King’s blue

Cobalt Blue consists essentially of oxides of cobalt and aluminium with more or less zinc oxide. It is obtained by calcining a mixture of alum and cobalt sulphate, and is used by artists in painting porcelain. Save for this it has now no commercial value.13 Cobalt blue is also known as Cobalt Ultramarine, Thenard s Blue, and King s Blue. 

King s Blue. A blue pigment, being mixed cobalt oxide and alumina. 

Flexibility of meaning persisted well beyond this period. According to Tingry (1804), azure was a vitreous oxide of cobalt (that is, smalt) and also called enamel blue, saffer blue and Saxony blue, as it is manufactured on a large scale in Saxony, where mines of cobalt are abundant. From this circumstance only it has acquired the denomination of Saxon blue. Ure (1875-78) on the other hand writes of The darkest-coloured smalts, known as King s-blue or azure. According to Heaton (1928), azure cobalt was a pale cobalt blue . 

Cobalt group Cobalt aluminium oxide Cobalt arsenate Cobalt borate Smalt Binder s cobalt blue Cerulean blue King s blue Konigsblau Leithner s blue, Leyden blue New blue Thmard s blue Wenzel s blue Bacci Picollo (1996) Binder (1857) Bomford et al. (1990) 56 Colour Index (1971) ll iAb Helmi Attia (1992) Noll Hangst (1975a) Riederer(1974) Rose(1916)285 Terty(1893)27-28 Thenard (1803 )... 

Bersch (1901) lists King s blue among terms for cobalt blue, made in a similar manner to Rinmann s green q.v.). The Colour Index (1971 Cl 77346) lists both smalt and cobalt blue as synonymous with this term, while Doemer (1935) indicates that it is cobalt blue or synthetic ultramarine with cremnitz white. 

Only in the 1960s, indigo experienced an unexpected comeback. It was James Dean s blue jeans and leather jacket which became initially a symbol of protest, and then the uniform for a whole generation. Indigo, the king of colourants, and once reserved for the establishment, became the colour of the non-establishment and the label for a particular life style. 

It is entirely an Australian plant, being principally found in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson. It occurs on sandy soil mostly, and covers many hundred acres of ground between Botany, La Perouse, and the coast. It has been found north of Manly and also on the Blue Mountains at King s Tableland, Wentworth, and Lawson. 

Throughout history civilization has treasured the rarity and beauty of fancy colored diamonds. The stunning diamond from India known as the Hope Diamond, once a part of many royal inventories, is now the premier attraction of the Smithsonian Institution (see color Fig. 4.3.1). While the size of the diamond at 45.52 carats has certainly contributed to the public s interest in the gem, the intense blue-violet color of the stone is generally considered to be its most captivating feature. First described in the mid 1600s by the French merchant traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier as un beau violet (a beautiful violet), the gem also acquired the title Blue Diamond of the Crown or the Royal French Blue when in possession of King Louis XIV of France. The blue color is attributed to trace amounts of boron in the carbon matrix of the stone. Substitution of carbon atoms by nitrogen leads to yellow diamonds, such as the famous canary yellow 128.51-carat Tiffany diamond. 

Nonmeat-eaters shouldn t let the lack of health food choices deter them from visiting this wonderful state. Tennessee is worth a visit for its music, not its food. Blues, rock and country music find their birthplaces in the state s back alleys. And of course, none other than the King himself haunted Tennessee s hills (and some say he still does). 

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