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Presentation: Framed
Signed; oil on canvas
28 × 36 in. (92 × 71 cm)
Provenance: Laporte plc 1940s–2004; private collection since 2004.
Literature: Paul Liss, Laporte, A History in Art, Laporte plc, London, 2000, illus. p. 8

Send image Biography Sold


Presentation: Framed
Signed; oil on canvas
28 × 36 in. (92 × 71 cm)
Provenance: Laporte plc 1940s–2004; private collection since 2004.
Literature: Paul Liss, Laporte, A History in Art, Laporte plc, London, 2000, illus. p. 8.

By the end of the 1930s,much of British industry was geared to the production of war materials. Laporte, a chemical manufacturer based in Luton, commissioned these paintings to record their contribution to the war effort: the production of barium peroxide and hydrogen peroxide, essential ingredients for the manufacture of explosive, incendiary and pyrotechnic compositions.

Barium peroxide was produced using a long tunnel kiln, a process  first introduced during the FirstWorldWar when supplies of naturally occurring barium peroxide were in short supply. Barium peroxide is the main ingredient for the production of hydrogen peroxide.The kiln used by Laporte, shown here, was finally dismantled in the early 1950s.

The second painting depicts the distillation of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidising agent, which at high strengths causes instantaneous ignition (at 97% concentrate it is used for rocket propulsion). At the end of the SecondWorldWar the government handed over to Laporte as part of a reparations programme theV-1 andV-2 production plants in Munich, where weapons incorporated high-test hydrogen peroxide in their launch and propulsion systems. Laporte sold the plants back to Germany in 2003.

Send image Biography Sold


Presentation: Framed
Signed; oil on canvas
28 × 36 in. (92 × 71 cm)
Provenance: Laporte plc 1940s–2004; private collection since 2004.
Literature: Paul Liss, Laporte, A History in Art, Laporte plc, London, 2000, illus. p. 8.

Laporte, a chemical manufacturer based in Luton, commissioned a cycle of  paintings, early in the 1940's, to record their company history contribution to the war effort: the production of barium peroxide and hydrogen peroxide, essential ingredients for the manufacture of explosive, incendiary and pyrotechnic compositions.

Barium peroxide was produced using a long tunnel kiln, a process first introduced during the First World War when supplies of naturally occurring barium peroxide were in short supply.

Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidising agent, which at high strengths causes instantaneous ignition (at 97% concentrate it is used for rocket propulsion). At the end of the Second World War the government handed over to Laporte as part of a reparations programme the V-1 and V-2 production plants in Munich, where weapons incorporated high-test hydrogen peroxide in their launch and propulsion systems. Laporte sold the plants back to Germany in 2003.