Cobalt blue
Cobalt blue in impure forms had long been used in Chinese porcelain, but it was independently discovered as a pure alumina-based pigment by Louis Jacques Thénard in 1802. Commercial production began in France in 1807. The first recorded use of "cobalt blue" as a color name in English was in 1777. The leading world manufacturer of cobalt blue in the 19th century was Benjamin Wegner's Norwegian company Blaafarveværket ("blue colour works" in Dano-Norwegian). Germany was also famous for production, especially the blue colour works ("Blaufarbenwerke") in the Ore Mountains of Saxony.
Blue
Blue pigments were originally made from minerals such as lapis lazuli, cobalt and azurite, and blue dyes were made from plants; usually woad in Europe, and "Indigofera tinctoria", or true indigo, in Asia and Africa. Today most blue pigments and dyes are made by a chemical process.
The modern English word "blue" comes from Middle English "bleu" or "blewe", from the Old French "bleu", a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word "blao". In heraldry, the word azure is used for blue.