Rating: 
Summary: From professional artist to enthusiast
Review:
I am a professional painter who is interested in the history of color. Victoria's book gives insight into the full spectrum. It gave me the presence of mind to look at my palette different and question what colors I used on a daily basis. It also made me think of the archival ness of my pigments and who will appreciate this in 200 years. This book is fact, fiction and fun. I would recommend this for every professional oil painter who takes their craft seriously, and any enthusiast who likes a good tale.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: An incredible weaving together of science, religion, art, government, exploration... Finlay travels to the remotest places of the globe to understand where our pigments and dyes originate. She brings the esoteric to light in a empathetic and engaging manner. Recommended to anyone working with color.
Rating:
Summary: A visual feast
Review: I fell in love with this book - the premise, the writing, the information - 18 months ago. In fact, I've bought multiple copies of the book as gifts for artsy friends. So, when visiting the museum of Albrecht Duher's house in Nurnberg last year, I was absolutely blown away by a map on the wall, with ribbons attached first to an origin location on the map, and then to a large shell, on a shelf beneath the map, which contained the designated pigment. It was as though Ms. Finlay's book had come to life. The most amazing facet of this discovery was that Duher lived 300+ years ago. Having read her book made this visit to Duher's studio so much more informative.
Rating:
Summary: Learned so much
Review: I recommend this book to everyone. Ms. Finlay's research into the history of paint pigments offers so many interesting facts, from the source of the color known as 'mummy brown', to the toxicity of the original white pigment, to what gives some soda its red tint.
In this book, not only are we treated to information on hues in the paintbox, but learn some interesting facts about the people, culture, and geography of the areas of the world where these colors originated.
Rating:
Summary: Learned so much
Review: I recommend this book to everyone. Ms. Finlay's research into the history of paint pigments offers so many interesting facts, from the source of the color known as 'mummy brown', to the toxicity of the original white pigment, to what gives some soda its red tint.
In this book, not only are we treated to information on hues in the paintbox, but learn some interesting facts about the people, culture, and geography of the areas of the world where these colors originated.
Rating:
Summary: Branche'
Review: The materials of art class I took at Berkley in the 60's, (Was the professor named Weber?), started a fascination with colors for me. I think that Findlay's book might do the same for others. It is both scholarly, and well written. She follows the trail of ultramarine blue by driving and hiking through warring Afghanistan to the mines high in the wild hills, and Tyrian purple from Tyre, around the Mediterranean to Mexico to England to find how sea snails can create two glorious purples. "Color" reads like a travelogue.
2 suggestions for later editions:
1. More color plates
2.The footnotes should have been at the foot of each page to make it easier for us to enjoy them in context.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but definitely not a textbook
Review: This book is as much a travelogue as it is a book about the history of color, but overall I enjoyed it very much. I had never read anything on the subject before, so I found it to be a good introduction.
Finlay covers a broad range of geography and history and because of that, there are times when I wish she would have gone into a little bit more detail on specific dyes, historical periods, cultures, etc.
On the other hand, the book also has a nice bibliography and quite a few endnotes, so if I want to pursue a topic further I probably have a decent starting place. It also has a nice index.
Finlay sometimes seems like a bit of a ditz and she takes some absolutely INSANE chances in her research, particularly in the section where she sneaks into Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban to track down the lapis used for ultramarine. I also don't think I would have wandered around rural India without an interpreter or guide and with no command of the native language myself just to track down an old old legend that Indian yellow comes from the urine of cows that only eat mangoes.
I personally would have liked to have seen more information about materials used in European painting and also more information about material currently available today, even including the synthetic derivatives (Finlay stops at the invention of the coaltar dyes). But, in reading this book I was also introduced to a number of interesting topics that I probably would not have stumbled onto otherwise (the sections on woad and indigo, for example) - so the tradeoff was worthwhile. The discussion of the historical, economic and cultural contexts that affected the history of particular dyes or pigments was also very interesting.
Overall, a good introductory book that is a pleasant and engaging read, but it is definitely not a textbook or current paint buying guide. I liked it.
Rating:
Summary: History through a kaleidoscope
Review: This book takes you on rollicking adventures all over the globe in pursuit of the origins of natural pigments and dyes used throughout history. The writer is one gutsy lady - she's the kind who will go to Afghanistan, twice, while still under Taliban rule, to see some idle lapis lazuli mines just to complete her story. So the reader gets the benefits of her audacious journeys minus the formidable dangers, visa and permit applications that never get approved, and the flapping boot that she had to endure.Overall, this book suited me just fine. I am interested in color, love travelogues, and appreciate it when I can get an intelligent account of something minus the pretension, i.e. with some of the earthy details of everyday living and the real, human emotional reactions that go with it. I enjoyed reading about Finlay's interactions with people of all different colors, cultures, social stations, languages, and cuisines. I was amazed at how she would simply up and fly to a tiny, exotic place mentioned in letters or other historical documents as the source of some pigment, armed with only persistence and the expectation of good luck - and then actually succeed in tracking down a story for her book. I wonder how many disappointments and wild goose chases she omitted from the text! Prepare for journeys on the rough through aboriginal Australia, Spanish saffron farms, Monghyr and Barasat, India, Mixteco-speaking Mexico, Tyre, Lebanon, and the Dunhuang caves in Western China. You will learn why Spain worked so hard to keep the origin of cochineal red secret, how Indian farmers rebelled against forced labor on indigo plantations, about yellow and orange ochre body paint in the Australian outback, deadly Scheele's green (is that what really killed Napoleon?), and mummy brown, which really did come from mummies. I especially like how this book draws on history that I have a passing acquaintance with and suddenly makes it feel close and real, peopled with men and women like anybody you know. I didn't much care for the 'I would like to imagine...' parts, since once something is in print it is so easily cited and re-cited and soon becomes part of the historical canon - I think Finlay could have practiced a bit more restraint and omitted these. I read the original UK version of this book, entitled _Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox_, and wish that books from the UK could just stay in British English for the US market, maybe with footnotes added for clarity when needed - it would help increase mutual understanding, for one thing, and it's also nice to keep the original flavor of the writing. Order, and get ready for a heady, dizzying journey into colors with a past.
Rating: 
Summary: More about her journeys than the actual colors
Review: This is a book about writing a book about colors. The actual color information often gets lost in the oh-so-charming stories of how she researched the information. The author has a fine eye for the "telling detail." And often that's all you get - a string of telling details, without a backbone. And when she wanders off into "I like to imagine that..." I just want to throw the book across the room. I think it's a fantastic idea for a book. And if it had more substance and less chatter, it would be a fantastic book.
Rating:
Summary: More about her journeys than the actual colors
Review: This is a book about writing a book about colors. The actual color information often gets lost in the oh-so-charming stories of how she researched the information. The author has a fine eye for the "telling detail." And often that's all you get - a string of telling details, without a backbone. And when she wanders off into "I like to imagine that..." I just want to throw the book across the room. I think it's a fantastic idea for a book. And if it had more substance and less chatter, it would be a fantastic book.
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