British Colour Council:
The British Colour Council (BCC) was an industry standards organisation, active from the 1930s to the 1950s, which produced indexes of named colours for use by government, industry, academia, and horticulture.
Founded in 1931 and chaired by designer Robert Francis Wilson, the BCC produced the British Colour Council reference Code or British Colour Codes: indexes of named colours for a variety of industries.
[edit] "Dictionary of Colour Standards"
Its first major work was the British Colour Council 1934 "Dictionary of Colour Standards"[1] which defined colour shades in its printed plates and gave a two or three number code and evocative names to each colour. BCC colour codes define colours as varying by hue, tone and intensity, and were originally designed for use in the textile dye industry.[2] The colour names given by the BCC were particularly descriptive and often referred to flora or fauna, with titles such as Larkspur ("No. 196"), Forget-Me-Not ("No. 84"), Bee Eater Blue, Kermes, and Squirrel.[3] The codes of the BCC became standards for identifying colours used in everything from the Royal Horticultural Society, to British government planning commission maps,[4] the British Army,[5] Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Royal Mail.[6] BCC codes, due to their subtlety of hue in comparison with previous standards, were useful for the precise colour matching necessary in fields as diverse as dermatology and the classification of Chinese porcelain.[7]
[edit] Horticulture
In the late 1930s the BCC produced books for use in horticulture. Its first (1938) version included 200 named hues, printed as 3 lightnesses each for a total of 600 (later 800) colours, each given distinctive names.[8]
[edit] "British Colours"
The BCC also advised the 1937 royal coronation, providing "Traditional British Colours" for flags and street decorations.[9]
[edit] Postwar
The BCC, under Chairmanship of British lighting industry executive Leslie Hubble,[10] continued to publish colour codes through the 1960s, and while largely supplanted by the British Standards organisation, and commercial colour standards such as Pantone, the BCC codes are still referred to by industries in the United Kingdom[11] and used as standards for some British Commonwealth flags[12], academic robes [13] and horticulture.[14]
[edit] Establishments
The council, as well as functioning as an oversight body, operated a reference publishing house and its British Colour Education Institute, after the Second World War at 13 Portman Square, London, W1,[15] and later at 10A Chandos St, W1M 9DE.[16]
[edit] References
- ^ British Colour Council. Dictionary of Colour Standards. London: British Colour Council (1934)
British Colour Council. Dictionary of Colour Standards. London: British Colour Council (2nd Edition 1951)
- ^ H. A. Silverman. Studies in Industrial Organization, London (1945, 2003 reprint)ISBN:0415313538 p.89.
[M. D. Law, F. C. Bartlett, George Newnes. Chambers's Encyclopaedia (1950), retrieved at Google books, p. 751.
- ^ Color: The Magic and Mystery of Words, Color Matters (nd)
Arthur O. Tucker, Michael J. Maciarello and Sharon S. Tucker. A Survey of Color Charts for Biological Descriptions. Taxon, Vol. 40, No. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 201-214
- ^ Town and Country Planning (Development Plans) Regulations: Standard Town and Country Planning Colours, 1963-79.
- ^ British Standard Colour Table British Vehicle Colours in World War Two, Military Miniatures Magazine (1997)
- ^ Patrick Baty. The 1950s Colours: Background to some Colours of the 1950s & early 1960s, Papers and Paints (2003)
Turner Lecture: The Only Thing Constant Is Change - A Life in Colour: presentation of Turner Medal to Ms Zandra Rhodes, Royal College of Art, 7 February 2007.
- ^ Don Pavey, Roy Osborne. Colour and Humanism. London: Universal Publishers (2003) ISBN:158112581X p.207
- ^ Horticultural Colour Chart, Volumes I and II, by Robert F. Wilson, 1938-41, issued by the British Colour Council in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society and published by Henry Stone and Son, Ltd., Banbury, England.
Azalea Society of America, 2005.
The Royal Horticultural Society and the Colour Council collaborated on a Horticultural Colour Chart, specifically designed to the colour range of cultivated plants. Printed from 1939 to 1941, it contained boxes of 200 sheets, with tints arranged four-to-a-page, and totaled 800 screen-printed colour patches. Brent Elliott. Match maker, RHS Journals, The Garden. May 2001
- ^ British traditional colours souvenir in connection with the coronation of His Majesty King George VI and Her Majesty. The British Colour Council, London 1937
Was there a George VI style? Alan Powers. Apollo, Oct, 2004.
- ^ VERIVIDE 40th Anniversary Celebration, Pakistan Textiles Journal (nd)
- ^ See Papers and Paints above, and History of Colour in Machines, Colour Academy, 2006.
- ^ see Flag of Barbados, and South Africa National Defense Force Flags, Flags of the World. The official colour of this flag was misnamed "Beetle Green", a misreading of the BCC's "Green Beetle". Other Commonwealth flags using BCC standards include Aruba and Zambia.
- ^ Scott, Elizabeth, 'The BCC Numbering System: Back to the Future?', Transactions of the Burgon Society, 5 (2005), pp. 90-122. The two editions of the British Colour Council's Dictionary of Colour Standards, as well as specialist charts, have been used by many universities to designate the shades prescribed for facings and linings of their academical robes and hoods. The Burgon Society Library: Bibliography of Academical Dress, compiled by Alex Kerr, (nd).
Standards of Academic Dress, University of Melbourne, Australia. Gives standards in BCC colours.
- ^ Diana Miller. Using Colour Charts, HORTAX NEWS Vol. 1, Part 4 - 29 Apr 1998. Discusses the movement away from the BCC standards, begun with a new RHS chart in 1966, and its continued use.
- ^ The Foundry Trade Journal, Institute of British Foundrymen, 1945 (p. 132 in bound volume, online here.
- ^ Patricia Millard. Trade Associations and Professional Bodies of the United Kingdom - Page 40 - 1971
- Tracy Diane, Tom Cassidy. Colour Forecasting. Blackwell Publishing (2005) ISBN:1405121203 pp.15-16, 95
- R. S. Sinclair and W. D. Wright, "Color measurement in Europe," Appl. Opt. 8, 751- (1969)
- Webster, G. Colour Symbolism, an anthropological diversion. British Colour Council, 14th Designers' Conference 1955.
[edit] Selected BCC publications
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL & WILSON, Robert F. Dictionary of Colour Standards: Adopted by the British Standards Institution as British standard no.543-1934. 2 volumes. +240 silk colour samples. London, BCC (1934).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. Bunting Colours. London, BCC (1936).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL, THE HORTICULTURAL COLOUR CHART. 2 volumes. London, BCC in collaboration with Royal Horticultural Society. (1938-1941).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL & WILSON, Robert F. Colour and Lighting in Factories and Offices. 2 volumes. London, BCC (1946).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. Colour-chart: Survey & Planning. London, BCC (1946).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. For the Co-ordination of Colour and Design. London, BCC (1947).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL, WILSON, Robert F. & MITCHELL, Audrey M. Dictionary of Colours for Interior Decoration. 3 volumes. 378 samples in gloss, matt & pile. London, BCC (1949).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL, WILSON, Robert F. & MITCHELL, Audrey M. Dictionary of Colour Standards +240 dyed woollen samples. London, BCC (1951).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL, Institute of Vitreous Enamellers. Colours for Vitreous Enamels. London, BCC (1951).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. Machinery Colours, Safety Colour Code, Pipe Identification Colours. London, BCC (1951).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. The British Colour Council’s Seventh Designer’s Conference. The Rose as a Theme for Design. London, BCC (1952).
- BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL, H. H. Muirhead. Colour. London, BCC (1966).
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