Architectural Colour in British Interiors 1615-1840 and Interior House-Painting Colours and Technology 1615-1840.

Ian Bristow is an architect whose work on the composition and use of early paint, begun in the mid 1970s at the Institute for Advanced Architectural Studies at York, provided a new historical orthodoxy which has displaced the informed taste of decorators like John Fowler. This new orthodoxy is founded on proper analysis and the idea of a hierarchy of cost. Proper analysis means the use of chemical tests and spectroscopic study of actual paint samples instead of 'scrapes' to determine the colour and composition of paint used in the past. Hierarchy of cost means simply that until the twentieth century, paints made with exotic pigments like lapis lazuli cost a lot more than paints with earth pigments and were used more sparingly. Architectural Colour in British Interiors is a historical account of the way in which colours were used. Most of the discussion is based on examples at the top end of the social scale where the documentation is better. The text is enhanced by a large number of colour illustrations of historic interiors and decorative schemes. Substantial chapters cover the Wren period, the Palladians and the 'Adam' ceiling in all its manifestations - the treatment of these flat Neo-Classical ceilings has long been a decorators' battle-ground, it is a relief to have chapter and verse on Adam's intentions and practice.

Interior House-Painting Colours and Technology is instantly fascinating because of the very large amount of detailed information about production processes. Besides house-painting, Bristow also covers marbling, graining, varnishing, silvering and the painting of floor cloths. Together these volumes underline the fact that the recreation of historic interiors is a minefield in which the amateur can easily come to grief.