Hand Color

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Old Paper, New Artists

The Reintroduction of Hand-tinting

PaperMatch is pleased to offer fine hand tinting of an assortment of materials. The watercolor sheet you see here is taken from a children's book of the late 19th century. It is typical of our focus: We highlight significant aspects of the picture without attempting to cover and redo what has already been done beautifully before us.

Modern Tinting @ US$45

Let us know your particular interests and we will try to match those interests.

 

The Way It Was

Hand coloring was standard operating procedure until chromolithography established its dominance in the middle of the 19th century. Here is a typical hand colored print from the Museum of Natural History collection. Hummingbird
Interestingly, these procedures were used not just used in expensive productions for the rich.

Here you can see an example taken from a children's Scripture Alphabet.  

Noah
If you look at the sheet carefully, you will see that each picture and letter is handpainted.

Hand tint closeup

Because these materials were designed for daily use by everyday people, they had to be produced quickly and inexpensively.

As you can see from the enlargement above, each letter was probably painted with just a few brush strokes. An entire picture could be painted in just several brush strokes.

The work was typically done by women, and for low wages.   

 

Mary

The result? Art that people could use. Art that people could afford. Art that reflected its owners' passions and interests.

Sounds good to us!

 

 

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