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Have
you ever read about a Victorian dress, and wondered:
“What color, exactly, is heliotrope?”
Did you ever read an
Elizabethan novel and say:
“Did anyone really wear Puke?”
When Chaucer wrote: “his eyen bright
citrin” –
did you wonder about what color is citrin?
Have you wondered when aniline dyes were
invented,
how indigo was used, or how black fabric was dyed?
Perhaps
you have wondered when the color
London Smoke was used,
or when Eiffel red was invented.
Here is the book to tell you!
- Reviews -
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Elephant’s Breath and London Smoke
Historical Color Names, Definitions, and Uses
Buy
it here:
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This book will tell you about color in history – the names of colors, when they were
used, how they were used, what they looked like, and where they came from. There are dye recipes, paint ingredients, poetic
language and general commentary – all in the words of period writers.
You will learn about mourning colors, the effects of artificial light on color, advice on what colors to wear, the colors
found in cosmetics and theatrical make-up, and the names of the colors of horses. You can read about symbolism in colors,
heraldic colors, and complaints about the names of colors.
I have perused
fashion magazines, books of dye recipes, art books, painter’s manuals, mineralogy guides, tomes on color theory, metaphysical
texts, poetry and fiction, but especially period dictionaries and encyclopedias. Any resource that might give a hint on what
a color looked like or how it may have been used was fair game, from Chaucer to Chemistry Journals.
Most of the entries were printed in English, American, Canadian and Australian publications from around 1380 to 1922. Because,
French was the language of fashion, many of the English terms are French words. I have tried to explain those colors, too.
This dictionary endeavors to define color names in the words of
the English speaking people who used those colors. It is especially aimed at women’s fashion, but artists will also
find it useful.
If you are curious about color, you
will want this book!
$32.95
7 x 10 Trade Paperback
300 pages
ISBN 978-0-9739278-2-5
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I am an affiliate of Holly Lisle's Book Shop, Google,
any book store linked to this site, Hancock Fabrics and Five Rivers Chapmanry. That means I might earn a couple of cents
if you click on a link, and should earn something if you buy anything after clicking that link.
I'm not terribly
clear on how all that works, but the FTC wants you to know about it. Thank you for your patience.
Copyright
2009 by Deb Salisbury, The Mantua-Maker
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