Vintage watercolour palette sleuths/historians wanted
August 22, 2024 6:10 PM Subscribe
I was gifted a Reeves watercolour palette that once belonged to my late great-aunt. I want to know more about it!
I've searched eBay/Pinterest/DuckDuckGo for photos of the same palette, but come up empty handed. I emailed the company to find out more info about it, but they, sadly, could not answer my question. Maybe you can?
Here are photos of the palette and it's packaging.
Here's what I know:
- It's a "Reeves' Students' Colour Box No. 54 B" from Reeves & Sons Ltd.
- It was made in England, but may have been purchased in Canada
- The colours I can make out are: Crimson Lake, Cobalt Blue Tint, Prussian Blue, Chrome Yellow Pale, Burnt Sienna, Vermillion Mid Tint, Green Bice, Vandyke Brown, Gamboge Tint, Brown Madder, Chinese White, Ultramarine, and Sepia.
- My mother has no recollection of her aunt painting, so this palette has probably been untouched for many decades.
I would love to know how old the palette is, and the names of the obscured paints, but welcome anything else you may know about it.
I've searched eBay/Pinterest/DuckDuckGo for photos of the same palette, but come up empty handed. I emailed the company to find out more info about it, but they, sadly, could not answer my question. Maybe you can?
Here are photos of the palette and it's packaging.
Here's what I know:
- It's a "Reeves' Students' Colour Box No. 54 B" from Reeves & Sons Ltd.
- It was made in England, but may have been purchased in Canada
- The colours I can make out are: Crimson Lake, Cobalt Blue Tint, Prussian Blue, Chrome Yellow Pale, Burnt Sienna, Vermillion Mid Tint, Green Bice, Vandyke Brown, Gamboge Tint, Brown Madder, Chinese White, Ultramarine, and Sepia.
- My mother has no recollection of her aunt painting, so this palette has probably been untouched for many decades.
I would love to know how old the palette is, and the names of the obscured paints, but welcome anything else you may know about it.
I have no actual info, just a curious question - since it's watercolors, have you considered taking a barely-dampened q-tip and seeing if you can wipe off the paint that's obscuring the color names? (That you don't wish to change anything at all is a totally valid reason not to, I was just curious if you'd even thought about trying it.)
posted by stormyteal at 8:15 PM on August 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by stormyteal at 8:15 PM on August 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
Best answer: National Gallery Art Materials Research Center You could send the snapshot of your set to this research center listed and they could probably give you a date on the set.
It's a student set, pan color, Reeves was originally a French company. On student sets, companies make up names for pigments that are cheaper and manufactured to imitate more expensive pigments. Some of the pigments like vermillion (mercury) and gamboge (poison tree sap) are toxic and have been taken out of the modern palette.
I could guess at some of the pigments by sight, but it takes painting out a thin layer of the pigment and seeing how it behaves as it dries and a lot of experience with pigments to really distinguish the difference. Some pigments may not be lightfast and will change color on exposure to light.
I hope this is helpful.
posted by effluvia at 8:36 PM on August 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
It's a student set, pan color, Reeves was originally a French company. On student sets, companies make up names for pigments that are cheaper and manufactured to imitate more expensive pigments. Some of the pigments like vermillion (mercury) and gamboge (poison tree sap) are toxic and have been taken out of the modern palette.
I could guess at some of the pigments by sight, but it takes painting out a thin layer of the pigment and seeing how it behaves as it dries and a lot of experience with pigments to really distinguish the difference. Some pigments may not be lightfast and will change color on exposure to light.
I hope this is helpful.
posted by effluvia at 8:36 PM on August 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
Best guess on Reeves colors, based on their other similar sets and my own history (50+ years) with watercolor:
Top from left
Yellow ochre, crimson lake, prussian blue, burnt sienna, vermilion tint, vandyke brown, brown madder, ultramarine blue
Bottom from left
Burnt umber, cobalt blue tint, cobalt yellow pale, sap green, gamboge tint, Chinese white, ivory black
This is an old set as you know, and student grade paint is very fugitive so the colors will probably not have the intensity or texture as new. I think it’s the memories that’s most important here.
posted by artdrectr at 8:41 PM on August 22, 2024 [6 favorites]
Top from left
Yellow ochre, crimson lake, prussian blue, burnt sienna, vermilion tint, vandyke brown, brown madder, ultramarine blue
Bottom from left
Burnt umber, cobalt blue tint, cobalt yellow pale, sap green, gamboge tint, Chinese white, ivory black
This is an old set as you know, and student grade paint is very fugitive so the colors will probably not have the intensity or texture as new. I think it’s the memories that’s most important here.
posted by artdrectr at 8:41 PM on August 22, 2024 [6 favorites]
It's pretty similar to this sort of thing available today , just not from Reeves. agree with artdrectr that burnt umber, yellow ochre (the lighter of the two on the left) etc might be good guesses.. but .. meh.. try it out and make a swatch on some printer paper or any white paper and compare it swatch to swatch to the Windsor newton colors I linked to ..
these pigments/colors are very universal - you will see these names in oil paints, pastels, etc etc - they are not unique to Reeves. The set should be good to play around with if you like to paint, that's a fun gift : )
does your town have an urban sketchers group ? maybe this is your sign !
posted by elgee at 2:30 AM on August 23, 2024
these pigments/colors are very universal - you will see these names in oil paints, pastels, etc etc - they are not unique to Reeves. The set should be good to play around with if you like to paint, that's a fun gift : )
does your town have an urban sketchers group ? maybe this is your sign !
posted by elgee at 2:30 AM on August 23, 2024
Best answer: I wasn't able to find your exact palette, but I did find a website that sells antique paint boxes, they may be familiar with this set.
posted by ananci at 5:42 AM on August 23, 2024
posted by ananci at 5:42 AM on August 23, 2024
Best answer: I think some things to look at in dating the set are the Wikipedia - where it states that Reeves & Sons was acquired by another company in 1974, making it likely that packaging would also carry that other company's name and thus that your aunt's set is before that year - and the material of the pans themselves - are they plastic or are they ceramic? I can't find the reference again but manufacturers seem to have switched from ceramic to plastic pans in the 1940s.
