White lead

Ingredients

lead, vinegar fumes, carbon dioxide

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

To produce white lead, the materials must be exposed to vinegar fumes and then to carbon dioxide (p. 112). The pigment is artificial and obtained by synthesis from lead or from its ores (p. 112). It is also known as Persian sefeed-ab or sefeed-ab sheikh (p. 112).

Evidence

"Like others this study also identified lead white as the primary white phase and the main white mentioned in historic sources, which provided the recipe for its production"

Remarks

White lead was used as the primary white phase in all Shāhnāma manuscripts analysed (p. 112). It was used for architectural details, clothing, and flags, often mixed with other pigments to obtain lighter hues (p. 112). It is difficult to distinguish from bone white or gypsum using UV-Vis FORS due to high reflectance across the visible range (p. 113). In AKM 4, it was frequently mixed with ultramarine to create tones from dark blue to light blue (p. 114).