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.

1930s

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.

"Dictionary of Colour Standards"

Its first major work was the British Colour Council 1934 "Dictionary of Colour Standards" [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)] 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. [ 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 [http://books.google.com/books?id=Lm0oAAAAMAAJ&q=%22British+Colour+Council%22&dq=%22British+Colour+Council%22&num=100&client=firefox-a&pgis=1 Google books] , p. 751.] 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. [ [http://www.colormatters.com/BBArchive/bubdarc7-meaning.html 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 ] The codes of the BCC became standards for identifying colours used in everything from the Royal Horticultural Society, to British government planning commission maps, [ [http://faolex.fao.org/docs/texts/zam48558.doc Town and Country Planning (Development Plans) Regulations: Standard Town and Country Planning Colours] , 1963-79.] the British Army, [ [http://www.miniatures.de/int/colour-british-standard.html British Standard Colour Table British Vehicle Colours in World War Two] , Military Miniatures Magazine (1997)] Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Royal Mail. [ [http://www.papers-paints.co.uk/back1950Colours.htm Patrick Baty. The 1950s Colours: Background to some Colours of the 1950s & early 1960s, Papers and Paints (2003)]
[http://www.colour.org.uk/meetingFebruary07.html 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.
] 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. [Don Pavey, Roy Osborne. Colour and Humanism. London: Universal Publishers (2003) ISBN:158112581X p.207]

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. [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.
[http://www.azaleas.org/index.pl/azcolorsystems.html 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. [http://www.rhs.org.uk/publications/pubs/garden0501/colour_chart.asp Brent Elliott. Match maker] , RHS Journals, The Garden. May 2001]

"British Colours"

The BCC also advised the 1937 royal coronation, providing "Traditional British Colours" for flags and street decorations. [British traditional colours souvenir in connection with the coronation of His Majesty King George VI and Her Majesty. The British Colour Council, London 1937
[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_512_160/ai_n9770073/pg_1 Was there a George VI style? Alan Powers] . Apollo, Oct, 2004.]

Postwar

The BCC, under Chairmanship of British lighting industry executive Leslie Hubble, [ [http://www.ptj.com.pk/Web%202004/02-2004/corporate_news.htm VERIVIDE 40th Anniversary Celebration] , Pakistan Textiles Journal (nd) ] 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 [see "Paints and Paper", above, and [http://www.coloracademy.co.uk/ColorAcademy%202006/subjects/machines/machines.htm History of Colour in Machines] , Colour Academy, 2006.] and used as standards for some British Commonwealth flags [see Flag of Barbados, and [http://www.fotw.us/flags/za-ndf.html 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 [http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/aw.html Aruba] and [http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/zm.html Zambia] .] , academic robes [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. [http://www.burgon.org.uk/society/library/biblio.php The Burgon Society Library: Bibliography of Academical Dress, compiled by Alex Kerr] , (nd).
[http://www.unimelb.edu.au/Statutes/r126r1.html Standards of Academic Dress] , University of Melbourne, Australia. Gives standards in BCC colours.] and horticulture. [ [http://www.hortax.org.uk/hortaxnews/text4.html 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.]

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, [The Foundry Trade Journal, Institute of British Foundrymen, 1945 (p. 132 in bound volume, online [http://books.google.com/books?id=wSkSAAAAMAAJ&q=%22British+Colour+Council%22&dq=%22British+Colour+Council%22&num=100&client=firefox-a&pgis=1 here] .] and later at 10A Chandos St, W1M 9DE. [Patricia Millard. Trade Associations and Professional Bodies of the United Kingdom - [http://books.google.com/books?id=45cEAAAAMAAJ&q=%22British+Colour+Council%22&dq=%22British+Colour+Council%22&num=100&client=firefox-a Page 40] - 1971]

References

*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.

elected 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).