Pigment identification of a rare 18th century wallpaper from Buffon library

A rare 18th century wallpaper depicting a basket of flowers has been recently discovered in the building where Buffon, the famous French Naturalist, had established his Library and written a large part of its ‘ Histoire Naturelle’ . The wallpaper fragments were analysed and some pigments identified: gypsum, calcite, carbon black, vermilion and lapis lazuli; a blue/green organic compound was seemingly used to dye the paper. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.