Introduction, in: Printing Colour 1700-1830

This introduction presents the volume’s objectives in the context of recent developments in—and longstanding omissions from—the fields of art, book and print history. It surveys the current state of scholarship and describes the new contributions made by each of the 28 chapters. Some present new methodologies for reassessing colour in the long 18th century, for example through heritage science. Others present newly discovered, or unjustly overlooked, colour prints, tools for colour printing and archival records. It explains how they expand the corpus from a limited number of fine prints and celebrated scientific images to millions of colour-printed objects, from ladies’ muffs to polemical pottery. It also contextualises how many were able to newly identify producers and audiences, especially women. Finally, it explains how the contributions redefine the corpus of colour printing and offer new avenues for future scholarship in the long 18th century in Europe, including Scandinavia and Russia, as well as some areas under colonial control.