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THE COLOURS OF CALKEAn article that appeared (with beautiful photographs by Lucinda Lambton) in The Worldof Interiors. December 2007. pp138-143.“Waste not Want not” - the adage painted above the fireplace in the Kitchen hints at thechaotic clutter at Calke Abbey [picture 1 - “Waste not Want not”]. However, it was agenetic tendency to reclusiveness combined with an obsession with collecting that led tothe slow and irreversible decline of the Harpur-Crewe family.Having upset the conventions of the eighteenth century by marrying a lady’s maid Sir Henry Harpur, the ‘isolated’ 7
th
Baronet’, lived in self-imposed seclusion. His great-grandson Sir Vauncey inherited his solitary nature and added hundreds of cases of stuffedcreatures to the already enormous collection. When Henry Harpur-Crewe handed over the house to the National Trust in the 1980s it was virtually as it had been a century before. Lucinda Lambton recorded this extraordinary house twenty years ago and thesewonderfully evocative photographs show the soft textures of the painted surfaces.The Trust has made essential repairs to the fabric of the house, but inside it tries to arrestthe inevitable process of decay and to present the building as found. They have yet toinvestigate the nature of the painted surfaces but most appear to be distempers, limewashes, and lead-based oil paints from the nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries.The Kitchen was fitted out in 1794, but was abandoned in 1928. The walls are coatedwith what appears to be distemper. This came in various forms, the “soft” variety being asimple combination of chalk and water with a small quantity of glue size made fromanimal skin, horn or hoof. The components were mixed warm and allowed to cool untilthe mixture had the consistency of “trembling jelly”. Sometimes a little alum and softsoap were substituted for the size in order to make it more resistant to abrasion.Alternatively the distemper could be bound by introducing oil or casein, a protein foundin milk and cheese. Unlike the simpler form, which was very permeable to moisturevapour, the “bound” varieties were less so and also tended to cause problems whencoated over by subsequent layers of paint. The blistering seen on the walls around thefire extinguisher bracket [picture 2 - metal hooks on yellow wall] suggests that we may be looking at one of these.The distemper has been tinted with yellow ochre, a colour frequently used in the earlynineteenth century for kitchens and service areas. It had the advantage of being cheapand readily available especially in a mining county like Derbyshire. Quantities of red andyellow ochre were certainly being dug up twenty or so miles away at Wirksworth and it islikely that ochres found on the Harpur-Crewe’s extensive landholdings were employed inthe house.The walls of the Kitchen however have not always been painted yellow, for just apparentin the twenty-year old photographs, and even more visible today, are patches of an earlier 1
 
violet-tinged blue - ultramarine. Originally produced from the semi precious stone lapislazuli this colour was not available in a synthesised form until the 1830s.The introduction of French Ultramarine, as the artificial variety was known, meant thatthis distinctive colour began to find its way into the decoration of houses. Its appearancein decorative schemes frequently marks the mid-nineteenth century and at Calke it canalso be seen in the wallpaper in Sir Vauncy’s boyhood bedroom. As well as making afashion statement there was also a theory that a blue-painted surface would discourageflies. This belief seems to have been held in many cultures although recent experimentshave failed to corroborate it.Unusually for a blue pigment, French ultramarine, was suitable for use in both oil andwater-based media, was non-fading, and unaffected by moisture. It was also resistant tothe alkaline nature of limewash which was frequently used in certain parts of the housefor its mildly antiseptic nature. For these reasons it is not surprising to see thiscombination of colour and medium in the Scullery; the Cook’s Closet and also in theGardener’s Bothy [pictures 3 & 4 - blue-painted walls].Other colours can be seen on the first floor at Calke. A well-worn soft distemper tintedwith yellow and red ochre to produce a fawn colour can be found outside the Schoolroom[picture 5 - pale pink-painted plaster]. Its unevenness and the fine cracks in theunderlying lime plaster give it the appearance of marble - far more convincing than theimitation marbling applied to the walls of the floor above.Large expanses of a brighter yellow distemper can be seen in several of the first floor corridors [picture 6 - yellow-painted plaster]. Unusually the pigment employed to produce this type of colour was termed
 pink 
, for until the nineteenth century such a namewas used to describe yellows produced from plant sources. A wide variety was availableand colourmen would employ such names as
 Brown Pink, Dutch Pink, English Pink 
or 
Yellow Pink 
. Frequently employed in distemper, the
 pinks
also saw use in the production of cheap wallpaper until the early twentieth century. This bright yellow distemper is juxtaposed with its complementary warm grey-blue on the upper walls of the first floor West Passage. The latter is very curious, for in different areas the colour shifts from greyto blue [picture 7 - mauve-painted plaster].The Lamp Room appears to display some of the earliest paint in the house [picture 8 -dull green cupboard doors]. The walls have been painted with an off-white softdistemper that has had a small quantity of black added to take off the inherent yellownessof the chalk. This combined with age has given it a distinct grey cast. The cupboarddoors are painted with a pale drab colour of such antiquity that the paint is showing signsof "Pentimento" a condition more frequently observed in old paintings where lead-containing pigments have become semi-transparent over time. This room was still in usein living memory as electricity was not introduced to Calke until 1963 and even then onlyin the principal rooms.2
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