Color is a Color has fascinated humans for 20,000 years, dating all the way back to the early cave paintings. But not only the cavemen culture gave colors symbolism and meaning. One of the most interesting histories involving color is that during every age and region, dyes and pigments have been produced depending on available resources.
It is believed that the Chinese were the first to manufacture and perfect color usage tens of thousands of years ago. They also believed in Color Healing and recorded color “diagnoses” through a 2,000-year-old Chinese chronicle called, “The Nei/ching.”
Egypt’s use of color is legendary. Modern systems for recycling paint is inspired by the effective achievements of the Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians believed color to have magical healing properties. Before early cave paintings that were made using iron oxides, the ancient Egyptians developed paints from pigments in the soil, which were yellow, orange, and red.
Prior to the 19th century, the term, “paint,” was only applied to the oil-bound kinds; the kinds bound with glue were called “distemper.” By 1,000 BC, paint development came in the form of varnishes and paints from acacia tree gum. New colors were being discovered during this time, and umbers, ochers, and blacks were readily available.
Painting as an art form was established in Crete and Greece around 1500 BC. It was during this time that the Romans acquired Egyptian color skills. The Romans created the color purple, made using a pound of royal purple dye that required the crushing of 4,000,000 mollusks. This is the time when the Egyptians created the first new color of the period, “Egyptian Blue.”
“Naples Yellow” was discovered around 500 BC. Genuine Indian Yellow was made from concentrated cow urine mixed with mud; it was then sent to London for purification. Sepia Brown was made using the dried ink sac of squid, and Sap Green was created with the Blackthorn berry.
Plato made one of the earliest color discoveries in mixing two colors together, producing a third. The manufacture of color was thus changed.
Even though color was an obviously important and at times, religious aspect in many cultures, none of these groups named very many colors. In the 1960s, two anthropologists conducted an international study of color naming. Frequently, many languages only had two color terms, equivalent to white light and black dark. These anthropologists studied 98 languages, and discovered that the largest number of basic color terms were in English, in which we have eleven: white, black, red, yellow, green, orange, blue, pink, purple, grey, and brown. The other millions of color names are “borrowed;” i.e., grape, peach, gold, avocado, tan, watermelon, etc.
What makes up paint is pigment, which is a binder that holds it together. Paint is easily applicable with the right thinners. 5,000 years ago, the first synthetic pigment was made by the Egyptians from grinded down blue grass, also called “Blue Frit.”
Prior to the 16th century, pigment color greatly depending on dyestuffs, which could be grown in or were indigenous to Europe and similar temperate regions. From 1550 – 1850, only the “natural” dyestuffs were available, but the range of dyestuffs was extended with tropical dyestuffs from Central America, India, etc.
Between 600 BC – AD 400, the Romans and Greeks produced varnishes. And in another culture across the world, red dye was considered more valuable than gold. This culture was the Aztec civilization, and they practiced Color Healing along with the Chinese.
“Cochineal red” was discovered by the Aztecs and made using the female cochineal beetle. One pound of water-soluble extract required about a million insects. The Spaniards introduced red to Europe in the 16th century.
“Red lead” was discovered by accident around 2500. Demand for white lead increased, and while it occurs naturally, the demand brought about manmade reproductions Vitruvius, a Roman writer, architect, and engineer, describes what white lead production was like in the 2nd century AD. By the 17th century, the Dutch exponentially increased white lead availability and lowered the cost by inventing the “Stack Process,” a chemical process that casts metallic lead as thin buckles, stacks them up and leaves them for four to sixteen weeks, which turns the blue-grey lead to white lead all white lead paints have chalk in their undercoats; purer white lead is reserved for finish coats.
The first real synthetic dye, “Mauveine,” was discovered by Henry Perkins in 1856. People know realized that many dyes could be made synthetically and relatively cheaply. Linseed oil and pigment-grade zinc oxide or, white paint began being produced from that point on.
The first washable paint was produced using cast-iron paint mills and zinc-based pigments in the 1870′s, and it was called “Charlton White.” D.R. Averill of Ohio patented the first ready-mixed paint in 1867, but it didn’t quite catch on.
Sherwin Williams tried for ten years to perfect a formula in which fine paint particles would remain suspended in linseed oil. In 1880, they finally succeeded when a formula was developed that greatly exceeded the available paint qualities during that time period. Emulsions based on similar formula were then produced and marketed as “oil bound distempers.” New paints became available in tins in 1880, after only a large number of colors and were exported all over the world.
And the rest is history – today, we have thousands and thousands of colors to choose from from many different paint manufacturers. Colors and their history have never been more timely or fascinating.
