In the 1870s, at the height of the cult of mourning, Whitby’s jet industry employed over 1,400 men and boys at between £3 and £4 a week. Their wares were bought by the conspicuously bereaved the world over; B. Altman & Co. department store in New York proudly advertised its stock of “Whitby jet earrings” in the 1879–80 catalog.4
By the 1880s much of the best jet in Whitby had been consumed—artisans had needed to mine for it from as early as the 1840s—and the jet carvers were beginning to resort to the softer, more brittle kind that was inclined to break. Hardier and cheaper alternatives—like black cut glass, fancifully known as “French jet”—were used instead. In 1884 the Whitby jet industry could support only 300 jobs on the paltry weekly wage of 25 shillings. Simultaneously, the public performance of grief was increasingly seen as vulgar, rather than refined. Bertram Puckle, in his 1926 book on the history of funerary customs, wrote of “the hideous lumps of crudely manufactured jet which it is still considered by some classes of society to be necessary to wear when ‘in mourning.’”5 In 1936 only five jet workers remained in business. The First World War had all but extinguished the West’s taste for sartorial grieving.6
Melanin
In folklore it is rare for someone or something to get the better of a black animal, but in one of Aesop’s fables, a fox manages it. Seeing a crow in a tree clasping a hunk of cheese in its beak, the fox lavishly compliments the bird’s glossy black plumage. Flattered, the crow preens its feathers, and when the fox asks to hear her sing, she immediately opens her beak, dropping the cheese down to the waiting fox.
Perhaps one should not judge the vain crow too harshly: her coloring is rather special. Unlike plants, the animal kingdom possesses a pigment, melanin, that allows for a true black. There are two types, eumelanin and pheomelanin, which, deployed in varying concentrations, account for a vast spectrum of skin, fur, and feathers from roan to tawny and, in the highest concentrations, sable.
In humans, varying levels of eumelanin and pheomelanin determine skin color. Our earliest ancestors in Africa evolved to have dark skin with high concentrations of melanin in order to help protect them from the harmful ultraviolet wavelengths in the sun’s rays.1 Descendants of the groups who left Africa some 120,000 years ago gradually developed paler skin as they traveled northward, because it was a genetic advantage in regions with less light.2
The black animal par excellence, though, is the raven. Not only are ravens visually striking, but they have long been known for their intelligence. Because of this they have always had cultural prominence: ravens, for example, have attended the Greek god Apollo, the Celtic god Lugus, and the Norse god Odin. Odin’s ravens were particularly esteemed. Named Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory), they traveled the world on his behalf, gathering information for him and making him all but omniscient.3 Early Germanic warriors wore the symbol of the crow on their clothes, and apparently drank the bird’s blood before battles. So entrenched was this custom that in A.D. 751 Boniface, the archbishop of Mainz, wrote to Pope Zachary listing the animals eaten by pagan Germans—including storks, wild horses, and hares—and asking which ones he should try to ban first. The pope’s reply, when it came, was clear: crows and ravens were at the very top of the list. Zachary was possibly thinking of Leviticus, where it says the raven is the bird “which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination.”4
Metaphorical black animals have also plagued humanity. In a letter dated June 28, 1783, Samuel Johnson talked of his depression as a black dog:
When I rise my breakfast is solitary, the black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he continues barking . . . Night comes at last, and some hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from a habitation like this? 5
A century later John Ruskin’s horrifying description of the onset of a psychotic break begins: “A large black cat sprang forth from behind the mirror.”6 Another man famously dogged by the specter of depression was Winston Churchill. He wrote to his wife in July 1911 telling her of a German doctor who had cured a friend’s depression. “I think this man might be useful to me—if my black dog returns,” writes Churchill. “He seems quite away from me now—it is such a relief. All the colors come back into the picture. Brightest of all your dear face.”7
Pitch black
“In the beginning,” the Bible begins, “the earth was without form and void: darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Then God said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Believer or not, the power of this image—God bringing light to the deep darkness—is undeniable.
Pitch black is the most fearsome kind of darkness. For humans, fear of it, perhaps lingering from the days before we could reliably make fire, is universal and ancient. In the dark we become acutely aware of our limitations as a species: our senses of smell and hearing are too blunt to be of much use in navigating the world, our bodies are soft, and we cannot outpace predators. Without sight, we are vulnerable. Our terror is so visceral we are wont to see nighttime as pitch black, even when it isn’t. Thanks to the moon, the stars, and, more recently, fire and electricity, nights so dark that we cannot see anything are rare, and we know that, sooner or later, the sun will rise again. “Pitch” is an appropriate epithet: just as the resinous wood-tar residue might stick to a careless hand, darkness can seem to cling and weigh us down. Perhaps this is why we experience night, figuratively at least, as more than just an absence of light. It is unyielding: a daily helping of death.
