Regional Variations of Traditional Folk Houses Plaster Pigments in South East and Central Moravia, Czech Republic

Abstract

Colouring of folk houses, its variations in time and sorts of pigments used has been very little explored in the region of interest so far. The paper shows the results of the investigation of twenty four coloured plaster and render samples from six object from two ethnographic regions of Moravia, Czech Republic. Polarizing microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were the principal analytical methods were. The results show that all the blue colours were due to ultramarine application, red one was caused by industrial by-product of iron processing and the yellow one by ochre. The deep green was due to organic synthetic pigment, whereas the lighter shades due to green earth, a natural glauconite clay in these cases. Based on the examined set of samples, no qualitative difference in the composition of pigments were found between South Eastand Central Moravia. In both the regions not only lime but also plaster or Paris or a mixture of both the material was used to produce plasters and renders in the past.