Leonora Okarma Weaver

Hand Coloring

We also offer a professional hand coloring service on both antique maps and

engravings. Internationally known for this difficult skill, she can enhance

and bring to life even the dullest image.


Illuminated sheepskin manuscript from the Saudi House of Fauod.
These two pieces are from David Roberts� views of Egypt circa 1840, part of a series of prints cleaned and colored for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The pigments are authentic for the piece, having researched original colored copies in the British Library.

An Ortelius map, circa 1590. Abraham Ortelius was considered one of the first mapmakers to color his work. Thankfully, there is a lot of his work surviving so that research into his technique and pigments was easily accomplished at the British Library.

18^th Century Dutch Tulips. Tulips were once so important to the Dutch in the 18^th Century that they were once used as currency. Thanks to period textbooks and watercolors, research into the correct colors of flowers was very straightforward.
Hollyhock, 1776, from Linnaeus� Sexual System of Plants. Research is needed on antique botanicals. The colors of some plants have been so altered by manipulation of generations of gardening that the original coloration is sometimes lost. These examples are true to the period and to the flower or fruit.