A review of "Shadow Song"

"Shadow Song" by Lorina Stephens is a beautiful novel of historical fiction, very much in the British tradition.

The novel begins in 1830's England, but quickly moves to the wilds of Canada, and you can feel the author's love of this wild country and its native inhabitants.

The protagonist, Danielle Fleming, moves from an affluent life in England through trials which prepare her to withstand the harsh life in colonial Canada, and which open her to the beauties and the magic of the untamed forest. This is a story about growing up, in years as well as in wisdom. I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to give away any of the story. It is quite worth going on this journey for yourself.

This was a fascinating read. I couldn't put the novel down.

You can buy this novel at http://www.5rivers.org/, or at almost any online bookseller.

Why write a book about color?

I started writing Elephant's Breath & London Smoke to fill in my own ignorance of colors, especially Victorian era color, but the more I researched, the more colors appeared that I had never heard of before. And in reading Victorian transcriptions of Elizabethan wills, I discovered colors I had never dreamed of. What was Gallant color? I could take a stab at Ratte color, but what was Sad color? Some colors, like Chesen, I could only guess at, but others, like Russet (which started out gray!) I could define with the help of dictionaries written in 1440 and 1530.

I read or skimmed thousands of books – my bibliography is 12 pages long of sources I used, and not everything I used (usually if I only pulled a single reference from it) is in there.

I own hundreds of Victorian magazines, and I started by going through them and writing down every color definition I could find. That did not satisfy my curiosity, so I began to look in Google books. Jackpot! Sort of – the Victorian era books in Google caused me to expand the scope of the project. At first I just read fashion magazines. Fun stuff, but short on definitions. That lead me to look for early books on color – which turned out to be books on fossils and mineralogy in general. Lots of definitions! I was beginning to see the light!

And then I stumbled on Victorian transcriptions of wills and inventories. I became addicted to pre-1600 wills. To my great frustration, most wills written before, oh, 1450, were written in Latin. But there is the occasional will in old English, or in a mix of Latin and English. While hunting for definitions of the colors found in the wills (what was New color?), I found transcriptions of a 1440 English-Latin dictionary and of a 1530 English-French dictionary. They weren’t always helpful, but they proved that certain colors were colors and not just fabric types.

My book is available from my publisher, at http://www.5rivers.org/ in Canada, or online from Barnes and Nobles, Amazon.com, and Books-a-Million.

A review by Sandy and Pierre Pettinger

My sincere thanks to Sandy and Pierre for writing this review.

There is a wealth of sources for historical clothing and costume research. The variations in corsets, sleeves, skirts and jackets since the 16th century can be traced nearly to the year. Fashion reviews from the period are plentiful and not overly difficult to interpret.

But what do you make of a reference to an Abraham skirt with fauvre ribbon embellishments? Would you realize the skirt was a dingy yellow and the ribbons were deep yellow? Unlikely; and most sources would not be able to enlighten you. By dint of extensive research and library searches, you could probably find out, but the road would be difficult.

Elephant’s Breath & London Smoke helps address this difficulty. Historic costume researcher and pattern designer Deb Salisbury has collated references from hundreds of sources to produce this fascinating palette of colour names from the last 400 years.

She begins with the dictionary. Over 200 pages of color names and descriptions from Aaz (a red dye from India) to Zulu pink (a pale strawberry tinge). Dictionaries, of course, aren’t meant to be read straight through. But dipping into the entries a bit at a time and finding those gems of shade, pigment and language is a delight.

Deb also includes sections with commentary from various periods addressing colour and fashion, historical color names ( covering cloths, dyeing, make-up and even colours of horses and livery), colour symbolism and harmony of colour. It also touches on the conventions of mourning colors. These sections are wonderful to read. The words of the period are essential to understanding and appreciation of the fashions.

This book is a delight and an essential addition to any costume library.

And what are Elephant’s Breath and London Smoke? Well what would be the fun if we told you?

A review of my upcoming book

Many thanks to Frances Grimble for reviewing my upcoming book!

The intriguingly titled Elephant's Breath and London Smoke: Historical Colour Names, Definitions & Uses is focused specifically on colors for textiles. This is indicated by the quotes selected, and implicit in the book's introduction.

It is a straightforward work. The editor, Deb Salisbury, has expended an astonishing amount of industry in combing public domain sources for references to color names. And there they are, 231 pages of quotes, alphabetized by color name, with the sources for the quotes at the end of each. Varying color definitions from contemporary fashion magazines, quotes from Victorian books on Renaissance fashions, mentions of colors with no definition: It's all there. There is no color in the book--no swatches--but in fact, there is no way anyone can reliably match an old color description to a color on a Pantone fan. The author provides 42 pages of longer quotes on colors, things such as Victorian discussions of which colors best suit various complexions and hair colors. She does not attempt to summarize trends in color fashions or in color naming (a different issue from color use, and closely related to textile and fashion marketing), nor does she provide a history of dyeing technology. This is clearly intended to be a dictionary, not an analytical work. Sixteen pages of bibliography are provided so that the reader can compare them to the sources listed in the quotes, judge for himself or herself whether the source is reliable, and seek further information.

In summary, this book could considerably shorten the search for definitions of color names by providing quotes from numerous sources--fashion magazines and fiction as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias--and of different dates.

---Frances Grimble

Lavolta Press

Beginning a new year ...

My publisher gave me a New Year present - my first review for Elephant's Breath and London Smoke - and I am thrilled!

"Over the holiday season I received the manuscript for Elephant's Breath & London Smoke from Deb Salisbury, and I am simply stunned by the breadth, scope and monumental work of this book. I firmly believe it will become an indispensable reference tool for those interested in historical fashion and colour terminology, and I'll even go farther to say I believe Elephant's Breath & London Smoke will become synonymous with other great books such as those written by Janet Arnold, R.L. Shep and others. I cannot wait to release it."

She plans to release it in February. Her website is http://www.5rivers.org/ - please have a look!


I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year celebration.

Peace and Joy

I wish everyone peace and joy for the upcoming year.

...

Off to the Publisher!

I finally got my book off to the Publisher.

Elephant's Breath and London Smoke:

Historical Color Names, Definitions, and Uses

It is a Dictionary of Colors - in the words of writers from each era, from Chaucer up to around 1920. It is mostly geared toward color in fashion and in dyeing and painting, but it takes definitions of colors from any source. I even have listings that define what that color means in an aura.

Plus I've added sections on: Advice for what colors to wear, Mourning colors, Horses' colors, and comments on colors, including the restrictions on colors in the Statutes in the 1550's.

I also made a list of the Elizabethan colours I found in wills and inventories that weren't on the approved lists.

I wrote the introduction, but almost everything else is from original sources or Victorian transcriptions (and interpretations) with each source noted after the listing. This is a serious resource for historians, costumers, and everyone who enjoys color!

See my website for more information,
http://www.mantua-maker.com/
or go to http://www.5rivers.org/.