The Pigment Compendium

The Pigment Compendium Dictionary is a comprehensive information source for scientists, art historians, conservators and forensic specialists.

Drawn together from extensive analystical research into the physical and chemical properties of pigments, this essential reference to pigment names and synonyms describes the inter-relationship of different names and terms.

The Dictionary covers the field worldwide from pre-history to the present day, from rock art to interior decoration, from ethnography to contemporary art. Drawing on hundreds of hard-to-obtain documentary sources as well as modern scientific data each term is discussed in detail, giving both its context and composition.

* Comprehensive list of pigment names and synonyms
* Pigments used worldwide from pre-history to the present day
* Contains information from hundreds of hard-to-obtain documentary sources

"The author's note right at the start of this encyclopaedic work for art historians, conservators, and forensic specialists cites historic complaints that the names artists have recorded for the pigments used in their paintings, frescoes, etc. are notoriously unreliable. Hence, the hundreds of cross-references to help researches get to the pigment an artist used in a work despite what he or she may have called it. The reference also works from the standpoint of wishing to confirm a particular pigment by describing in detail its physical and chemical properties. This incomparable art reference for determining important matters of works of art goes beyond such scientific information to include as well historical notes on many of the pigments. The "Pigment Compendium" is an exhaustive, reliable guide to resolving important matters about works of art using pigments - matter which involve accurate dating, and in some cases also involve large sums of money for museums or private collectors. Every museum, art library, and serious art collector should have a copy."
The Midwest Book Review / Book Review Index

"We just bought the pigment compendium. What a wonderful and huge contribution! Congratulations!"
Barbara Berrie, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
"Since buying a copy I am using the Dictionary of Historical Pigments book every day in my research into artists' recipe books. It has enabled me to decode a large number of nineteenth-century artists' paint recipes that were previously impenetrable even with such reference works as Carlyle's 'Artists Assistant', Harley's 'Artists Pigments', the historical insights of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the now 'period' definitions of Gettens & Stout. Even with the personal assistance of such authorities on nineteenth-century material as Dr Carlyle and the technical directors of Winsor and Newton, these
recipes had until now resisted interpretation.

One feature of particular and immense value is that it gives ALL possible definitions for a pigment name, assembled from an immense range of sources: often a variety of pigments were supplied under one umbrella name, and generally written and printed sources (both at the time and now) were
aware of only ONE possible interpretation (e.g. Italian Pink, Lemon Yellow.) Common and uncommon substitutes sold under certain pigment names are also noted (e.g. Naples Yellow, King's Yellow) as are common adulterants or modifiers (e.g. Chrome Yellow added to Strontian Yellow). Having the alternatives enables an informed choice of possible interpretation. The book is outstanding in that it recognizes the inconsistencies of mediaeval and renaissance pigment terminology, when several names relate to one pigment and VICE VERSA.

This historical overview presents the whole picture for the first time. Congratulations and gratitude are due to the team who have finally made sense of an immense body of material that is hard-to-find, obscure, apparently contradictory, and simply too large for any individual researcher to manage. This is a book that has been needed for years:
however did we manage without it?"
Mark Clarke, author of Art of all Colours

"The Pigment Compendium is the most comprehensive reference tool for historical pigments ever published. While the Dictionary is an encyclopaedic guide to the classification, sources and (where possible) uses of colourants in paints, the manual to Optical Microscopy navigates pigment chemistry, crystal structure and optical properties.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of both volumes is the range of publications to which the reader is referred. The authors have interwoven their commentary with references to nearly 2,000 manuscripts, treatises, books and articles, spanning ancient texts to recently published essays on the state of paint and coatings research. This literature review is invaluable to other researchers and one that is set to inspire fresh inquiry in many fields. Art historians, archaeologists, conservators, conservation scientists, geologists and forensic specialists, who represent the authors' target audience, are certain to mine this rich resource for years to come.

Overall, it is difficult to find fault with a publication that is so beautifully produced. Accolades already include a Bronze Prize in the 2004 L'Oreal Art and Science of Color competition and a nomination for the 2005 Anna Plowden Award for Research and Innovation in Conservation.

The challenges of editing the contributions of four authors to a single convention have led to inconsistencies that might have been avoided, but no editorial peculiarity could detract from the evident scholarship and dedication of the authors. They have brought order to colour nomenclature while highlighting important research on pigment discolouration, physical alteration and interaction with organic binding media. The Pigment Compendium is a timely addition to the literature on pigments, when knowledge of the nature and naming of specific colours is being increasingly applied to art-historical studies of pigment production, their trade and their range of uses in works of art of all historical periods."
Noelle Streeton, Object