Both informative and entertaining, this is a must read for anyone dealing with color. Especially if you need historical background on pigments. I was reading it on a train and the woman sitting next to me asked about it--she is a costume designer and needs historically acurate information on which dyes were available in which period.All those exotic and cryptic names of pigments take on personality and meaning when you read this: rose madder, Prussian blue, burnt sienna. It's as much a travel book as a history. Ms. Finlay has researched and traveled the path of each pigment. She weaves anecdotes with historically based tales to create vivid portraits of the dramatic and highly varied origins of each pigment. Highly recommended.

Color: A Natural History of the PaletteThis 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.

This book is more of a travelogue on the author's journeys to locations where pigments originated than a factual historical textbook. The tidbits of information on the history of pigments is heavily diluted by a great deal of lengthy side stories and I found myself trying to wade through to get to factual information of value. While much of the book is very interesting it could use a great deal of editing ... at least about 100 pages less.

This book was recommended to me by a customer in my shop, following a discussion of art and textiles from Indonesia, Central Asia and the Middle East. I found it to be an informative read. It presented a lot of information on the history and anthropology of colors, providing perspectives that I found to be interesting. In some places the author's style was somewhat off-putting which detracted somewhat from the content. That aside, I recommend the book and have in fact suggested it to several artists who have visited my shop, Interesting Stuff.

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.

This is such a lovely idea for a book, yet one completely squandered by Ms. Finlay. There are certainly enough fragments of stories and histories to keep the curious reader engaged, but many more moments where I was disappointed by the lack of intellectual rigour or thoughtful analysis. I've had to stop reading several times out of sheer frustration with the presentation; I too have been tempted to throw the book across a crowded subway everytime the author utilises the inelegant conceit of "I'd like to imagine...".