Red Lead

Ingredients

lead carbonates, white lead

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Produced by firing lead carbonates such as white lead; partial oxidation results in red tetroxide (p. 89).

Evidence

"Red lead has been identified in all the Shāhnāma manuscripts in this study. It is applied to flowers, clothes, architectural details, and other motifs mostly as a red-orange colour and some time has been mixed with other colour materials to create brown colour."

Remarks

Also called Minium or 'suranj' in Persian. It was popular for its low price and ease of preparation but can be confused with cinnabar in XRF if white lead is also present (p. 89).