Every man his own painter: a collection of receipts, 1836.

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Every man his own painter: a collection of receipts, 1836.

Includes directions for making various colors of paint (olive green, invisible green for outdoor work, chocolate, cream, mahogany, fawn, free stone, black, etc.), gold size, different kinds of varnishes (common oil, resin, gold colored for tin, bright, etc.), for making cements to repair glassware and china, crayons, milk paint, whitewash, inks, and stains. Otis also included instructions on how to do landscape painting on walls (how to paint and situate mountains, ocean, trees, etc.) and what colors to use in painting certain rooms in a house (bedrooms were to be light and cheerful, libraries solemn and grave, etc.). He copied Thomas Sully's directions for painting portrait heads and landscapes; said how to do "Italian painting" (affixing a print onto glass); listed articles necessary for painting; and summarized how he made transparent blinds and screens and horn paper. In addition to all the recipes and articles relating to painting, Otis also provided guidelines for preparing such food and drink as fruit preserves, green corn pudding, artificial oysters, tomato catsup, and cheap beer; as well, he copied Anna C. Johnson's strawberry preserve recipe from her Travels to Germany. Finally, Otis wrote down some recipes and included household hints clipped from newspapers. At some later point, someone, perhaps a member of the Sills family, whose name appears in the volume, used blank pages for figuring math problems.

1 v. (57 p.) ; 20 cm.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7155693

Winterthur Library

Related Entities

There are 4 Entities related to this resource.

Otis, A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hn4tw4 (person)

A. Otis may have been an intinerant painter working in New England. From the description of Every man his own painter: a collection of receipts, 1836. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 261232961 ...

Sills family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm2bv1 (family)

JOHNSON, ANNA C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64j1cjp (person)

Sully, Thomas, 1783-1872

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pv6mgn (person)

Artist Thomas Sully was born in London, although his actor parents soon emigrated to the United States. A trip back to England to study painting expanded his horizons, and upon his return to the United States he developed a reputation as a first rate painter. He specialized in portraits, especially portraits of women, and painted full-length portraits of many public and private figures. He is perhaps most closely associated with his portrait of Queen Victoria and for his painting, Washington cro...