Re: California Vermillion, Quicksilver and Cinnabar
Re: Wow, who knew! This sealing wax article is fascinating... -- beadiste Post Reply Edit Forum Where am I?
Posted by: jrj Mail author
04/09/2015, 14:33:46

Just throwing the following in the mix: Quicksilver or mercury ore mined in New Almaden, CA, was referred to as cinnabar. Quicksilver is a term also used for red lead-based materials (perhaps erroneously) and the word vermillion was sometimes used for red-lead based materials. I've read about mid-19th century red-brown paint (used in CA) referred to as California Vermillion and have assumed this to be red lead based paint, although perhaps per the below some may be mercury ore-based coatings. (A difference between coatings and molding compounds could be thickeners added to solidify the materials once the vehicles had evaporated.)
1) Red lead-based pigment vs. quicksilver-based pigments: https://books.google.com/books?id=hmpHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=california+vermilion+paint+red+lead&source=bl&ots=uGa0w1S3W5&sig=aZGg4mKaFqx0K6qFPVnfgr5KojM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GuomVb-CNIPpoASHyoGwDQ&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=california%20vermilion%20paint%20red%20lead&f=false
2) Quicksilver or red mercuty ore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Almaden
3) This site suggests red lead-based pigments and quicksilver-based pigments were interchangeable: http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/redlead.html

JRJ

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