lime wash , wattle and daub and wall paper.

[robgil]

i peeled some wallpaper of my ceiling today and found what looks like pale toothpaste blue limewash , has anyone ever seen pale blue lime wash before? its also on the old rendered walls down stairs that we uncovered today boxed in behind some hard board.
i also peeled some paper off the infills between the rafters and found some light brown stuff underneath , i think it may be wall paper paste , is there any way to remove this without disturbing the daub?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The blue stuff keeps flies away, apparently

 

[robgil]

The blue stuff keeps flies away, apparently

really? i didnt know that. it didnt stop them from covering it with wood chip wallpaper though , pesky flies.
is it lime wash then or something else?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I thought it was a "well known fact"

It could be limewash as fast blue dyes were available from the middle of the C19

 

[robgil]

it does ring a bell , i might have read it on here?
i am not 100 percent sure what lime wash looks like , this is the ceiling in question but i cant believe its not been painted over in all those years.

edit - not a great photo but it is a very pale blue.

 

[Penners]

fast blue dyes were available from the middle of the C19

Presumably making the job quicker?

 

[robgil]

i have been reading up on my limewash this morning. i thought this might be of interest.

* When limestone is burnt in a kiln just over half is converted to lime. The rest escapes as carbon dioxide or monoxide.
* Lime has been used in Swedish lakes to neutralise the effects of acid rain.
* The showbiz phrase ‘in the limelight’ comes from when theatres were lit by lime lamps.
* The Romans believed newly made limewash should be left for seven years before use.

also , this is quite interesting to read with your morning cuppa.

http://www.openairclassroom.org.uk/Further%20information/information-lime.pdf

 

[DaveBrigg]

We were told that blue discouraged the flies, although it is because of something in the pigment rather than the flies having an aversion to Everton. Every harvest time, in the garden, the corn flies always make straight for a blue plastic slide. The Victorian Farm series suggested that a popular detergent for clothes was blue. As well as making the washing appear clean, it could also be added to limewash to produce a cheap alternative to mineral pigments.

 

[robgil]

so , it could be that the ceilings and some of the kitchen in my house haven't been painted since Victorian times?
or i suppose the previous owner might have liked sky blue as a colour.