A lot of really smart people read this, so perhaps one of you can answer this question:

"I'm looking at old Japanese prints from various sources on the web, starting with the most well-known - Katsushika Hokusai's 'In the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa'. And what I notice is that the colours seem kinda dowdy and faded. Now, for 170-year old woodblock prints on paper, this isn't too surprising. But can anybody give me any idea what the new originals might have looked like? How much of the 'dowdiness' is due to aging and fading, or were the inks of the day just naturally less bright and sparky than we're used to today? A combination of the two factors?

A little context: I'm toying with the idea of executing a copy as a mural in mosaic glass, and I'd like to get as close as I can to the original colours."

Completely clueless, here, and time hasn't permitted any extraneous research. (Frustrating. I adore extraneous research!). Unfortunately, it's not infrequently that someone asks a question in the Forum, waits in vain for a response and then leaves, never to return. (Who could blame them?) It'd be a happy thing if more people would visit, take an interest and maybe even spark a lively debate - especially if anyone out there has knowledge of 170-year-old Japanese inks! Thanks in advance if you can help this person out.