Description

Deadly book poisoned with arsenic - CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING IT

Beautés des voyages anciens et modernes

Published in 1853

It is this 1853 edition of this publisher with this romantic cover that is dangerous because the emerald green color of certain motifs, named Vert de Paris, is based on Arsenic. 

Publisher’s cartonnage of the romantic period, published in 1853 in Limoges and Paris by the famous house Martial Ardant Frères. This book, entitled Beautés de l'histoire des voyages anciens et modernes, is the work of Abbé Paul Jouhanneaud.

The interior is illustrated with fine inset engravings (including a Lapp, an Indian from California, a young girl from Coutumasa...) drawn by L. Massard and engraved by Choubard. The flyleaf has a handwritten dedication in period ink.

If this book attracts attention, it is as much for its aesthetic qualities as for the toxicological secret contained in its settings. The very bright emerald green areas visible on the covers and back are composed of Vert de Paris (or Vert de Schweinfurt), a pigment based on copper acetoarsenite and arsenic used extensively in the 19th century, which makes the book toxic!

Marketed in 1814 in Germany this very toxic element was originally administered at the time in the Parisian sewers to kill rats, hence the term Vert de Paris...

Victorian obsession with a cursed colorEn the middle of the 19th century, Europe became absolutely passionate about this dazzling green, which was impossible to obtain with plant pigments (which quickly turned brown). Patented in the early 1810s, this emerald green invaded everything: tapestries from bourgeois salons, children’s toys, artificial flowers and sublime tulle ball gowns that shone under the first gas lighting.

Yet manufacturers and chemists knew that this pigment was a violent poison. Arsenic was coming off as dust or volatilizing with the humidity of the rooms.

Tragic stories in everyday life

The history of this pigment is punctuated by appalling news items that terrified society at the time:

The workers of artificial flowers: One of the most famous dramas is that of Matilda Scheurer, a young 19-year-old craftswoman from London who died in 1861 in atrocious suffering. His mission was to sprinkle green lacquer with arsenic on wreaths of artificial flowers for the hair of high-class ladies. She died with green eyes and nails, poisoned by the dust that she breathed every day.

The "chambers of death": In heated and damp houses, moulds on wallpaper reacted with arsenic to release a highly toxic gas (trimethylarsine). Whole families, and especially young children, fell asleep in rooms covered with this emerald green to never wake up again. There is even a strong suspicion that Napoleon’s exile on St Helena was shortened by the green wallpaper of his home in Longwood.

And in libraries?

The book industry has not escaped this trend. To make industrial bindings attractive, the bookbinding workshops (very active in Limoges or Tours) used these arsenical lacquers to paint or print the decorations. Today, the global science project Poison Book Project lists these works. Moreover, another book by the same author (l'Abbé Jouhanneaud) published in 1859 was tested positive for arsenic by spectrometry.

The exceptional stability of this pigment explains why, 170 years later, the green of this romantic cartonnage has not aged and retains its original shine.

The book must be handled carefully with gloves and placed under glass.

Unless eaten, the book is not dangerous but arsenic could enter the body, for example by moistening its finger with its tongue and then touching the cover, rubbing its eyes while reading or simply inhaling the patterns of the book’s cover.

Since the toxicity of arsenic does not diminish over time, repeated handling of these materials without proper care may accidentally result in inhalation or ingestion of arsenic-containing particles, which can lead to lethargy or dizziness, or suffer from diarrhea and stomach cramps. On the skin, arsenic can cause irritation and damage.

You can find the poisoned books on the list of the Poison Book Project, launched in 2019 by two restorers, which catalogues books contaminated with arsenic. 411 references are listed for the moment only, but thousands of books could be affected worldwide.

The Poison Book Project list: click here to access the list

Dimensions: 215x13.5cm

Freckles inside

Interesting article in french on this deadly color: click here