Be sure what you’re getting. My only experience is with copper antifouling paint, which goes on copper-coloured but darkens to almost black over a season in the water. Copper, of course, is known for turning green. Some paints are ablative, i.e. very soft. They gradually wear away to expose more copper compound. (At the club I used to belong to, I spent several years on boat wash crew at haulout. The owners of boats with ablative paint would get very upset when the pressure washers would blast the paint off their hulls.) Moral—don’t leave your house out in the rain.
And as @Dr_Faustus says, most such paints are an environmental disaster.
Cool! We can read the actual book that H.F. Donnelly (the Victorian lad) was reading. Hayward was a prolific writer, but there is nothing to indicate that the book is a sequel. Thank you for that.
Ask any Anglophone medievalist what the biggest impediment is to better understanding of the Middle Ages, in any aspect, and the answer will usually be “The Bloody Victorians.”
On the Character of a Yellow Called Orpiment. Chapter XLVII
A color known as orpiment is yellow. This color is an artificial one. It is made by alchemy, and is really poisonous. And in color it is a handsome yellow more closely resembling gold than any other color. It is not good for use on a wall, either in fresco or with temperas, because it turns black on exposure to the air. It is very good for painting on shields and lances. A mixture of some of this color with Bagdad indigo gives a green color for grasses and foliage. Its tempera calls for nothing but size. Sparrowhawks are physicked with this color against a certain illness which affects them. And this color is, to start with, the most refractory color to work up that there is in our profession. And so, when you want to work it up, put the amount you want onto your stone; and, with the one which you hold in your hand, proceed to coax it, little by little, so as to squeeze it from one stone to the other, mixing in a little of the glass of a broken goblet, because the powder of the glass attracts the orpiment to the roughness of the stone. When you have got it powdered, put some clear water on it, and work it up as much as you can; for if you were to work it for ten years, it would constantly become more perfect. Beware of soiling your mouth with it, lest you suffer personal injury.
On the Character of a Yellow which is Called Realgar. Chapter XLVIII
A yellow color known as realgar is yellow. This color is really poisonous. We do not use it, except sometimes on panel. There is no keeping company with it. When you want to work it up,[48] adopt those measures which I have taught you for the other colors. It wants to be ground a great deal with clear water. And look out for yourself.
Orpiment (As₂S₃) and Realgar (α-As₄S₄) are both arsenic sulphides. DO NOT LICK THE PAINT.
Too bad that the French didn’t have that to paint the Statue of Liberty with. It would have been harder to obscure the point of it. (The broken shackles should have been enough. )
The “skin” isn’t painted or plated, it is plates of copper, 2.4 mm thick, shaped using the repoussé technique. And while copper was chosen over bronze or stone due to its lower cost, weight, and ease of transportation, Bartholdi had more than enough experience as a sculptor to know that
a) it would turn green and
b) the patina would provide a protective layer against corrosion and weathering.
Anything that can’t be a surprise is arguably part of the design.
Both her original glowing copper color, and her later lovely verdigris patina are gorgeous. She must have looked so interesting while her color was changing.
I caught a bit of a routine by an actor/writer/comedian associate of Andy Warhol. He was V funny, and had a particularly great line. “There’s a great big lesbian out there in New York Harbor, and she’s carrying a torch for somebody!”
Presumably, given the audience of the magazine, they are referring to this book…
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