A Time in History: Recreating an 1830s Watercolor Box and Portfolio

This is something I definitely never thought I'd be making as I've never was into painting or drawing. I received very little instruction in these mediums and they never particularly appealed to me. But as I am striving to educate myself to the extend of a highly educated woman in the 19th century (due to living history personas' education levels-I have to be able to pass as one of them while in character! It's not like living historians get a script!), art was on my list of things to learn. As such, I needed a pretty little box to store art supplies. A short trip down research lane landed me with several options.

Hygra.com, 1829-1830
This one is especially neat as the artist's paintings
are still with the set!

Hygra.com, 1830-1840

Hygra.com, 1799-1816

Aren't they cute? I opted to make mine look more like the last one. I bought a simple walnut box off Amazon, a little smaller than the originals, but the same proportions. It doesn't have a drawer so I had to build a tray with extra wood. I also bought the locking system and key from Amazon. The stain and sealer were left over from another project. It turned out cute!

For the interior, I chose two glass cups that I already had, some decent sable hair brushes (I made sure they had wood handles and I ended up painting over the company name on the handle to give it more of a period feel without the modern company name on them), various erasers, and a few phials to put ink into. I also ordered another bone pen and a set of nibs as well as a mixing tray (sold on Ebay as a dental tray) and some charcoal sticks. I am still in the market for a flat porcelain mixing tray. The only ones on the market are wood or plastic!

Then it was time for the paints. Here are the receipts I used.

The watercolor base is 1 cup HOT water, 1/2 cup gum arabic, and 1/4 cup honey. 1/2 teaspoon of glycerin can be added to reduce cracking. Mix until the gum arabic is completely dissolved (this can take about 15-20 minutes or longer).

The basic 'recipe' for the pigments that fit into my tray consists of 2 spoonfuls of watercolor base (called 'mix' in the recipes below) and 3 spoonfuls of pigment.

1. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp chalk

2. 2 tsp mix + 2 tsp ginger + 1/2 tsp chalk

3. 2 tsp mix + 2 tsp brilliant yellow + 1 tsp chalk (this came out too light-I'd suggest going all 3 tsp with the yellow)

4. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp orange ochre

5. 2 tsp mix + 2 tsp narcoat mica powder + 1 tsp chalk

6. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp raw sienna

7. 2 tsp mix + 1/2 tsp acid dye tobacco leaf + 1 drop vinegar + 1 1/2 tsp chalk

8. 2 tsp mix + 2 tsp violet ochre + 3/4 tsp chalk

9. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp smoked paprika + 1 tsp chalk

10. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp acid dye cayenne red + ¼ tsp vinegar + 2 tsp chalk

11. 2 tsp mix + 1/4 tsp acid dye cabernet + 2 tsp chalk

12. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp shine red mica + 1 tsp chalk

13. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp cochineal + 1/2 tsp vinegar (this was before lake pigment, just using ground up bugs)

14. 2 tsp mix + 1/2 tsp acid dye sour apple + 1/2 tsp vinegar + 3 tsp chalk

15. 2 tsp mix + 1/4 tsp acid dye moss green + 1/4 tsp vinegar + 3 tsp chalk

16. 2 tsp mix + 1/4 tsp fiber dye granny apple + 1/8 tsp salt + 2 tsp chalk

17. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp dark green mica + 1 tsp apple green mica + 1 tsp chalk

18. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp terre verde + 1 tsp chalk

19. 2 tsp mix + 1/4 tsp acid dye wedgewood blue + 2 tsp chalk

20. 2 tsp mix + 1/4 tsp acid dye peacock blue + 2 tsp chalk

21. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp French turquoise + 2 tsp chalk

22. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp cobalt purple mica + 2 tsp chalk

23. 2 tsp mix + 1 stick charcoal

24. 2 tsp mix + 1/8 tsp indigo + 2 tsp chalk

After mixing them into the silicone tray, I put them to dry. You can do this by air drying (avoid sunlight) or if you're impatient like me, in the oven. I stuck mine in at around 150 or 200 degrees F. I left mine in the oven overnight to dry and they turned out well. Don't put them any higher than 200 as I tried 250 and my paints turned out holey and airy, and misshapen/burnt when I put them at 250 for 2 hours. Lower for longer is better. Here is the color key chart for how these recipes turned out:

After this first attempt, I tried making lake pigments, which is just taking a liquid dye and reducing it to powder form using alum and washing soda (which is one way to do it). I made lots of lake pigments-including from natural things such as cochineal (which was suppose to yield a red but I ended up with purple), beetroot (an ugly gray color if you can believe it), and cabbage (blue, green, or purple depending on how much alum I added to the mix). I also used the Dharma trading dyes and make lake pigments but I would like to continue to experiment with this. I only ended up using one of my Dharma lake pigment paint blocks in my final box as I managed to burn most of them on 250 degrees F.

For my final 12 blocks, here is the color template of the colors:

From left to right, here are the recipes.

1. 2 tsp mix + 2 tsp brilliant yellow + 1 tsp chalk

2. 2 tsp mix + 3/4 tsp acid dye tobacco leaf + 1 drop vinegar + 1 1/2 tsp chalk

3. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp orange ochre

4. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp raw sienna

5. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp red mica powder

6. 2 tsp mix + 1 stick charcoal (I didn't grind up the charcoal very well so it's lighter than the first batch)

7. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp lake pigment made from Dharma's acid dye wedgewood blue

8. 2 tsp mix + 1/2 tsp acid dye peacock blue + 2 tsp chalk

9. 2 tsp mix + 1 tsp dark green mica + 1 tsp apple green mica + 1 tsp chalk

10. 2 tsp mix + 1/4 tsp fiber dye granny apple + 1/8 tsp salt + 2 tsp chalk

11. 2 tsp mix + 3 tsp terre verde

In addition to the box, I also made a portfolio to carry around my finished pieces and extra papers. It is made with book board covered in leather on the outside and marbled paper on the inside. I glued it all together with PVA bookbinding glue. Then drilled holes to insert a lovely silk ribbon. You see these types of portfolios a lot in paintings and fashion plates being used as an easel to draw upon.