SANDARAC • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Sandarac

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noun

Sandarac, Sandarach n.

(Min.) Realgar; red sulphide of arsenic. (Archaic)

(Bot. Chem.) A white or yellow resin obtained from a Barbary tree (Callitris quadrivalvis or Thuya articulata), and pulverized for pounce; probably so called from a resemblance to the mineral.

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Etymology of 'Sandarac'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sandarac" Quotes from Famous Books

... are taken for examples, but that the opinion of the old Italian may be in some credit. We spoke in the commencement of this paper, of the "Gummi Fornis," which M. Merimee concluded to be copal. The translator, in a note, offers a conjecture, not without its probability, that it may have been sandarac, the "Vernice da Scrivere" of Cennino, and quotes Raffaello Borghini in his "Reposo." If you would have your varnish brilliant, use much sandarac—it makes certainly a very hard varnish—it is difficult to combine it with oil. We suppose ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 356, June, 1845 • Various

... properly so called. For, in order to accelerate the slow drying of the oil colours, it had been necessary to add a varnish to them, which consisted of oil boiled with a resin. Owing to the dark colour of this varnish, in which amber, or more frequently sandarac, was used, this plan, from its darkening effect on most colours, had hitherto proved unsuccessful. The Van Eycks, however, succeeded in preparing so colourless a varnish that they could apply it without disadvantage, to all colours. In painting a picture ...

— Great Pictures, As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Esther Singleton