Lamp Black

Lamp Black is one of the oldest man-made pigments known to humanity. In the Paleolithic cave paintings, ancestors already used soot collected from burning oil lamps as black pigment to depict bison and mammoths. In the caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain, Lamp Black still preserves the vivid imprints of primitive art from 20,000 years ago.

In the civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the production of Lamp Black had formed a standard process. Artisans hung ceramic plates above oil lamps to collect soot, then mixed it with tree gum or animal glue to make ink sticks or pigment paste. Lamp Black was used for writing on papyrus, decorating mummy coffins, and outlining temple murals.

During the ancient Greek and Roman periods, Lamp Black was widely recorded as a basic black pigment. Vitruvius's 'De architectura' described a specialized building for making Lamp Black by burning resin, and Pliny the Elder detailed the quality differences of Lamp Black produced from burning various oils—olive oil Lamp Black was considered the highest quality.

From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Lamp Black was the most common and cheapest black pigment in European painting workshops. It provided a stable black source for a vast number of drawing exercises, fresco under-drawings, and printmaking inks. Unlike expensive Ivory Black, Lamp Black belonged to every young apprentice learning their craft, the first memory of black for countless artistic masters.

After the Industrial Revolution, the manufacture of Lamp Black shifted from manual workshops to factory production. Natural gas and petroleum replaced vegetable oils, and Lamp Black became the primary black pigment for printing inks, rubber fillers, and industrial coatings. Although today's Lamp Black is a chemical industry product, its spiritual symbolism as humanity's oldest black enjoys a unique status in the realms of art and design.