Color is a Color has fascinated humans for 20,000 years, dating all the way back to the early cave paintings. Throughout history, cultures have ascribed deep means religious and non religious to almost all colors. One of the most fascinating histories behind color is that during every age and region, dyes and pigments have been produced depending on available resources.
In particular, the Chinese were thought to manufacture and perfect the use of color 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's use of color is legendary. Modern
house painting is inspired by the technical achievements of the Egyptians. Ancient Egyptians believed that color had magical healing powers. 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, 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. The Egyptians created the first new color during this period, known as "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. This then changes the manufacture of the color.
Even though color was an obviously important and at times, religious aspect in many cultures, none of these groups named very many colors. Two anthropologists conducted an international study of color naming in the 1960s. Often times, many languages would only have two color terms, meaning white light and black dark. 98 languages were studied by the anthropologists, and it was then discovered that the highest number of basic color terms were found in the English language, in which we have eleven: white, black, red, yellow, green, orange, pink, purple, blue, brown, and grey. The other millions of color names often heard are "borrowed" names, e.g., peach, graph, gold, tan, avocado, watermelon, etc.
Binder, which is what paint is comprised of, holds the paint 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, 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. And in another culture across the world, red dye was considered more valuable than gold. The culture was the Aztec civilization, and they practiced Color Healing as well.
"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.
Around 2500, "red lead" was discovered by accident. 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.
Henry Perkins discovered the first real synthetic dye, "Mauveine," 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. They succeeded in 1880 when they developed a formula that greatly exceeded the quality of all available paints during that point in time. Emulsions based on similar formula were then produced and marketed as "oil bound distempers." The new paints became available in tins that same year, in a wide array 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.