Help with understanding old painting techniques

[Mark P]

Good Evening to all who read this;

 

I would be very glad to receive any help from users of this forum who have knowledge of old painting techniques. I have come across the following terms, and if anyone can explain how each was done I would be very grateful.

 

1: Revailing. Example 'laying with a light colour and revailing with brown'. 

2: Rebiske. Example 'for working with a rebiske in diverse colours'. Diverse I take to indicate more than 2 colours.

3: Flother work. Example 'painting the ceiling with flothered work'. Don't have a clue what this might mean. Flother is apparently an old word for a snowflake, but this would seem a bit unlikely in this context.

 

All the best,

 

Mark 

[bruce d]

I can help with 'flothered': it means the painted ornate fiddly bits.  The term was still in use by coachbuilders up to 1900ish.

[iMustBeCrazy]

Flotherwoode seems to be fake wood grain.

 

Queen Elizabeth employed Leonard Fryer to decorate the long gallery at Oatlands with a woodgrain pattern in 1598. He primed the panelling with white lead paint and then painted imitation "flotherwoode", with gold and silver highlights on the mouldings, with arabesque patterns and paintwork of "markatree", perhaps resembling marquetry.

 

So, ornate paintwork seems to be the theme.

[Mark P]

Thank you both, Bruce & Craig.

 

Still a lot to learn!

 

All the best,

 

Mark 

[druxey]

Ah! 'Flother' did not come up with anything to do with paintwork, but 'flotherwoode' was mentioned in records of the Globe Theatre (1597-98):

 

Leonard Fryer was paid for 'pryming and stopping with white leade all the wenscott about the gallery and after leying the pannelles and battens of the same with sondrye Cullours curyously grayned with a grayne called flotherwoode.' 

 

This implies a very specific grain pattern. Quoted from Shakespeare's Globe Rebuilt, Mulryne and Shewring, page 136.

[Mark P]

Well, thank you indeed, Druxey;

 

How on Earth did both you and Craig find these tidbits?

 

So it is a particular pattern of graining, which it seems can be done with a variety of colours. 

 

Interestingly, Leonard Fryer was Sergeant painter to Elizabeth I, and is listed in the accounts for 1599 as being paid £103, a very considerable sum then, for painting the Warspite following her repair in dry dock. 

 

Thank you again. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

Edited October 24, 2023 by Mark P

[bruce d]

Next to last paragraph.  This definition is new to me.

flother.pdf

Edited October 24, 2023 by bruce d

[druxey]

Bruce: funnily enough I had wondered whether 'flodder' might be a variant form of 'flother', but the foam/flood idea made no sense on this context. All I could think of, in painters' language, was 'flogging' where a loose-haired brush is 'flogged' onto the painting surface for a decorative effect. Thank you for this additional reference and insight.

[bruce d]

15 hours ago, druxey said:

Bruce: funnily enough I had wondered whether 'flodder' might be a variant form of 'flother', but the foam/flood idea made no sense on this context. All I could think of, in painters' language, was 'flogging' where a loose-haired brush is 'flogged' onto the painting surface for a decorative effect. Thank you for this additional reference and insight.

Me again.  It is interesting that the term seems to refer to a specific pattern in some examples.  In coachbuilding (see my comment in post #2) it covered the practice of painting a panel or area with a pattern/motif.  The text below is closer to this usage.

 

 

HTH

 

[Mark P]

Thank you Bruce; 

 

And many thanks indeed to all those who have spent time searching for answers to my queries. This has been a great help, and is much appreciated.

 

All the best to all of you,

 

Mark P