Ian Dooley (School of Advanced Study, University of London) on 'Chemical Colour, the ‘Coal-tar’ Pigment Revolution in British Printing Ink 1850–1885'
This talk explores the introduction of synthetic organic pigments for printing ink from the 1850s to 1885. Synthetic pigments introduced brilliant never-before-seen colours for printing that could not be produced by naturally derived pigments. But we don’t know much about when these pigments were commercially adopted, or which ones in fact were used. Ian's research analyzes an untapped resource to answer these questions: printing ink “specimen books”, ink manufacturers’ printed samples of available colours, to track the introduction, appearance, and uses of these pigments. Specimen books reveal the affordances and limitations of using these new colours, their continued impact on cultural heritage collections, and how they forever changed how books looked.
Ian is a third year PhD student whose thesis, Printing Ink Manufacturing in Britain and Its Impact on Print Culture and Society: 1850–1915, draws a missing link between the chemical experimentations, technological innovations, and business decisions of British ink manufactures and the technological and visual developments of printing during the late nineteenth century.
https://ies.sas.ac.uk/people/ian-dooley
Organizer: Elizabeth Savage