is, however, too expensive for ordinary house painting, and is not durable. It is sometimes used for inside decoration.
Red Lead.—This color has already been described on [page 11].
Vermilion.—This is a sulphide of mercury in a natural state as cinnabar. The best comes from China. Artificial vermilion is also made both in China and in this country from a mixture of sulphur and mercury. Genuine vermilion is very durable, but when mixed with red lead, as it is sometimes, it will not stand the weather. It can be tested by heating in a test tube; if genuine it will entirely volatilize. German vermilion is the tersulphide of antimony, and is of an orange-red color.
Indian Red.—This color is a ground hematite ore brought from Bengal; it is sometimes made artificially by calcining sulphate of iron. The tints vary, but a rosy hue is considered the best. It may be used with turpentine and a little varnish to produce a dull surface, drying rapidly, or with boiled oil and a little driers, in which case a glossy surface will be produced, drying more slowly.
Chinese Red and Persian red are chromates of lead, produced by boiling white lead with a solution of bichromate of potash. The tint of Persian red is obtained by the employment of sulphuric acid.
Venetian Red is obtained by heating sulphate of iron produced as a waste product at tin and copper works. It is often adulterated by mixing sulphate of lime with it during the manufacture. When pure, it is often called “bright red.” Special tints of purple and brown are frequently required, which greatly enhance the value of the material. These tints should be obtained in the process of manufacture, and not produced by mixing together a variety of different shades of color. When the tint desired is attempted to be obtained by this latter course it is never so good, and the materials produced are known in the trade as ‘faced colors,’ and are of inferior value.
Rose Pink.—This is made of a sort of chalk or whiting stained with a tincture of Brazil wood. It fades very quickly, but it is used for paperhangings, common distemper, and for staining cheap furniture.