[8] BCC codes, due to their subtlety of hue in comparison with previous standards, were useful for the precise colour matching necessary in fields as diverse as dermatology and the classification of Chinese porcelain.
Some colours which were suitable for clothes were insufficiently permanent for application to carpets, curtains and upholstery fabric, while others were technically impracticable for use in the pottery and glass industries, in porcelain and vitreous enamel or in the making of paint or other materials used in decorating.
[11] The BCC also advised the 1937 royal coronation, providing "Traditional British Colours" for flags and street decorations.
[12][13] The BCC, under the Chairmanship of British lighting industry executive Leslie Hubble,[14] continued to publish colour codes through the 1960s, and while largely supplanted by the British Standards organisation, and commercial colour standards such as Pantone, the BCC codes are still referred to by industries in the United Kingdom[15] and used as standards for some British Commonwealth flags,[16] academic robes [17] and horticulture.
[18] The council, as well as functioning as an oversight body, operated a reference publishing house and its British Colour Education Institute, after the Second World War at 13 Portman Square, London, W1,[19] and later at 10A Chandos St, W1M 9DE.