View source for Bice

{{About|the mineral pigment|other uses|Bice (disambiguation)}}
'''Bice''', from the French ''bis'', originally meaning dark-coloured, is a [[green]] or [[blue]] [[pigment]]. In [[French language|French]] the terms ''vert bis'' and ''azur bis'' mean dark green and dark blue respectively. Bice pigments were generally prepared from basic [[copper]] [[carbonate]]s, but sometimes [[ultramarine]] or other pigments were used.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Bice |volume=3 |page=911}}</ref>
==Historic usage==
In 1522 a stone cross with gilt lead stars was erected at the Bullstake in [[Canterbury]], and painted with bice and gilded by Florence the painter. The bice cost 6 shillings the pound.<ref>''HMC 9th Report: Canterbury'' (London, 1883), p. 150.</ref>
Jo Kirby of the [[National Gallery London]] notes the occurrence of the pigment ''bice'' in three grades in an account of [[Sergeant Painter|Tudor painting]] at [[Greenwich Palace]] in 1527. In this case, the three grades indicate the use of the mineral [[azurite]] rather than a manufactured blue copper carbonate. Similarly, ''green bice'' in other 16th-records may sometimes have been the mineral [[malachite]].<ref>Roskill & Hand, ed., ''Hans Holbein, Paintings, Prints, and Reception'' (Yale, 2001), p. 119.</ref> John "Paynter", who worked for [[Bess of Hardwick]], used blue bice in 1596.<ref>Basil Stallybrass, [https://archive.org/details/archaeologiaormi64unse/page/382/mode/2up 'Bess of Hardwick's Building Accounts', ''Archaeologia'', 64 (1913), pp. 382–84]</ref>
Ian Bristow, [[Historic paint analysis|a historian of paint]], concluded that the pigment ''blue bice'' found in records of British interior-decoration until the first half of the 17th century was azurite. The expensive natural mineral azurite was superseded by manufactured ''blue verditer''.<ref>Bristow, Ian C., ''Interior house-Painting Colours and Technology, 1615-1640'' (Yale, 1996), p. 17.</ref>
The color is also referenced in [[E. Nesbit|Edith Nesbit]]'s novel ''[[The Story of the Treasure Seekers]]'': "...Alice looked up from her painting. She was trying to paint a fairy queen's frock with green bice, and it wouldn't rub. There is something funny about green bice. It never will rub off; no matter how expensive your paintbox is-and even boiling water is very little use. She said, ‘Bother the bice’!..."<ref>Chapter 9 of "The Treasure Seekers" by E.Nesbit</ref>
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Pigments]]
[[Category:Inorganic pigments]]
[[Category:Shades of green|bice]]
[[Category:Shades of blue|bice]]
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