Type of paint on 1920s lime walls?

[1920shouse]

Hi, I have a mid 1920s house near Bournemouth and have started stripping back the 4 layers of wallpaper and removing damaged picture rails and dado rails from the walls.

The walls are lime plastered and the original woodwork was stained and later painted with lead paint (the green below) before the walls were papered.

My question is what is the yellow coating on the walls likely to be? Distemper, some kind of limewash, some kind of clay paint, or a lead based paint? A damp cloth wipes a little colour off like wiping over modern emulsion does, but no more than that.






A close up of where it's pulled off with the wallpaper:


Left hand side has wallpaper still stuck to it


A final shot near the ceiling, this bit was covered by anaglypta above the picture rail and is preserved better.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

I'm sorry, but I am new to this forum and also period properties. I just wanted to say, how do you know the plaster is lime?
I ask because in my 1906 Edwardian house, this is the plaster that's coming off with the wallpaper - please see my thread with photos: https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/threads/is-this-blown-lime-plaster.18810/

the plaster on my walls looks like yours on photo 4 - this sort of chalky white with specs of grey. But when I scratch off the plaster, there's this grey stuff behind it.

 

[malcolm]

Not sure what the paint is but I found similar on a 1921 ceiling - kind of a thick eggshell paint. It wasn't breathable and had peeled off where the roof needed repairs. The ceiling had never been papered so far as I can see and hadn't been painted in 50 years or more. I was lucky I only had small areas to repair and a bit of filler did the trick.

Maybe someone will have an idea what it is.

 

[Stevers]

We have a fine white lime finishing plaster over a grey and dusty (but generally sound) lime base coat which is probably only one step removed from 'mud'. Lime plaster (and mortar) was pretty much the norm into the 1930s. Americans still 'mud' drywall!