sepia toned images; stain loosely bound to the outmost fibers; iron gallate and carbon inks

Ingredients

iron gallate, carbon, gum Arabic, linseed oil, iron

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Iron gallate and carbon inks... could be made sufficiently viscous with gum Arabic, linseed oil or a number other binders to serve as suitable colorant for textiles (p. 9). The process is hypothesized to be a woodprint or woodcut where coloring matter is transferred via local curvature and pressure of a woodblock (p. 6). The author suggests the ink reacted with starch likely present in the cloth or mordants (p. 10).

Evidence

"The exact chemistry of the coloring agent is unknown but may result from several hundred potential recipes for ink or coloring matter and binders reacting with mordant preparation and starch impurities in the cloth and binders such as gum Arabic or linseed oil. The pervasive presence of iron is highly suggestive of iron gall ink."

Remarks

The image is described as 'stark and Gothic in appearance' (p. 3). It possesses a photographic negative property where normal contrast expectations are reversed (p. 3). The author argues that the image density resembles a halftone printing process whereas darker features contain a higher density of colored fibrils (p. 3). The presence of iron is noted as being 'abnormal' and 'uniformly embedded in the fabric' (p. 10). Unlike standard paintings, it is devoid of brush strokes and pigments do not penetrate the threads but remain on the top fibrils (p. 9).