Holbein Artists' Watercolors are imported from Japan, a country with the oldest professional watercolor tradition in the world. Japanese colors have always been renowned for their brilliance, and Holbein continues in the same tradition. For more than a century, the Holbein color laboratories have produced a full-range palette of transparent watercolors that not only achieve world-class standards in lightfastness and color vigor, they also retain their clean, crisp, brilliant characteristics over long periods of time. In addition to the pigments that are traditionally used in European art, the Holbein watercolor collection contains many exceptional and brilliant colors that are not found in other watercolor lines. Holbein does not contain ox-gall or any other dispersants that inhibit optimum brush handling qualities. This makes Holbein ideal for painting in the Japanese watercolor tradition, where brushstrokes are often preserved. Holbein is the perfect choice for fine detail work such as lettering and scrolling. Gift Idea — For the artist on the go, Holbein offers great travel sets! See Holbein Artists' Watercolor Sets for pictures and more detailed specifications of these sets.