The literature upon textile dyeing technique, including the tie-dye and batik methods, is widely scattered in a large number of periodicals and books, many of which are no longer available or do not appear in English. This book offers a concise history of man's attempts to dye, and pattern by dyeing, the textiles he made from the raw materials available to him. Despite the conditions reflected in an early papyrus which stated that the "hands of the dyer reek like rotting fish and his eyes are overcome by weariness, " the development of dyeing techniques persisted from earliest known civilizations to the present day. As man discovered new natural fibers, and later synthetic fibers, so he invented new dyes and dyeing methods.Dyeing became a prosperous trade and the concern of governments, with the result that technical and social innovation began to develop more quickly. This development is described here in considerable detail.Sections are devoted to the many forms of tie-dye and batik practiced in various parts of the world from early times. Since this book, in common with its companion volume, is intended as a source book for students preparing special studies on dyed textiles, an exceptional feature is the provision of a number of comprehensive appendices of information for further research.

'Extraordinary. An intellectual feast as well as a visual one' Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes The world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imaginations as it does in our surroundings, as this scintillating book reveals. Each chapter immerses the reader in a single colour, drawing together stories from the histories of art and humanity to illuminate the meanings it has been given over the eras and around the globe. Showing how artists, scientists, writers, philosophers, explorers and inventors have both shaped and been shaped by these wonderfully myriad meanings, James Fox reveals how, through colour, we can better understand their cultures, as well as our own. Each colour offers a fresh perspective on a different epoch, and together they form a vivid, exhilarating history of the world. 'We have projected our hopes, anxieties and obsessions onto colour for thousands of years,' Fox writes. 'The history of colour, therefore, is also a history of humanity.'

Utilising a wide range of early sources, this title identifies the roots of the concept of Christian martyrdom, as lloking at how it has been expressed in events such as the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999.

Tharp collection.