A white synthetic pigment (lead carbonate) made by exposing strips of metallic lead to acidic vapours and carbon dioxide. It has been an enormously significant pigment since pre-classical times. Unlike any other pigment, it forms a chemical link with the drying oil, giving the paint properties that cannot be reproduced using the modern whites titanium white and zinc white. In domestic house paint it has always been admired for the way it becomes soft and silvery with age. Trench (2000). [J. Cassar, R. de Angelis]