Indian ceramic color...revisited

[Carpenter]

Roadmaster wrote:  Indian Ceramic has always been the orange shade Jim noted.  No expert, but because Indian Ceramic is such a nice period color, I have noticed it when it is indicated on cars.  Charts are not as accurate as data plates and actual cars for verification.
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Only problem is...I have several items that are painted with "Indian ceramic" and they are not the orange color that is called by this name, yet the color I have was called Indian ceramic...by Mr, Henry J. Kaiser as it was used...

[MarkH]

............Only problem is...I have several items that are painted with "Indian ceramic" and they are not the orange color that is called by this name, yet the color I have was called Indian ceramic...by Mr, Henry J. Kaiser.................

Share some photos of your examples?

[Carpenter]

Mark, I actually don't know how.  But...this color is almost a flesh pink...and is in the color chart books in paint stores locally.

[Gordie]

I have at least five different paint chips from five different paint manufacturers and all the chips are an identical color of Indian Ceramic which I describe as a dark pink.  Old paint chip pages don't seem to lose their true colors so buy one of the available paint chip pages on eBay for '49 Kaisers and Frazers and you should have a valid sample of the color.  Paint chips from the thirties  seem to fade to a darker shade over the years as they were made with the old lacquer paints but Kaisers were mostly painted in enamels.

[Carpenter]

Will make it a point to check locally...again.  This Indian Ceramic is the last color on the page for Kaisers.  Should have a number.

[MarkH]

Buying the vintage chip sheets from ebay is advice that would be well taken.

If I had been relying on the local PPG supplier to match my '54 color with his current info it would've never been right, and the only way I could tell is from my vintage chip sheets. I wouldn't trust any vintage color in a modern book without at least one sheet of genuine vintage color chips for comparison. My whole collection of color chip sheets was a minute fraction of a percent of the price of the paint job and insured a correct match.

Modern pigments, and the resulting modern tint blends are often different from what was being used "back in the day", and often an approximation at best. Metallic compounds absolutely so, unless you find a shop specializing in vintage colors & metallics.

One such shop is http://www.autocolorlibrary.com/. I'm sure there's others that are good but these guys absolutely aced my Aero colors, as well as the different interior & exterior metallic blends.

[Carpenter]

The paint chips that I saw locally have BOTH Indian Ceramic colors.  Is it possible that Henry J forgot that there was already an Indian Ceramic? 

[custom]

sample from paint / upholstery album

[Carpenter]

Yep, that is the one that most are familiar with.

[Carpenter]

Well, I made time and went and looked at the paint chips where I would have sworn I saw the second Indian Ceramic.  Wasn't there,,,but,,,I DO own real live samples of it.  Now I need to establish how the name got attached to what I have.