Numero oggetto
54/642
Descrizione
This heavy stone was used for crushing pigment into a paste to make wagon paint. Pigment would have been spread on a flat base stone, mixed with oil or water, and ground using the muller. This paint muller was used by the donor's father, who was a wheelwright and carpenter in Braishfield, Hampshire, and may have been used to make paint for wagons.
Descrizione fisica
1 paint muller: stone; good condition
Storico archivio
Letter, A. Frost to J. Higgs, 10th September 1954 - 'I read with interest your article in the current issue of the Countryman and note your query on page 165 and the picture of the two stones. A stone similar to these, called a muller, was used to grind paint. My father, who was apprenticed as a painter and plumber some 70 years ago, remembers how, during the winter, on a stone and muller the staff prepared the pigments as required during the busy season. The pigment was spread on a flat stone, mixed with oil or water. The muller was held in the left hand and worked in a circular motion, grinding the pigment between its flat base and the flat stone. The right hand held a palette knife which was used to scrape up the paste of pigment and keep it in the grinding area. The muller weighed several pounds and was "larger than half a large coconut with a flat base". Stones and mullers must have been used for this purpose for a very long period and by artists too, no doubt. The stone and muller was replaced by the iron hand driven paint mill, but the former could be found in country workshops till the end of the last century...'
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