Poison…

Pantone color of the year for 2013

Emerald Green

Pretty enough. No?

Apparently…when the color was developed it was made with poison arsenic

Brief description of Emerald green:

It's a poisonous copper-acetoarsenite developed in an attempt to improve Scheele's green in 1808 and commercially availble from 1814. This became known in England as emerald green, and for a time it was the finest green pigment known, rapidly displacing Scheele's green.Unusually it has a brilliant blue-green to green colour with fair hiding power. Unfotunately, it is also chemically not stable and very poisonous and therefore was used just until ealry 1900s. Because it was quite cheap to manufacture, emerald green was used not only as an artist’s paint but as a household paint: it was widely used on patterned wallpaper. This made damp rooms death traps, and in the 1860s the British Times newspaper expressed alarm about the possibility that young children were being killed by the deadly fumes emanating from their bedroom walls. It is believed that Napoleon’s death in exile on St Helena was hastened this way. It can be seen more in watercolour medium particularly sea and landscapes.

WHO KNEW?!

 

Not this kitty…..

 

Eh. Works for us.

 

 

all images from pinterest...except our yard. Click on the earrings image if you want it in YOUR stocking