Pigment analysis of a wallpaper from the early 19th century:: Les Monuments de Paris

In this work the analysis of a wallpaper from 1812 that was found in a palace in the Basque Country (Spain) is presented. The wallpaper represents a beautiful view of Paris and it is considered one of the most important wallpapers ever manufactured. The determination of the pigments present in the work was achieved using a Raman microprobe spectrometer, resulting in a completely non-destructive analysis. All the colour shades observed in the wallpaper were manufactured with the pigments red, iron oxide yellow, iron oxide Prussian blue, Scheele's green, minium (Pb3O4), CaCO3, lead white, carbon black, vermilion (HgS), raw sienna and burnt sienna. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.