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Description: | CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT ULTRAMARINE R. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW (printed and written on a gummed label) 3.2.18 (old collection number written on a small gummed label) MANU Unsigned. circa 1850 This is one of a series of three stoppered glass jars containing varieties of synthetic ultramarine. This variety of synthetic ultramarine is the form of rose coloured pigment. Both natural and synthetic ultramarine are complexes of silica, alumina, soda, and sulphur.
Natural ultramarine, which is made from the semi-precious gem lapis lazuli, is a very expensive pigment. During the Renaissance when it was at its mosr fashionable it was more expensive than gold. It was used from the 6th century as a pigment obtained from Afghanistan where its primary source is still found today. The pigment was used in Europe for illuminating manuscripts and for paintings.
In about 1787 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) reported his observation of a blue deposit on the walls of lime kilns near Palermo in Italythat were used as a substitute for lapis lazuli. Similar blue deposits were taken from the Saint Gobain glassworks by one M. Tessäert who reputedly found them in a soda furnace. Tessäert gave his blue samples to Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829) and in 1814, Vauquelin published his findings that the material was similar in composition to the costly lapis lazuli in the Annales de Chimie LXXXIX, "Note sur une couleur bleue artificiale analogue a l'outremer".
In 1824, the Societé d'Encouragement offered a prize of six thousand francs to anyone who could produce a synthetic variety not to exceed three hundred francs per kilo. In 1828, the prize was awarded to Jean Baptiste Guimet (1795-1871) who submitted a process he had developed in 1826. Guimet's ultramarine was sold for four hundred francs per pound natural lapis lazuli in comparison cost about four thousand francs per pound.
Christian Gottlob Gmelin (1749-1809), at the University of Tubingen discovered a slightly different method based on the analytical results of Désormes and Clément which he published only one month after Guimet. By about 1830, Guimet's ultramarine was being produced at a factory that he opened in Fleurieu-sur-Sone, France. F. A. Köttig at the Meissen porcelain works in Germany was also producing ulytramirine using Gmelin's method by 1830. | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | SCIENTIFIC COLLECTION : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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