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| Color: A Natural History of the Palette | 
 enlarge | Author: Victoria Finlay
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $6.45
You Save: $9.55 (60%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (40 reviews)
Sales Rank: 24499
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0812971426
Dewey Decimal Number: 535.609
EAN: 9780812971422
ASIN: 0812971426
Publication Date: December 30, 2003
Release Date: December 30, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Color May 1, 2008
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
This book was highly recommended by a potter on an online listserve for potters. I found this book very interesting because of the travels by the author to find the areas that the materials used in color originated. It told me of the history of the area/country where the materials came from, as well as the methods used to develop the colors, and the people who used the colors. She talked about people continuing to use a color (the painter Turner) even though he knew the color would not last, as well a people continuing to use a color that would affect their health (lead as part of the process) because that's the only way to get that color, which continues to this day.
 Surprisingly boring. Not too well written. March 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am very interested in the subject of pigments and color and was disappointed at how tedious this book is. I'm not interested in the characters she meets in her travels. I'm not interested in her fantasies about what ancient people might have been like (or what their love life was like!).
I want to know about the history of pigments and paints. I want to know how one sort of pigment gave way to another or how it was improved or even how tastes shifted from one favorite to another...advantages and disadvantages of different pigments. This book has some of that (buried in travel anecdotes), but when those sorts of topics come up, she quotes "The Art Forgers Handbook" again and again. Seems like that's the book I really wanted.
Fantastic Book February 10, 2008
This book is fantastic. I could not put it down the first time I read it. I've owned it for 3 years and have read it twice. Sure to please artists, art lovers, travelers, history buffs, natural history fans......
Color: A natural History of the Palette January 23, 2008
Did you wonder where colors come from? Perhaps you guessed that umber is a clay, ultramarine blue is ground stone. Some pigments are poisonous, some fade quickly. The author travels the world and through history in search of the stories behind each color. When I read her search for the stories behind India Yellow, I laughed out loud. The author takes you into caves in Spain and France, to Australia, India, China. Each pigment is more than the material it is made of. They are stories, people, history. Excellent reading and not just for artists.
If you read 10 books in your lifetime, include this one. January 7, 2008
Victoria Finlay has written a history of the use of color in artwork over the millenium. We learn of aboriginal Australian men who travel across deserts for a particular color, and the wonderings of a lute maker who teaches the teacher of Stradivarious in Italy.
Ms Finlays' easy and energetic words taught me more about the practices and enthusiasms of an amazing array of cultures than any other book I have read.
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