Paint Analysis

Paint analysis is used, increasingly, in the restoration of historical buildings. There are two principal reasons for this: 

• to form an idea of how a room might have looked at an earlier time. The aim will usually be to identify the colour of a particular scheme, or to see whether techniques such as gilding, graining, or marbling had been used.
  
• To date a structure.  Facts known about the development of paint and pigments will often enable the specialist to work out a rough date for individual layers of paint.  Working alongside architectural researchers, the paint analyst can determine when or where changes have been made. The site of a blocked-in doorway; for example, can be identified, as can the rough date of a later chimneypiece. 

Analysis may also be used to record the earlier schemes before they are destroyed. The surface coatings may need to be removed because of a build-up of layers that obscure detail; because extensive removal needs to be carried out before major repair work can take place; or because poor preparation has revealed itself. Once the paint has been removed nothing can be learnt of the surface's original appearance. Paint analysis can provide this record. 

Whilst paint analysis is principally associated with the academic recreation of earlier schemes, or as an archaeological tool, it can also be used as an aid to design. Knowledge of the earlier schemes employed in a room of an historic building can often provide guidance and confidence in its redecoration, even if a slavish recreation is not required.

(Some tips on the commissioning of paint analysis can be seen in a recent article.)

There are three stages of Paint Analysis

1. The making of Cross Sections

2. Layering

3. Pigment analysis

The results will be presented as a Report.

(A lengthier account can be seen in: Patrick Baty, "The Role of Paint Analysis in the Historic Interior." The Journal of Architectural Conservation. March 1995: 27-37.)

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