Mummy Brown facts

While investigating facts about Mummy Brown Paint and Mummy Brownies, I found out little known, but curios details like:

"mummy brown", a once-popular paint pigment made from ground-up Egyptian mummies. It was produced well into the 20th century, and only disappeared when the manufacturers ran out of mummies.

how to make mummy brownies?

Until the 1920s, it was common to grind up mummies in order to achieve brown paint.

What is mummy brown made of?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what color is mummy brown. Here are 19 of the best facts about Mummy Brown Oil Paint and Mummy Brown Color I managed to collect.

what is mummy brown?

1. Some artists between 16th and 19th centuries used a type of brown paint called Mummy Brown, which was made from ground up Egyptian mummies.

2. There was a paint colour called Mummy brown that was made out of ground up Egyptian mummies. It was a favourite of the Pre-Raphaelites and used 16-20th century, until people realised the raw ingredient. Some people provided decent burials when they found out. In 1964 Mummy brown became extinct.

3. There was a pigment of paint called Mummy Brown that actually contained ground up mummies.

4. For 400 years Egyptian mummies were excavated and ground up to make the paint color mummy brown - the practice stopped in 1964 due to 'lack of supplies'

5. Mummy Brown was a paint pigment made from ground-up Egyptian mummies.

6. The paint colour 'Mummy Brown' was made from ancient Egyptian remains. One art manufacturer told Time Magazine in 1964 that they had to stop making it as they could no longer find enough mummified limbs.

7. Mummy Brown - A popular pigment used by artists which was made from ground up egyptian mummies. It fell out of popularity when artists became aware of its composition. (Plus they ran out of mummies.)

What is true about mummy brown?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

A pigment in paint called "Mummy Brown" was produced from literal ground up mummies and was commercially available until the 1960's. - source

Until 1925, a common shade of brown was made from the flesh of Egyptian mummies - source

They used to make paint for some of the world’s greatest artists from crushed cat corpses (cat mummies). Oh yeah, they used ground up human mummies as well. They called the resultant pigment “mummy brown” and they only stopped using it when the mummies ran out.

During the American Civil War there was a severe paper shortage. Evidence shows that mummies were imported & stripped of their linen wraps which were made into brown paper called “mummy paper” for grocers and butchers to wrap food in when sold. - source

What does it mean when a body is mummified?

The paint color "Mummy Brown" was created in the 16th and 17th century of ground up mummies, both human and feline. It wasn't until the 20th century that production had largely ceased partly because of a decline in available mummies but also from decreased demand.

Until 1925, a common shade of brown was made from the flesh of Egyptian mummies.