I'd guess it's a contemporary of this palette, given that the actual palette case is very similar - see the raised Reeves mark on the bottom flap readable from that angle, whereas on others, it's backwards - and the label for the case with the colours on it is identical in style and includes significant overlap of colours (though fewer in number) except for two, which may be a couple of the obscured ones on your set - Chinese White, Gamboge Tint, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine, Vermilion Mid Tint, Burnt Sienna, Crimson Lake, Green Bice, Ivory Black. That the palette includes Green Bice, which is a pretty uncommon colour in palettes nowadays, since it's not a very effective green, probably also indicates that it's on the older side. That listing says that it is "probably around the 1920s", though who knows whether that person knows for sure or not.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:48 AM on August 23, 2024
I'd guess it's a contemporary of this palette, given that the actual palette case is very similar - see the raised Reeves mark on the bottom flap readable from that angle, whereas on others, it's backwards - and the label for the case with the colours on it is identical in style and includes significant overlap of colours (though fewer in number) except for two, which may be a couple of the obscured ones on your set - Chinese White, Gamboge Tint, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine, Vermilion Mid Tint, Burnt Sienna, Crimson Lake, Green Bice, Ivory Black. That the palette includes Green Bice, which is a pretty uncommon colour in palettes nowadays, since it's not a very effective green, probably also indicates that it's on the older side. That listing says that it is "probably around the 1920s", though who knows whether that person knows for sure or not.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:48 AM on August 23, 2024
Response by poster: Thank you all for your wonderful sleuthing and information! You've given me some fantastic leads I'd not have found on my own.
urbanlenny, I think you're right that the palette you linked to is a contemporary of my great-aunt's palette. The pans in the palette look the same. I'm fairly certain they're plastic, which helps narrow down the potential time period.
I plan to swatch all of the paints in the palette, including the lump of paint covering some of the labels. I'll also be reaching out to the National Gallery Art Materials Research Center that effluvia linked to and to the seller of antique paint boxes that ananci found with my photos of the palette & it's packaging to see if they have any information about it.
Thank you all so much!
posted by burntflowers at 5:59 PM on August 23, 2024
urbanlenny, I think you're right that the palette you linked to is a contemporary of my great-aunt's palette. The pans in the palette look the same. I'm fairly certain they're plastic, which helps narrow down the potential time period.
I plan to swatch all of the paints in the palette, including the lump of paint covering some of the labels. I'll also be reaching out to the National Gallery Art Materials Research Center that effluvia linked to and to the seller of antique paint boxes that ananci found with my photos of the palette & it's packaging to see if they have any information about it.
Thank you all so much!
posted by burntflowers at 5:59 PM on August 23, 2024
Art materials companies change the pigments in their ranges all the time based on availability of new pigments, health and safety, and environmental issues, so the National Gallery will be a great source for knowing what pigments were used during certain date windows.
Reeves is an English company, not a French origin company; I was thinking of LeFranc, both of them are now owned by Colart, a large art materials manufacturer, and Reeves is their student brand.
When the pigment is listed as "Cobalt tint" for example, the company typically has replaced the expensive metal pigment with a coal tar based synthetic like phthalocyanine. The tint may match cobalt, but the actual coal tar pigment will behave very differently in color mixes.
The earth pigments are cheap and reliable, so Burnt Ocher, Yellow Ocher, Bunt Umber are usually very similar between student and artist ranges.
"Chinese" White is zinc (metal) white, has a blue shade undertone and is much more transparent than Titantium White, which is modern and used for building space through opacity.
Most pan watercolors are formulated with glycerine and may have dried out a bit due to age, so it will require some scrubbing to get them to come back to life. If you are interested in flowy, large washes, it's much easier to work with tube color which are formulated for washes and save the pans for detail. If you do decide to use the set, be careful not to eat or drink while working with them and wash your hands really well after using them.
posted by effluvia at 7:36 PM on August 23, 2024
Reeves is an English company, not a French origin company; I was thinking of LeFranc, both of them are now owned by Colart, a large art materials manufacturer, and Reeves is their student brand.
When the pigment is listed as "Cobalt tint" for example, the company typically has replaced the expensive metal pigment with a coal tar based synthetic like phthalocyanine. The tint may match cobalt, but the actual coal tar pigment will behave very differently in color mixes.
The earth pigments are cheap and reliable, so Burnt Ocher, Yellow Ocher, Bunt Umber are usually very similar between student and artist ranges.
"Chinese" White is zinc (metal) white, has a blue shade undertone and is much more transparent than Titantium White, which is modern and used for building space through opacity.
Most pan watercolors are formulated with glycerine and may have dried out a bit due to age, so it will require some scrubbing to get them to come back to life. If you are interested in flowy, large washes, it's much easier to work with tube color which are formulated for washes and save the pans for detail. If you do decide to use the set, be careful not to eat or drink while working with them and wash your hands really well after using them.
posted by effluvia at 7:36 PM on August 23, 2024
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