Pigments DyesMineral Paints

“Nobody knows the power of colour like Stoopen & Meeûs.”

Stoopen & Meeûs was founded in 1894 by two friends, Edmond Stoopen and Paul Meeûs, who travelled the world in search of the most vibrant and beautiful pigments.

More than a century later, their passion for colour lives on. And today, Stoopen & Meeûs produces and exports quality pigments, dyes, mineral paints and custom-blended pigments to over 80 countries worldwide.

With this brochure, we invite you to share our passion and explore our world of colours. By delving into its stories, and delighting in its striking, vivid images, you share in a love affair with colour that is as old as history itself.

We are Stoopen & Meeûs, your partner in colour for the next 100 years.

mineral flooring

paint

plastic

powder pigment

cement

“Few pigments have inspired as much passion as ultramarine blue, once known as ‘the blue gold’.”

Beloved by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt for more than three thousand years, ultramarine was made by grinding down rare Lapis Lazuli stone from the remote Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. It first reached Europe in the thirteenth century, and thanks to its deep, rich blue tone, immediately became the most prized of all pigments.

During the Renaissance, it was more expensive than gold, and therefore a symbol of wealth and elegance. Artists were forced to use it sparingly, usually reserving it for the robes of Mary and the Christ Child.

In the seventeenth century, the Flemish and Dutch Masters charged their clients extra for the tiniest touches of the dazzling blue, while Vermeer made it his trademark, mixing it with other shades to create the subtle light effects for which he is famous.

The pigment once known as ‘blue gold’ retains an air of luxury and excess to this day.

In technical terms, pigments are insoluble powders that – when held suspended in a carrier material such as paint, plastic, synthetic fibres, plaster or cement – impart colour to material. The finer the pigment powder, the more vivid the colour.

woodstain

textiles

chemicals

fertilizers

food dyes“Mauve: the accidental colour that changed the world.”

Before the end of the nineteenth century, dyes were mostly made from roots, berries, leaves, insects – and, in the case of purple, the mucous of sea snails. As a result, colours were limited, inconsistent, and prone to fading.

But this all changed in 1856, thanks to an eighteen-year-old English chemist called William Perkin.While attempting to produce the anti-malaria drug quinine from coal tar, Perkin noticed a strange purplish-black powder. When added to water, it blossomed into a vibrant new colour – mauve! Utterly by accident, Perkin had produced the first synthetic dye: aniline purple, better known as mauveine.

When Queen Victoria wore a mauve gown to her daughter’s wedding in 1858, the distinctive new colour became highly fashionable.

Meanwhile, many more aniline dyes were discovered by chemists eager to follow in Perkin’s footsteps: violets, blues, reds and greens, all far brighter and cheaper than the old plant and animal dyes. Perkin’s chance discovery had unleashed a whole new world of synthetic dyes – and for the first time, ordinary people were able to express themselves in vibrant colour.

“Limepaint – often known as ‘whitewash’ – is one of the world’s most ancient paints.”

Over 7,000 years ago, the ancient Mesopotamians used lime mixed with water to paint their temples. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans followed suit, adding colours to produce colourful murals and frescos.

By the Middle Ages, whitewashed buildings were common throughout Europe. As well as protecting buildings from the weather, limepaint had natural insecticidal and anti-bacterial properties that made it popular for use in kitchens and dairies. It was also known to be fire-retardant – after the disastrous 1212 fire in London, King John of England had all buildings along the Thames whitewashed inside and out as a precautionary measure.

The frescos of the great Italian masters Giotto, Michelangelo and Raphael gave limepaint a further boost in the Renaissance. But as other fade-resistant paints were developed after the Industrial Revolution, limepaint was increasingly thought of as a cheap imitation of ‘real’ paint – hence the old American saying ‘too proud to whitewash, too poor to paint.’

Today, however, attitudes have come full circle, and Stoopen & Meeûs Limepaint is once again highly sought after for its durability and soft, antique beauty – proving that sometimes the oldest solutions are also the best.

“Textured coatings have long been used to give warmth and depth to floors and walls.”

In medieval Morocco, palaces and hammams were finished with a lime-based, water-resistant coating known as ‘tadelakt’. Named after the Berber word meaning ‘to rub’, its traditional application involved vigorous rubbing with river stones and soft black soap to produce a beautiful texture and sheen.

Today, the tadelakt look is achieved and even improved, at less than half the cost, with Stoopen & Meeûs Stuc.

Stuc is a highly decorative mineral product for floors and walls that can be applied on any solid, dry surface – including tiles.

Stuc can create both smooth, glossy looks and rough, textured effects.

“Badgeoning has its origins in the medieval Flemish tradition of the ‘spring whitewash.’”

Every year around Easter, farmers would cut back their hedges and give their houses a fresh coat of whitewash to disinfect and protect against the elements. Lime would be mixed up into a creamy paste, and applied in circular strokes with horsehair brushes. This tradition was practised year after year; until the thin layers of whitewash built up into a kind of lime plaster several millimetres thick. The result was a beautiful, softly textured façade that smoothed out rough edges whilst still showing the shape of the masonry beneath.

But getting this soft, layered look naturally took decades. To get a similar effect immediately, builders began adding sand or marble powder to limepaint, then applying it thickly with a blocked brush in a technique that became known as badgeoning. As well as giving a romantic, rustic effect, badgeoning allows brickwork and masonry to breathe, making it ideal in damp conditions.

These benefits make that, today, Stoopen & Meeûs Badgeon is increasingly used in contemporary architecture as well as in heritage buildings.

“Stoopen & Meeûs, located in the heart of Europe, is driven by a passion for colour.”

Our goal is to share that passion with you, our customers, by providing you with premium-quality, honestly priced pigments, dyes and mineral paints and stuc.

We put our customers first, working closely and meticulously with each and every client to ensure we meet their unique colour needs.

With an ideal, strategic location in the port of Antwerp, a global agent network, and more than a hundred years of experience, we are a trusted and reliable link in the value chain for customers from over 80 countries worldwide.

Above all, we are famous for our rich, deep greens and blues – traditionally the most difficult pigments to perfect.

“Stoopen & Meeûs is a family-founded Belgian company with more than 100 years of proud history.”

We are deeply committed to establishing and maintaining long-term relationships with customers, suppliers and employees.

Our products are environmentally responsible, with our low-VOC mineral systems in particular promoting a more natural, eco-friendly approach to paints and coatings.

We also try to make a difference where we can: for the past 20 years, we have sponsored 25 children around the world through PLAN international.

At Stoopen & Meeûs, we’re heading for the future – but we do it with our traditional values of honesty, quality and integrity.

Van Praetstraat 22 B-2660 Hoboken Belgium Tel. +32 (0)3 825 00 55 Fax +32 (0)3 825 05 13

dragon@stoopen-meeus.com www.stoopen-meeus.com