Color of the Day - Nuage

Nuage, 1874 – Some charming new greys are called “nuage”, all the tints that can be in the clouds are included in this – the gris charni, gris de Nil, gris russe, gris d’acier, gris fuetre.
Warehousemen and Drapers’ Trade Journal, May 2, 1874

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Color of the Day - Raymond blue

Raymond blue, 1811 – the Process for dying Silk of a Prussian Blue. By M. Raymond. Published by the Government in 1811. …the blue obtained by prussiate of iron, otherwise termed Raymond’s blues, are at least as brilliant, …as in blues which are produced with the sulphuric solution of indigo, and known by the name of composition blues; and they have this advantage over the latter, that they are much more beautiful, and at the same time more solid.
Repertory of Arts, August 1815

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Color of the Day - Mouse

Mouse, 1886 – The darker shades of gray – such as mouse-gray… – are very much worn just now, and, when relieved with slight trimmings of cut-steel or antique silver, have a very refined aspect. These tints are only becoming, however, to persons with a very brilliant complexion, as they make pale persons look paler, and give a positively green hue to a sallow skin.
Peterson’s Magazine, April 1886

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Now available through Expresso

Elephant's Breath and London Smoke - as well as all other books published by Five Rivers - are now available on the Expresso Book Machine.

Here is the announcement from my publisher, Five Rivers:

http://5riversnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/five-rivers-books-now-available-through.html

Included is a list of places that have the Expresso Book Machine and a YouTube video.

Color of the Day - Liard

Liard, 1380 – of a grey colour, approaching to white; it is called liart in Scotland. “Attour his belt his liard lockes lay.” Chaucer.
Glossary and Etymological Dictionary, 1834

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Color of the Day - Dry rose

Dry rose, 1761 – They distinguish many forts of purple colours. One was extremely deep, of a red drawing to a violet. f … f …this species of purple approached to the colour we call dry rofe, like to that which the leaves of the vines take when they are ready to fall. He adds, ’tis very nearly the fame we fee in the interior border of the rainbow.
Origin of Laws, Arts, and Sciences, 1761

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Color of the Day - Yellow

Yellow, 1908 – Yellow is a splendid shade, and one that is both subtle and mysterious. The Burmese – a race that is most cunning m psychic matters – make a deep study of its varying effects, and use it in all their garments of ceremony. But, with us, yellow has been for many years greatly and most unjustly despised. It is one of the finest of colours, with many exquisite shades, and only when too pure is it unmanageable. The cold, pale primrose, that shines like a light in the hedgerows, may be massed about a young face with impunity. Apricot is beautiful for some people, and ambers of all shades are exceedingly good and becoming A fair woman looks well in pale yellow and brown, the effect being well shown in the third of the following illustrations; and deep orange suits a brunette. A dull tawny shade, once called “buff,” is also most becoming. Yellow was a favourite colour with most of the old masters. …In fact, yellow is the “sun colour,” is most lucky, and suits almost everyone.
Strand Magazine, January 1908

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Advice from 1872

A lady of taste will not forget that colors change according as they are looked at by day or by lamp-light, and we see her in the middle of the day stepping into a closed saloon lit up with gas to choose her evening dress. … Buttercup yellow, so bright at any time, is brighter than ever of an evening, straw-color becomes rosier, … Pink changes to salmon-color. …The yellow light of gas or candles, so hostile to all blue tints, enhances the splendor of red. Ruby becomes more brilliant, nacarate appears lighter, cérise deepens to crimson, and crimson inclines to capucine, which itself assumes a more orange-like tone, and orange vies with fire-color.
Harper's Bazar, April 27, 1872

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Color of the Day - Heliotrope

Heliotrope, 1894 – A woman who has naturally a good color in her cheeks and lips is rendered positively pallid-looking by a gown or hat in a dull-heliotrope tint. A light pinkish shade of this color would be much kinder to her; but at best heliotrope is an uncharitable hue, and unless one is quite sure of its becomingness, it is safest to avoid it.
Delineator, June 1894

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Color of the Day - Tuly

Tuly, 1440 – Tuly, colowre. 6 Punicus, … 6 Tuly appears to have been a deep red colour; the term occurs in Coer de Lion, “trappys of tuely sylke,” v. 1516, supposed by Weber to be toile de soie.…1321, a chasuble is mentioned “de tule samito.”… in Sloane MS 73 {c.1460},… “to make bokerham tuly, or tuly thred, … a manner of reed colour as it were if croppe mader,”
Promptorium Parvulorum, 1865

