Color is a fascinating topic. But not only the cavemen culture gave colors symbolism and meaning. One of the most fascinating 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. The Chinese were also among the first to practice Color Healing with recorded “diagnoses” in a chronicle that was 2,000 years old, called, “The Nei/ching.”
Egypt is emerging region known for its use of color. Modern systems for recycling paint is inspired by the scientific 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.
Before the 19th century, “paint” was only known as something that was oil-bound; something bound with glue was called “distemper.” By 1,000 BC, the development of paints and varnishes from acacia tree gum or, gum Arabic was developed. During this period, ochers, umbers, and blacks were easily obtainable, and new colors were also being discovered.
Around 1500 BC in Greece and Crete, painting became known as an art form. It was also during this time that the Romans learned of 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” burst onto the color scene around 500 BC. Genuine Indian Yellow was made from concentrated cow urine mixed with mud; it was then sent to London for purification. Sap Green came from the Blackthorn berry, and Sepia Brown from the dried ink sac of squid.
The discovery of mixing two colors together and creating a third was made by Plato. The manufacture of color was thus changed.
While color was important and for some cultures, even a religious aspect, none of the previous groups named many colors. In the 1960s, two anthropologists conducted an international study of color naming. Often times, many languages would only have two color terms, meaning 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.
Binder, which is what paint is comprised of, holds the paint together. Appropriate thinners make paint easy to apply. The first synthetic pigment was produced by the Egyptians 5,000 years ago from grinded down blue grass – it was 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. “Natural” dyestuffs were available from 1550 – 1850, but the range of available dyestuffs was extended with tropical dyestuffs from Indian, Central America, etc.
The Greeks and Romans produced varnishes between 600 BC and AD 400. Red dye was considered more valuable than gold in another culture across the ocean. This culture was the Aztec civilization, and they practiced Color Healing along with the Chinese.
The Aztec cultured actually discovered “Cochineal red,” which was made using the female cochineal beetle. A million insects were needed to make one pound of water-soluble extract. 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. The Dutch greatly increased white lead availability by the 17th century and reduced cost by inventing the “Stack Process,” which is a chemical process that will cast metallic lead as thin buckles, stacks them up and leaves them for four to sixteen weeks, which changes the blue-grey lead to white lead all white lead paints contain chalk in their undercoats; purer white lead is saved 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.
For ten years, Sherwin Williams tried to perfect a formula in which fine paint particles would remain suspended in linseed oil. They succeeded in 1880 when they developed a formula that greatly exceeded the quality of all available paints during that point in time. Emulsions with similar formulas were marketed and produced as “oil bound distempers.” New paints became available in tins in 1880, along side a large number of colors and were exported all over the world.
In this day and age, we have thousands of colors available to us. From the Egyptians to today’s painting contractors, colors have never been more fascinating.