A note on schifergrun

In the sixteenth century a very high price was paid for the green pigment 'schifergrun'. In later writings on artists' materials the interpretation of the term is contradictory. This study, based on the evaluation of documentary sources and analytical results, concludes that in the sixteenth century 'schifergrun' was used to describe a natural precipitate formed from water containing copper and which was predominantly spherulitic malachite. As late as the nineteenth century this pigment was produced in large amounts in the Carpathian mountains in Slovakia and exported to Vienna.