Amazing book: Color

When I first laid my hands on this book I thought this might be a nice collection to my library. But I am really amazed at the wealth of information contained in the book. Victoria writes the books as if we are stealthy travellers taking a peep into history, stealing secretly guarded recepies of pigments from all over the world. I shall keep posting excerpts from the book when I am a little less preoccupied, but for the time being here is some trivia.

The blackest of black came from burning human bodies. One of the best red is extracted from human blood and of course from cochineal. The cohineal are harvest in desert by acres and then squashed to get the firery red that is in demand all over the world. White happens to hide the deadliest secret behind its veil of purity. Its one of most poisonous pigments on the palette.

More later...