New book on blue pigments

Blue Pigments - 5000 years of Art and Industry
Francois Delamare

UK Price: 39.50GBP/ US Price: $80.00

ISBN: 9781904982371
Binding: Paperback
Dimensions: 246 x 189
Pages: 442
Illustrations: 68 pages of colour and half-tone images and diagrams

The primary goal of this book is to show how much ingenuity man has
needed to employ in order to make blue materials.  From Egyptian
blue to copper phthalocyanine, ranging through Maya and Han blues,
smalt, blue ashes, Prussian blue and artificial ultramarine, we
cannot help but be in awe of the variety of technical solutions
found.  Each civilization has produced its own solution, or sequence
of solutions.  Thus one can say that blue pigments can be considered
as markers of civilizations.

In the natural world, blue rocks from which objects can be fashioned
are rare--a few marbles, lapis-lazuli and related rocks, and
minerals containing copper.  However those which, once ground, can
be used as pigments are exceptional.  Only lapis-lazuli and azurite
come to mind.  The long absence of blues from the palettes of our
distant ancestors is therefore easy to explain as is the fact that
blue pigments have always been an expensive commodity which became
the objects of a very lucrative trade, spanning continents and
oceans.

Contents

    Egyptian blue, the blue pigment of Mediterranean antiquity: From
    Egyptian hsbd iryt to Roman caeruleum

    Zaffre, smalt, bleu d'esmail and azure: Tribulations of Saxon
    cobalt

    Natural ultramarine: The essence of the blue pigment

    German azurite and English blue verditer : Favourite pigments of
    European painters

    Prussian blue: An unexpected destiny

    The discovery of Thenard's (cobalt) blue: A time for scientists

    Guimet blue and artificial ultramarines: The dream comes true

    Copper phthalocyanines: A chance happily exploited

    Rediscovering forgotten blues

    The Rediscovery of Egyptian blue

    The Rediscovery of Han blue

    The Rediscovery of yax, the Maya blue

    Appendix

    Bibliography

    List of colorants, colours, minerals and blue pigments mentioned
    in the text

Available in the US and Canada from JG Publishing Service
info<-at->jgpubs<.>com

Available in Europe and the rest of the world from Archetype
Publications info<-at->archetype<.>co<.>uk

Details of this and all Archetype titles can be seen at

    <URL:http://www.archetype.co.uk>

James Black
Publisher
Archetype Publications
c/o International Academic Projects
1 Birdcage Walk, London SW1H 9JJ
+44 207 380 0800
Fax: +44 207 380 0500


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