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Color of the Day - Bayard

Bayard, 1529 – name of the magic war-horse given by Charlemagne to Renaud (Rinaldo) …representative name for a horse and for blindness and recklessness. The Fr. word baiard, bayard,= ‘bay-colored’ was in early use in Eng., meaning ‘bay-colored’, ‘bay horse’; …1529: Bold bayarde, ye are to blynde,
Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases, 1892

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Color of the Day - Mummy

Mummy, 1901 – ‘Mummy,’ as a pigment, is inferior to prepared, but superior to raw, asphalt, inasmuch as it has been submitted to a considerable degree of heat, and has thereby lost some of its volatile hydrocarbons. Moreover, it is usual to grind up the bones and other parts of the mummy together, so that the resulting powder has more solidity and is less fusible than the asphalt alone would be. A London colourman informs me that one Egyptian mummy furnishes sufficient material to satisfy the demands of his customers for twenty years. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add that some samples of the pigment sold as ‘mummy’ are spurious. Mummy was certainly used as an oil-paint at least as early as the close of the sixteenth century.
Chemistry of Paints and Painting, 1901

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Complaints about colors from 1892

EVERY student of botany, ornithology, or entomology, has found the lack of any well-defined standard or credited nomenclature of color a prolific source of trial and perplexity, while to the common eye there is nothing but confusion in our present methods of desi­g­­nating color. No stronger proof of this is needed than some of the terms used to designate fashionable colors, such as “crushed strawberry,” “ashes of roses,” “elephant’s breath,” etc. What more absurd terms could one easily choose to express an intelligible conception.
Science, February 26, 1892

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Color of the Day - Judas

Judas, 1613 – Judas was conftantly reprefented in ancient painting or tapeftry, with red hair and beard. So, in The Infatiate Countefs, 1613: “I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas.”
The Plays of William Shakspeare, 1793

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Color of the Day - Scheele’s green

Scheele’s green, 1870 – It is injurious to wear a green dress, of the colour have been imparted to it by means of Scheele’s green, which is arsenite of copper – a deadly poison. I have known the arsenic to fly off from a green dress in the form of powder, and to produce in consequence, ill health.
Advice to a Mother, 1870

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Color of the Day - Cinnamon

Cinnamon, 1850 – Take half a pound of ground camwood, tie it in a thin bag, and put it into a brass or tin kettle with two gallons of soft water. Boil it a quarter of an hour. Then strain it, and put in the article, wet thoroughly in water. Dip it carefully, and repeat the dipping till it takes the colour completely. With the dye that is left, you may obtain different shades of brown by adding, in small quantities, more or less copperas; giving it another boil.
Miss Leslie’s Lady’s House-Book, 1850

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Mourning Advice in England: 1724

December 12th, 1724 …I will answer Mrs. Carter’s questions about her mourning to you. I think her in the right in buying a white satin to top her black, for the reasons she gives me; but that she can only wear as a nightgown {informal day dress}, and if she was in town she should wear only mourning when she is dressed {formally}, but in the country that will not be minded, white gloves, coloured fan and coloured shoes, and edgings if she pleases, and black or white short apron and girdle, which she likes best. My mama must not wear black handkerchiefs with her second year’s mourning.
The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany, 1882

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Color of the Day - Italian pink

Italian pink, 1835 – Dutch pink, English and Italian Pinks, are sufficiently absurd names of yellow colours prepared by dyeing, whitening, &c. with vegetal yellow tinctures, in the manner of rose pink, from which they borrow their name. They are bright yellow colours, extensively used in distemper and for paper-staining, and other ordinary purposes;
Chromatography, 1835

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Color of the Day - Verdegrease

Verdegrease, 1735 – grind it with the juice of rue and a little weak gum water, and you will have a moft pure green; if you would diaper with it grind it with lye of rue (or the decoction thereof) and it will make a hoary green. … It is a good Green, but fubject to decay; being dry upon paper, it will be of a higher colour than when firft laid on; …To dye a Verdegreafe-Green. Take water a fufficient quantity, make it as hot as you can endure your hand in it, in which put verdegreafe two ounces in fine powder;
Dictionarium Polygraphicum, 1735

