Pigments & dyes

Ochre

Prehistory to present

Widely available and inexpensive — one of the most common historical pigments.

Egyptian blue

Ancient Egypt to the Roman period

Required deliberate high-temperature manufacture rather than simple mining or grinding, but became widely produced and traded once the process was established.

Ultramarine (natural)

Medieval period to 19th century (before synthetic ultramarine)

Extremely expensive — for centuries one of the costliest pigments available, often priced comparably to gold.

Indigo

Antiquity to the late 19th century (before synthetic indigo)

A major historical trade commodity; cost varied by region and period but was widely traded internationally.

Tyrian Purple

Antiquity

Enormously expensive; the sheer number of snails required made it one of the costliest dyes in antiquity.

Vermilion / Cinnabar

Antiquity to 19th century (largely replaced by cadmium red in the 20th)

Moderately to highly valued depending on period and source purity.

High toxicity

Lead White

Antiquity to the 20th century

Widely available and relatively inexpensive for most of its long history.

Historically fatal toxicity

Arsenic Greens (Scheele's Green and Paris Green)

Late 18th to late 19th century

Prized for its vividness relative to earlier green pigments, and widely adopted commercially.

Historically fatal toxicity

Prussian Blue

18th century to present

Significantly cheaper than natural ultramarine, making a strong blue pigment widely affordable for the first time.

Low toxicity

Mauveine

Mid-19th century

The first commercially successful synthetic dye — rapidly commercialised, making a vivid purple far more affordable than historical natural purples.

Low toxicity

Cochineal / Carmine

Pre-Columbian period to present

A major and highly valuable trade commodity after European contact with the Americas; still produced commercially today.

Synthetic Aniline Dyes (general)

Mid-to-late 19th century

Rapidly made a wide range of vivid, previously rare or expensive colours affordable and available at industrial scale for the first time.

Low toxicity