ink that not only travelled seductively across the paper, but which also smelled wonderful
"From early times both the Persians and the Chinese thought it was desirable to have ink that not only travelled seductively across the paper, but which also smelled wonderful. So they would add perfumes, to make writing the sensual experience that scholars deserved. Sometimes recipes for ink read like the random elements of a love poem: cloves, honey, locusts, the virgin pressing of olives, powdered pearl, scented musk, rhinoceros horn, jade, jasper, as well as, of course - most poignant and most common - that exquisite smoke of pine trees in autumn. Of all the luxury ingredients they probably needed the musk most: sometimes the binding glue was from rhino horn or yak skin, but sometimes it was from fish intestines, as it sometimes still is, and in its raw state it must have been horribly smelly."
-from Victoria Finlay's Color: A Natural History of the Palette
good writing, wit, fun information on color
If you enjoyed Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses, you will love the book Color.
b/w: Eye of the Needle: lastor 2005
based on Popy Moreni perfume bottle by Thierry de Baschmoakoff
