Old Holland (reviewed June, 1999) - 168 colors, 57% of them single pigment paints. Made in Driebergen (Holland), this is a bewildering line of antiquated ("since 1664" but actually launched in the late 1980's) watercolors that in basic ways falls short of the needs of today's professional artist. By sifting through the Old Holland line you will find a handful of unique single pigment paints, mostly among the earth colors and synthetic organics. Among these, you'll have to discard several fugitive pigments, such as their benzimida yellow (PY120), isoindoline orange (PO69) or anthraquinone red (PR177). All the remaining colors are amateurish convenience mixtures (flesh ochre, flesh tint, 35 varieties of "green" stuff) that any professional painter will avoid 鈥?they are absurdly expensive and contain as many as five pigments! Several of the paints are also not at all what they seem: the cobalt violet paints (light and deep) are actually mixtures of cobalt blue deep (PB74), dioxazine violet (PV23) and quinacridone violet (PV19), a combination that is much less lightfast than genuine cobalt violet; viridian green deep is actually a mixture of viridian (PG18) with ultramarine blue (PB29); and 28 (!) of the colors are formulated with white pigment (PW4), because all the pigment formulations were originally developed for oil paints and simply thrown in with gum arabic when the brand extended to watercolors. But it seems unfair to criticize Old Holland for their paint formulations, when their true expertise is in dreaming up idiosyncratic paint names. These are either uninterpretable (indian yellow-green lake extra is a dull mixture of nickel dioxine yellow, PY153 and copper azomethine, PY129 that has no greenish hue) or are idiotically pretentious (rose dore madder lake antique extra is a dull and impermanent mixture of benzimidazolone scarlet PR175, anthraquinone scarlet PR168, and alizarin crimson PR83). In the Old Holland labeling fairyland lake supposedly means "transparent", extra means a "hue" or imitation paint, and antique means ... well, who knows? The paints are uniformly well milled to a creamy consistency, and microscopic analysis of draw down samples shows little or no use of fillers or brighteners. However, the vehicle is unusually dense, with a sticky, stringy consistency similar to taffy, making the paints so gummy that they take longer to dissolve in water than any other brand. The benefit of this gummy consistency is that almost all OH watercolors stain much less than other brands and often lift completely from the paper, making them convenient for a variety of editing techniques. The drawback is that, in several paints I tested, the vehicle instantly dissolves and blossoms if rewetted accidentally, making adjacent colors bleed at the edges or causing foundation colors to splotch or discolor when glazed with other mixtures. In masstone concentrations the paints often dry with a leathery bronze and are among the dullest paints I've seen, and in my 2004 lightfastness tests I found the vehicle in several mineral colors had a tendency to turn brown under light exposure, which makes me reluctant to put them to paper in the first place. The three or four pigments used in many of the convenience paint recipes strike me as amateurish and fussy, because the general rule is: more ingredients, less lightfastness. And finally, these are now the most expensive 鈥?absurdly expensive 鈥?watercolors you can buy 鈥?after all, you can't buy rose dore madder lake antique extra or indian yellow-green lake extra anywhere else, you have to pay extra for extra! Paint tubes are bare metal with a gummed paper label, available in 6 ml. and 18 ml. sizes; both sizes have a very small mouth and cap, and OH paints are very susceptible to ooze paint from the crimped end of the tube. Tube paints set up in pans to a hard, resinous finish; half pans are available from Old Holland, and while these contain slightly more paint than other brands, they also do not fit into standard field paint boxes. Finally, the lightfastness of OH paints is not reliable and in some cases is inaccurately overstated (I suspect because the company just quotes the lightfastness of its pigments as formulated in oil paints). Overall, this is a poorly designed, bloated and grossly overpriced line of watercolors, ripe for acquisition and aggressive revamping. I tested about a third of the single pigment paints Old Holland makes. (Paint line inadequately documented by manufacturer: neither the packaging nor paint brochures provide paint lightfastness ratings, the paint marketing names completely fail any standard of accuracy or consistency 鈥?the meaningless proprietary names "schevenegen" and "old holland" abound. Tube ingredient information shows only generic pigment categories 鈥?"contains arylide," "contains naphthol AS" 鈥?which are useless to identify the specific pigment used; color index information is only provided in the paint brochure or by clicking on individual color swatches at their web site. The July, 2007 average unit price* at Art Supply Warehouse was $0.97, and average unit cadmium price was $1.30, an increase of 19% since 2004.)