L. (lime putty - logwood)

Lime putty -  A thick lime paste used in plastering, particularly for filling voids and repairing defects. It is prepared by adding excess water to quicklime without ìdrowningî it, resulting in the formation of a soft, rather greasy mass of material.
Ashurst (1983); RS Means Building Glossary (undated)

Lime white - A fine, white pigment composed of calcium hydroxide, and calcium carbonate. Lime white is produced by the long-term slaking of lime in water or air to form a thick, white, alkaline paste. It was used for fresco painting because it hardens to form a cohesive film without the aid of a binder. Lime white reacts with proteins, such as egg white, or casein, to produce a tough, insoluble film.
Synonyms: St. John's white; bianco sangiovanni (It.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)

Limestone  CaCO₃  - A granular, sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite. Limestone is formed from compressed and cemented seashells and marine animal skeletons. It is softer and more easily worked than marble. Limestone is usually a cream to grey colour and varies in grain size and hardness.  Chalk is a porous, fine-grained limestone. Coquina is a soft limestone made up of shell fragments. Limestone is used as a building stone and for sculpture. It is also crushed into aggregate, or burned to produce lime. It is also used in the manufacture of cement.
Synonyms: Coquina
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000);  English Heritage (2000); RS Means Building Glossary (undated)

Limestone whiting - See whiting
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)

Limewash (whitewash, whiting) - Limewash is one of the simplest, but also one of the most effective, external ìpaintî treatments. It consists of a milk-like mixture of water and lime used to coat the exterior or interior surfaces of a structure. It has no added binding medium. Calcium oxide (quicklime) is made up as a slurry in water, and brushed directly onto the wall. As the water evaporates, the calcium oxide takes up carbon dioxide from the air and forms insoluble calcium carbonate. Slaked lime mixed with water will rub off rather easily. Traditionally, additional ingredients included glue, or size water, to bind and improve adhesion. Sometimes, common salt or calcium chloride would be added to tallow washes (Lime-tallow limewash) to assist the tallow to emulsify, and being hygroscopic would assist the carbonation of the lime on exposure. It is possible to tint limewash, using chemically inert pigments such as ochres and umbers, but limewashes are usually white.
Ashurst (1983);  Trench (2000); RS Means Building Glossary (undated)

Limewater -  An aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide produced by slaking lime. Limewater, is a colourless somewhat milky solution that is strongly alkaline even though calcium hydroxide is only slightly soluble in water. Limewater was used to saturate plaster before the application of secco colours.
Synonyms: calcium hydroxide; milk of lime; lime water
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)

Lincrusta Walton - The name of a relief-decorated wallpaper produced from the end of the 19th century in England in imitation of ornamental plasterwork. The paper was patented in 1977 by Fredrick Walton. It was made from a mixture of cotton fibres and linseed oil which, formed into a sheet, was passed between two metal rollers. The pattern was raised on one roller and recessed on the other, so that the material was forced into relief.
Trench (2000)

Linseed oil - A drying oil obtained from the seeds of the flax (Linum usitatissimum) plant. Linseed oil contains glycerides of linolenic (48-60%), oleic (14-24%), linoleic (14-19%), palmitic (6-7%) and stearic (3-6%) (Serpico and White 2000). The drying property is due to the unsaturated bonds in the linoleic and linolenic groups. Linseed oil is the most important and largely used oil for paints and varnishes. The yellow-gold colour oil is commercially extracted by various methods. The seeds can be crushed in hydraulic or screw-type presses to produce cold-pressed oil. The same process performed on steam-heated seeds produces hot-pressed oil. Cold-pressing is a less efficient manner for extraction, but it produces a higher quality artist paint. Many types of ageing, refining and bleaching procedures have been used to purify the oil and make it dry faster. Linseed oil produces a hard, insoluble film as it dries. It is used in paints, varnishes and synthetic resins. The application of oil, including linseed oil, to the surface of stucco marble has always been quite common in order to increase the gloss of an already well polished surface. 
Synonyms: flaxseed oil; linum oil; raw; cold-pressed; refined; stand oil; blown; bodied; boiled; sun-refined; sun-bleached; double boiled
Wittenburg (1999); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)

Linseed oil, boiled  - A processed linseed oil that has been heated (but not to its boiling point) to produce a medium that dries faster than normal. Often called linseed oil varnish, the oil is heated to 200*C for several hours. Small amounts of dryers, such as cobalt or lead salts may be added (see linoleate varnish). Boiled linseed oil dries with a high glossy sheen and is used for industrial paints and varnishes.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)

Litmus - A natural, blue dye extracted from certain lichens, such as Variolaria Roccella tinctorum or V. Lecanora tartarea. Litmus is water soluble and may have been occasionally used as a watercolour pigment. In alkaline solutions (above pH 8.3) litmus turns blue and in acid solutions (below pH 4.5) it is red. The neutral tint is violet. It is listed among the additional pigments used for colouring stucco marble in the nineteenth century.
Synonyms: lichen blue; lakemus
Wittenburg (1999); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)

Logwood    C₁₀H₁₄O₆-3H₂O (dye)   -  A natural red dye extracted from a small redwood tree, Haematoxylon campechianum, indigenous to Central America, Mexico and the West Indies. The dye is contained in the heartwood of the tree; the wood is cut into blocks and sold directly or further cut into chips. The primary water-soluble colorant, hematoxylin, oxidises to form the reddish-brown metallic crystals of hematein that are insoluble in water. Using a variety of mordants, the red extract can be prepared as a lake ranging in colour from dark blue (chrome or copper), violet-blue (alum or tin) to black (iron). Logwood was used in watercolours. Logwood dye was introduced in Europe by the Spainards in the 16th  century. Because of poor lightfastness, Britain banned the use of logwood from 1581 and 1662. The ban was lifted about 100 years later when it was shown that mordants could make the colour more stable. Logwood became an important dye because it was inexpensive and covered a wide colour range. It is not used as an artist pigment because of poor lightfastness. It is mentioned among the organic dyes typically used for dark colours for colouring stucco marble.
Synonyms: campeachy; campeachy; hematein; haematein; hematoxylin (colorant in wood extract); hematoxylon (wood extract); haematoxylon; haematoxylum; blockwood; St. Martin's wood; province wood; Natural Black 3; CI 75290
Wittenburg (1999); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000)
 
 

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