Traces of our aversion to night and blackness can be found across cultures and eras. Nyx, the ancient Greek goddess of night, is the daughter of Chaos; her own children include sleep, but also, more ominously, anguish, discord, and death.1 Nott, a night goddess from Germanic and Scandinavian traditions, wears black and rides in a chariot drawn by a dark horse, pulling darkness across the sky like a drape.2 Through fear, pitch black has also laid symbolic claim to death, which is, in the most desolate view, a night without end. Both Yama, the Hindu god of death, and Anubis, his ancient Egyptian counterpart, have black skin. Kali, the fearsome Hindu warrior goddess of both creation and destruction, whose name means “She who is black” in Sanskrit, is usually depicted with dark skin, wearing a necklace of skulls, and brandishing swords and a severed head.3
Many cultures have worn black in mourning for the dead. In Plutarch’s telling of the legend of the Minotaur, the young tributes that were sacrificed each year to the creature were sent off in a ship with black sails, “since they were heading to certain destruction.”4 Fear of the deepest dark has also left its mark on language: the Latin word for the darkest matte black is ater (there is another word, niger, reserved for the glossy, benign variety of black), which led to Latin words for ugly, sad, and dirty, and is also the etymological root for the English word atrocious.5
The most eloquent expression of humanity’s fear of pitch black is also one of the oldest. It comes from the Book of the Dead, the Egyptian funerary text used for about 1,500 years until around 50 B.C. Finding himself in the underworld, Osiris, the scribe Ani, describes it thus:
What manner [of land] is this into which I have come? It hath not water, it hath not air; it is deep, unfathomable, it is black as the blackest night, and men wander helplessly therein.6
Glossary of other interesting colors
A
Amethyst Violet or purple, from the precious stone
Apricot Soft peach
Aquamarine Blue-green, the color of the sea;also a color of beryl
Asparagus Toned-down spring green
Azure Bright, sky blue, used in heraldry
B
Bastard Warm gold of the light-gels used in stage lighting to suggest sunshine onstage
Beryl A translucent mineral; usually pale green, blue, or yellow
Bister Brownish pigment made from burnt wood
Blackcu
rrant Deep purple, from the berry
Blood Intense, saturated red, usually with subtle blue undertones
Blush Pinky beige, like flushed cheeks
Bordeaux Deep cherry, from the French wine
Bronze The color of the metal; darker and a bitduller than gold
Burgundy A deep purple-brown, from the French wine
C
Cadet blue Gray-greenish blue, from military uniforms
Café au lait Pale brown, the color of coffee mixed with milk
Capri blue Sapphire; taken from the color of the water in the Grotta Azzurra on the island of Capri
Carmine Mid-crimson red; a pigment made using cochineal
Carnation Originally from Latin carneus, “flesh-colored” (used in French heraldry as the color of flesh); now creamy mid-pink
Chartreuse A pale yellow-green; from the liqueur made by the Carthusian monks at La Grande Chartreuse monastery in France
Cherry Deep red with a little pink
Chestnut Red-brown, like the seed of the chestnut tree
Chocolate Rich brown
Cinnabar A bright red mineral; a source of vermilion
Citrine Originally lemon-colored (though the semiprecious stone is warmer); it is often used now as the tertiary color between orange and green
Copper Reddish, rosy gold, like the metal; used to describe hair, it denotes a more intense fiery orange
Coquelicot Bright red with a hint of orange; French for Papaver rhoeas, the wild poppy
Coral Soft pinky orange like faded, salt-encrusted reefs (traditionally the most desired shade of coral has been red)
Cornflower A bright blue with a little violet; from the flower
Cream Pale yellow; rich off-white
Crimson Deep red inclined to purple; historically from kermes dye
Cyan Bright blue with a little green
D
Delft blue An inky shade; from the pottery made in the Dutch city of Delft in the eighteenth century
Denim The blue of indigo-dyed jeans
Dove gray Soft, cool-toned mid-gray
Duck egg Blue-green with a little gray
Dun A gray-brown; often used to describe livestock
E
Eau de Nil A pale green thought to resemble the color of the Nile River
Ebony Very dark brown; from the tropical hardwood, usually from the genus Diospyrus
Ecru Pale off-white, the color of unbleached cloth; from crudus, Latin for “raw”
F
Forest Used by Walter Scott to refer to Lincoln green; now slightly blue mid-green
French gray Very pale gray-green
Fulvous Dull orange; like tawny, often used to describe animal colors, usually birds’ plumage
G
Gaudy green Like Lincoln green; cloth dyed with indigo and weld
Glaucous Pale gray blue-green
Goldenrod Strong yellow; after the flower
Grape A violet shade; much brighter than real grapes
Grenadine Originally a peachy orange; now red like the liqueur
Gules Red; from heraldry
Gunmetal Mid-blue-gray
H
Heather Pre–twentieth century a synonym for mottled; now pinky purple
Hooker’s green Bright green; Prussian blue mixed with gamboge; named after British illustrator William Hooker (1779–1832)
