dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

Figure 3. “A useful play!” is the title of this advertisement
from the 1930s. Letting a child paint with nitrocellulose enamel
would certainly not be considered responsible today!
Is reconstruction possible?
An exact reconstruction of an industrially produced
paint, which is more than a few decades old, is
probably never possible. However, if a reconstruction
through using correct binding media, pigment and
extender is considered acceptable, there is a chance
of succeeding.
As shown above, most binders and pigments were
invented in the first half of the century. Interestingly,
most of the binders mentioned were common during
the 1950s and 1960s. Those were the years when
the use of old materials gradually declined and new
products gained popularity on the market. With
regards to reconstructing a painted surface from the
last three to four decades of the twentieth century, it
is thus possible to use many of the available paints
being produced today.
But which type of paint from the first half of the
twentieth century is most important for Den Gamle
By? Especially the oleo-resinous oil enamel paint is
of high interest for reconstructions, because it was
widely used in 1927. See Figure 4. However, it is
not as easily prepared at the workshop as ordinary
linseed oil paint. This is due to the high temperatures
involved in melting the copals. Furthermore, an
industrial production results in a more uniform
product. The Danish paint producing factory,
Boesens Fabrikker ApS, has specialized in making
small batches, tailored to the customer’s need.
They have indicated that reconstruction of paint
from the first half of the twentieth century is indeed
possible, as long as a proper paint formulation is at
hand. This poses a serious problem, because most
of the remaining paint factories from that time
have not saved their old formulations. Usually,
explanations such as “we moved location” or “we
merged with another company” are used to justify
why the archives have been discarded. Some have
deliberately shredded old formulations as soon
as they were out of use, probably to protect their
secrets from leaking to rivals. The Danish National
Business Archives unfortunately only received
very little material, and nothing regarding paint
formulations. Only one company, the important
Dyrups, has indeed kept the old paint formulations,
but they are temporarily packed away, and while
working on this presentation it has not been
possible to see that archive. If indeed Dyrups keeps
a formulation, which is suitable for use, there can
be no way of ensuring its representativity, due to
the limited availability of formulations. Yet the aim
must be “better one than none”.
Broadening the search for old paint formulations has
lead to an interesting “recept-bok”, from Sweden,
written by hand in the 1890s [25]. Some of the paint
recipes of that book have been printed by Johansson,
including four recipes for oil enamel. As an example,
the oil enamel paint of zinc green could either be of:
25% pigment, 4% boiled linseed oil, 0.25% drier
171