Colour Printing Inks and Colour Inking in 18th-Century Europe

Abstract In many ways, the history of colour printing is the history of often overlooked and little understood materials: historical colour printing inks. While the history of printing has focused on stylistic trends or, to a lesser degree, the engineering of the printing press, printing inks were profoundly entwined with developments in tools, machines, and approaches, and allowed printing surfaces or matrices to be worked in new ways to create new styles. This introductory chapter offers an overview of the ways colour printing inks were prepared in the long 18th century, whether by craftswomen and men who combined ingredients to informal recipes or factory workers who formulated colour printing inks from standardised components, including synthetic colourants, using mechanised if not industrial means. It then describes common approaches to applying colour printing inks, for single-sheet artworks and book illustrations, as well as cognate, cross-fertilising trades including textile, pottery, and wallpaper.