Color is a fascinating topic. But not only the cavemen culture gave colors symbolism and meaning. One of the most interesting histories invovling color is that during every age and region, dyes and pigments have been produced depending on available resources.
In particular, the Chinese of Asia especially the Han 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
commercial paintingis inspired by the technical 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. New colors were being discovered during this time, and umbers, ochers, and blacks were readily available.
Around 1500 BC in Greece and Crete, painting became known as an art form. It was during this time that the Romans acquired Egyptian color skills. In fact, it was the Romans who gave us purple, which was made using a pound of royal purple dye that required the crushing of four million 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. Sepia Brown was made using the dried ink sac of squid, and Sap Green was created with the Blackthorn berry.
The discovery of mixing two colors together and creating a third was made by Plato. 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.
Binder, which is what paint is comprised of, holds the paint together. Appropriate thinners make paint easy to apply. 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. 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.
"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.
Henry Perkins discovered the first real synthetic dye, "Mauveine," in 1856. This brought about the revelation that many dyes could be made synthetically and inexpensively. From that point, linseed oil started being mass produced as well as pigment-grade zinc oxide or, white paint.
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." The first ready-mixed paint was patented by D.R. Averill of Ohio in 1867, but it didn't pass to catch on.
For ten years, Sherwin Williams tried 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 with similar formulas were marketed and produced 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.