paint identification #2

[plasticpigeon]

Does anyone know when arsenic paint stopped being used please??? My house was built in 1903 and I'm not sure what colour the external woodwork was originally. It is painted green at the mo and I like that colour so I am continuing to use it. I thought the external wood colour might have been black or very dark green originally. This is because when I stripped the back door frame the colour under the modern plastic green paint was black. However when the black was taken off (which seemed like the only colour coat), the wood had a dark green residue of paint left on it. However, when I stripped a lintel on the back window, the colour painted onto the brownish primer (red lead??) was quite a bright green. I am now worried that the paint on the external woodwork may have been an arsenic based pigment. I shall put up a photo later. I painted over the lintel immediately with an undercoat, but I fear I have already stripped the back door frame and a couple of windows that were either black or dark green underneath, and now I'm not too keen to go on. I am especially hesitant about stripping the bay window which really needs to be stripped as all the paint is flaking off, but I haven't a clue what is underneath. There seems very little info on the web other than that Emerald green was invented in the early 19th century and phased out nearing the end of the century, but I'm sure that doesn't mean it wasn't available and wasn't used used in 1903. Maybe I should get it tested. Does anyone have advice for this please???

 

[88v8]

Interesting.
And this oooer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele's_Green
Must you strip it? If I had sound old paint on the house - arsenic, lead - I'd be very pleased and certainly not looking to remove it.
If you must, wear a mask. :shock:

Ivor

 

[Svenedin]

It seems fairly unlikely to me that if it was an arsenic paint it would still be on your exterior woodwork. Many decorators/painters burn off paint back to bare wood when repainting flaking paint and if yours has survived for over 100 years outside then that would be extraordinary. I have some bright green paint underneath multiple layers on a window that was once outside but is now protected by a loggia and I think mine is 1960s at the earliest. My house is also 1903 and I have found black, blue and green on the external woodwork but I don't think any of it goes back far enough to guess at the original colour.