Old Watercolor Paint - Is it still useable? 

I looked at the England 1911 census and there was a boy named Alfred Matthews living at 178 Alma Road in Bornemouth, Hampshire. He was 6 in 1911 so born around 1905. It’s quite likely that he was the owner of your palette! There was a boy school in Alma Road that was destroyed in 1940. All this would place your palette into the 1920s. What a fantastic find!!

I love that you saved this older palette. Being tin it was quite expensive "Back in the day." I was in College in late 60's and couldn't have afforded it. Also noticed the pans/wells are the old type, not adjustable. Maybe you could create old time drawing using the watercolors from this tin. I bet Steve Mitchell would love to see these! I think the original owner was smiling down on you, happy a professional artist found their beloved old watercolor tin. You can tell from how worn the palette is that it may have been the only one used over many years and created many beautiful watercolors. Grumbacher, Schmincke used to be more muted like these colors. Enjoy!

Hi Marty, This is very interesting because I live about 100 miles from that address. It is Bournemouth which is a seaside town in Hampshire (called Hants for short).

I do have a photo of the house but you tube doesn’t let me send it. If you go on Google earth and put in that address you will see where the original owner of those paints lived 😀

Marvelous find, Marty! How cool that viewers found the owner's address and could establish the time it was used. The colours look muted and really good, considering they are around 100 years old. If you suspect the white might be lead, you can useone of those lead pen detectors, and avoid disposing the water down the drain. Hope to see you paint something. Perhaps a quick sketch of the house at that address, using Google Maps, as suggested in the comments?

Loved this! How special to have found that palette, and to imagine what beautiful paintings may have been created with it! Thank you, Marty! ❤

Please be very careful with that very opaque white it's quite possible that it could be lead white. I strongly suspect based on the colors but that is 30s or 40s in era. Such a really cool find. I wish that it was here LOL

It’s so interesting that a lot of the colors seem to have a black mixed in them. Wonder if that’s what happened to the pigments over time or maybe mold? Such a cool find!

This is so interesting, imagining the history behind this WC set. It would be interesting to see the colors derived from deeper in each pan’s paint blob. Way to go, Marty! From a fellow Minnesotan. ❤

Nice palette! I have had a chance to clean older gunky watercolor palettes. You really need to clean then before trying to paint or even try using the paints. If you think the paints are to contaminated you can remove them from the pans. I have even pried them out and crushed them up and reconstituted them with gum Arabic. I believe that you can keep the palette just as it is, for an ornament. Yet it will not be good for creating paintings unless you have a separate mixing area, or un-contaminated paints. Lovely video and I thought you did a great job!

I guess we will never know how old the paints were but the results were great. I think I would always give a well loved palette a try. I have a painting from a member of close family friends that was painted in the mid 1800s. This painter actually crossed the plains to the west coast in a covered wagon. The painting is of a homestead and small orchard, with larger trees behind the house and side. I have always wanted to know about the paint and paper. (Watercolor)

Put a paper on the box and rub on top with graphite. You will obtain a graphite pencil rubbing of the image or writing on the box.

Hi Marty! I collect vintage and antique watercolor tins. This tin looks similar to a Reeves and Son palette I obtained a few years back. It looks like there is a piece of paper stuck down on the inside row ( maybe?) . If so, Reeves and Sons palettes have a paper strip identifying the colors or the number of the box. The colors in my box reactivated beautifully, it's an 8 well box. Winsor and Newton vintage tin palettes have similar paper strips ( I've got a W&N vintage tin too!). Anyway, very cool find! Can you tell us where you found it? Incidently, I'm on a Minnesota memory trip with my siblings and bought an old square child's watercolor tin " Mickey Mouse Paint Box" at an antique store in my hometown. It'll be added to my collection of about 30 tins from around the world. Let us know if you find the relatives of the owner of your tin.

Bournemouth Hampshire UK

It might’ve been helpful to spray the whole pallet with water and leave it for a while to rehydrate the paint 😊

On the left of the tin, it says Alma Rd Boys. Form V would most likely be a year in school. Such a fun find!!!!

Oooh!!! That's a rusty, chipped up thing of beauty. I'm envious all the way here from Pennsylvania. I've added a drop of honey to help old paints along in the past.

That might be an old Reeves Palette or a Windsor and Newton. Bournemouth, Hants is in the UK

It's one of my favorite things about watercolor. It waits until you're ready and works like you just poured it from the tube. 👍🏻

This feels so emotional... knowing that someone's palette is now used again, what a good thing for these watercolors, it's sure super interesting and nice that they were considered valuablue enough to even reach that antique shop. I love art ❤

Somehow this fascinated me watching you play with these colors. You had me mesmorized. LOL! Thank you for the cool video! :)

I would think that the colors would reactivate easily as long as the tin was sealed 😊

This and all the comments makes this a fascinating video

I believe that's Bournemouth in England "Hants" is Hampshire County!!!

Very cool video! I need to get my watercolors out soon! I have been very busy with the jewelry. Might be time for a change of creative outlets. ❤😊

Paint should last a long time I would think