Friday 5 October 1660

Office day; dined at home, and all the afternoon at home to see my painters make an end of their work, which they did to-day to my content, and I am in great joy to see my house likely once again to be clean. At night to bed.


4 Annotations

First Reading

Mary  •  Link

The painters.

Their work is finished after a bare week of working in the house. This must mean that they have applied a simple wash to the walls (either lime-wash or a simple colour-wash) rather than aiming for any fancy paint effects. Undoubtedly we shall hear more about wall-hangings soon.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

The painters
SP may be jumping the gun on this one. L&M forecasts that he won't be done with them until Christmas Day.

Eric Walla  •  Link

Paint to wallhangings ...

... plus we've been treated to a new bedroom set for Elizabeth, so I would imagine we'll find the discussion for a full house of furnishings. I wonder how far he will describe his desire to impress and entertain ...

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"A still extant example of 17th-century house oil painting is Ham House in Surrey, England, where a primer was used along with several undercoats and an elaborate decorative overcoat; the pigment and oil mixture would have been ground into a paste with a mortar and pestle. The process was done by hand by the painter and exposed them to lead poisoning due to the white-lead powder." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain…

But in Pepys's government housing on Seething Lane, methinks Mary is right.

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