I
Incarnadine A fierce, saturated pinkish red
J
Jasper Soft green; for the color of the most revered chalcedony
L
Lavender Pale bluish purple; usually a tint much paler than the blooms themselves
Lemon yellow The color of the fruit
Lily white Very pale cream with a bit of warmth
Lime Very bright green; originally after the fruit, but now usually much more luminous, even neon
Lincoln green Color of cloth traditionally made in Lincoln, an English city; worn by Robin Hood and his merry men
Livid From lividus, Latin meaning “dull,” leaden color; also used to describe the color of bruised flesh
M
Magnolia Pale pink-beige
Mahogany Red brown, after the hardwood
Malachite Glassy bright green; the color of the mineral
Mallow A pinky lilac color; from the flower
Mandarin True orange; from the fruit
Maroon Originally nut brown—marron means “chestnut” in French—now brownish dark red
Midnight Dark blue of the night sky
Milk white Pale grayish cream
Moonlight Very pale peach
Morocco Brick red; originally a color of painted leather
Moss Yellowed green; the color of moss
Mouse A gray dun brown, similar to fallow
Mustard Strong yellow, like the condiment
N
Navy Dark blue with a little gray
Nymphea Mid-pinkish purple
O
Ocher Pale yellowish brown; from the earth pigment containing ferric oxide
Old rose Dusty pink with blue undertones
Olive drab Green with plenty of gray and brown; dull olive
Onyx Black; from the chalcedony mineral
Oxblood A dark rust-red
P
Peacock A saturated blue-green
Pea green Fresh springy green
Pearl Very pale lilac-gray
Peridot Sharp green; from the mineral, a kind of olivine
Periwinkle Lilac-blue, after the flower
Phthalo green Piney blue-green, after a synthetic pigment; also comes in deep blue sometimes known as Monastrall
Pistachio A waxy green; the color of the nut kernel and ice cream
Plum Reddish purple; after the fruit
Pomegranate The cranberry-pink color of the fruit
Pompadour Warm pale blue; after the eighteenth-century marquise, mistress of King Louis XV
Pompeian red A dark brick red; from the color of the houses discovered by archaeologists in Pompeii
Poppy A clear brilliant red; from the flower
Primrose Pale yellow with a little green; from the flower
Puke Dark brown; named after a woolen fabric
Q
Quimper Soft cornflower blue; the color of dusk
R
Racing green Dark evergreen; associated with early British car racing
Raspberry Rich pinky red; the color of the berry
Rose Delicate pink or pale crimson
Ruby Rich wine shade of red
S
Sable Black; from heraldry; resembles the fur from the small weasel-like animal of the same name
Salmon A warm pinky orange
Sapphire Dense blue; the color of the precious stone
Shell Pale pink
Shrimp The color of boiled prawn shells
Sienna A yellow-brown; from the ocher mined from the Italian town of the same name;redder when heated: burnt sienna
Slate Mid-azure gray; from the rock
Smalt Glassy blue; from the artists’pigment
Smoke A soft bluish gray
Snow White with a gray-yellow tinge
Strawberry Yellow-toned red; the color of the fruit
Sugar Sweetish pink; the color of cotton candy
T
Tangerine Yellowy orange; from the skin
of the fruit
Tawny Tan-colored; orange-brown
Teal Strong green with a dash of blue; after the
band on the duck’s wing
Tea rose A beige pink
Terra-cotta Brown-red; from the Italian for
“baked earth”
Topaz The gemstone comes in many
different colors, but the term usually refers to a tawny deep yellow
Turquoise Greenish blue, like a tropical sea
V
Vanilla Pale yellow; the color of custard
Viridian Dusky leek green
W
Walnut Dark brown tone
Watchet Pale blue-gray
Wheat Pale gold
Notes
Color Vision
1. Incidentally, his rather arbitrary slicing-up of the rainbow into seven color segments was because he wanted it to echo his theories on music.
2. Other animals have different numbers of cone cells. Dogs, for example, have one fewer, and see the same range of colors as someone we would call color-blind, but many insects, like butterflies, have more. The preying mantis shrimp, a small, iridescent crustacean with eyes like golf balls on stalks, has 16 different types of cone cells, double the number of any other living creature that we know of. This allows it, theoretically, to see the world in colors we cannot even imagine, let alone name.
3. P. Ball, Bright Earth: The Invention of Color (London: Vintage, 2008), p. 163.
4. J. Gage, Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (London: Thames & Hudson, 1995), p. 129.
5. K. Stamper, “Seeing Cerise: Defining Colors in Webster’s Third,” in Harmless Drudgery: Life from Inside the Dictionary. Available at: https://korystamper.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/seeing-cerise-defining-colors/
6. Quoted in D. Batchelor, Chromophobia (London: Reaktion Books, 2000), p. 16.
7. Le Corbusier and A. Ozenfant, “Purism,” in R. L. Herbert (ed.), Modern Artists on Art (New York: Dover Publications, 2000), p. 63.
8. Quoted in G. Deutscher, Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages (London: Arrow, 2010), p. 42.
9. Ibid., p. 84.
White
1. Ball, Bright Earth, pp. 169–71.
2. Ibid., p. 382.
3. Batchelor, Chromophobia, p. 10.
The Secret Lives of Color Page 21