Testing

Practical experience has shown that only an experienced paint chemist will be able to use the correct procedures and draw the correct conclusions from his analysis. Even competent forensic chemists have sometimes reached completely erroneous conclusions because they lacked the necessary special knowledge. They were satisfied with proving the presence of certain substances, not realizing, with their inadequate knowledge of the history of materials, that they would have tested for other suspected materials.

Most inorganic painting substances can now be analyzed by an experienced specialist. In the field of organic chemistry, however, there are still some unanswered questions, although modern techniques like infrared spectroanalysis have greatly advanced our knowledge in recent times. The same can be said for modern methods using chromatograms. Laymen usually have only a rudimentary understanding of the methods of chemical analysis, and as a result they tend to overestimate their possibilities and are disappointed that in the area of technology of ancient materials the prospects for success are sometimes fairly limited. Some of the complicating factors have already been touched upon. [p. 66]