Since posting above comment I've discovered that 'Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color' was also mentioned by getpost in a post to the same but earlier

Since posting above comment I've discovered that 'Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color' was also mentioned by getpost in a post to the same but earlier story at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25807199 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25807199 Posts to it are now closed so there's no way of cross-referencing them.