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Color of the Day - Bois de rose

Bois de rose, 1874 – One of the newest colors is called bois de rose; it is made in three shades, which are constantly used in one costume. The lightest shade is an unhealthy salmon; the middle shade reminds us more of raspberry ice-cream than anything else; and the darker shade is a rich claret. These shades will, of course, not be worn for street dresses, but for carriage, dinner, or watering-place toilets.
Godey's Lady's Book, June 1874

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Color of the Day - Woad

Woad, 1667 – Woad is made of a Weed, fown upon ftrong new-broken Land, perfectly cleered from all ftones and weeds, cut feveral times by the top leaves, then ground, or rather chopt with a peculiar Mill for that purpofe; which being done feveral times, is made up in Balls and dryed in the Sun; the dryer the year is, the better the Woad. Englifh Woad is counted the ftrongeft, it is commonly tryed by ftaining of white Paper with it, or a white Limed wall, and if the Colour be a French-green it is good. … The making and ufing of Woad, is one of the moft myfterious, nice, and hazardous operations in Dying: It is one of the moft lafting Colours that is Dyed: An intenfe Woad Colour is almost black, that is to fay, of a Damfon-colour; this Colour is the foundation of fo many others in its degree, that the Dyers have a certain Scale, or number of Stalls, whereby to compute the lightnefs and deepneft of this Colour.
History of the Royal-Society of London, 1667

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Color of the Day - Eosine

Eosine – A new dye known under the name of Eosine has recently been added to the list of red dyes, …The word ‘Eosine’ signifies day-dawn, implying that the colour is that of the rosy hue of morning. On silk, the colour is that of the rose, but on wool it is scarlet.
Textile Colourist, November 1876

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Color of the Day - Settled Grief

Settled Grief – “You wish to inspect some half-mourning, Madam? the second stage of distress? As such, allow me to recommend this satin – intended for grief when it has subsided; alleviated, you see, Ma’am, from a dead black to a dull lead color. It is a Parisian novelty, Ma’am, called ‘Settled Grief,’ and is very much worn by ladies of a certain age,”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, January 1853

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Color of the Day - Cinder

Cinder, 1668 – And if you will die your wooll of a Cinder colour, which is a very good colour, you fhall put your Red wooll into your puke Liquor; and then it will fail lefs to be of a Cinder colour.
A VVay to Get Wealth, 1668

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Color of the Day - Sanguine

Sanguine, 1380 – The chief reds were scarlet, named by the Wife of Bath, &c.; sanguine, or crimson, and grain, imported from Portugal – i.e., “vermus or vermilion” – in fact cochineal, a red so fast and permanent that the word “ingrained” had become in the fourteenth century, and still remains, a general term for a fast colour of any kind.
Contemporary Review, September 1883

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Color of the Day - Grass green

Grass green, 1872 – There are some bright greens which are becoming to the face, but only a few shades. I say bright in contradistinction to sage. A dull grass-green with a slight yellow tinge in it is a picturesque color, and often proves a success in a woollen day-dress, – some material, that is to say, without gloss. In silks or satins it is nearly as coarse and unpleasant as a pure bright green, innocent of any hint of blue or yellow; and when worn, as hundreds of women persist in wearing it, with a mass of scarlet, is so horrible as to give positive pain to a sensitive eye. In any concert-room or large assemblage a scarlet opera-cloak usually covers a green dress, and is capped by a green bow in the hair. One may count these unmakes by the dozen; and they arise from the generally-diffused milliners’ creed, that scarlet and emerald must go hand in hand, because green and red are complementaries. The vulgarity and disagreeableness of this mixture ought to be apparent to anybody with the very rudiments of artistic feeling.
Every Saturday, November 16, 1872

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Color of the Day - Porreye

Porreye, 1350 – Fr. Probably, leek-green colour, in cloth. In the Nominale of the 15th Cent. leeks are rendered ‘porray’. Stowe in his Survey mentions ‘medley brune and porre colour;’ which latter, however, he translates ‘purple.’ Lincoln, Kendal, Ghent, and Douai, were noted for their green cloths in the Middle Ages.
Liber Custumarum, 1860

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