Paint palettes

Date: 1200-1300

Illuminators and scribes ground their own pigments or purchased the ingredients in a prepared form from a stationer or apothecary. Various additives were used to modify colour, texture and opacity, and prepared mixtures were kept in oyster shells which were not only plentiful in medieval London, but could be easily cleaned, stacked, stored and transported. Several of these palettes, retaining traces of pigments derived from lapis lazuli and iron, lead and copper minerals, have been recovered from monastic sites in London.

Accession number: MedWeb005

Place of collection: Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard EC2 [City of London]; Merton Priory, Station Road SW19

Material: shell; pigment

Measurements:

Gallery location: Case 23

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