![]() ![]() It seems the production of purple dye from molluscs never took off locally, and it wasn’t until advancements in chemistry during the Victorian period that the first synthetic dye was invented in the highly prized colour. Purpura shell, from Lister’s paper (detail from RS.19025) Indeed, a 1639 paper by a ‘Mr Fletcher’ ( CLP/3i/38) provided a recipe for purple from cochineal and oyster shells, but this was never published. Martin Lister FRS, who worked to identify new dyes from cochineal, suggested in a Philosophical Transactions article that this species of Purpura, although not commonly known until Mr Cole’s publication, had long been used and passed down through tradition, and ‘kept as a Secret even in these Islands’. Various specimens of the Purpura family, from William Cole’s letter to the Royal Society (detail from RS.18756) ‘the Shells are small, yet their abundance on our Coasts, may yield matter enough, (with the more pains), to dy a quantity of fine Wooll, or Silk, so as to render the discovery some way usefull’.Ĭole’s haste to have the paper published before his investigations were complete, and his suggestion that with further improvement his discovery might rival the Tyrian purple itself, imply a degree of hope for the potential economic gains of his discovery, or perhaps the favour of the king for his very own supply of Royal Purple. ![]() His discovery of a native Purpura sea snail is tempered by his admission that &c.’Īnd set about experimenting with shellfish on the Somerset coast. ‘a certain person living by the Sea-side in some Port or Creek in Ireland, who made considerable gain, by marking with a delicate durable Crimson Colour, fine Linnen of Ladies, Gent. Several accounts of dyeing methods and manufacture can be found in the early correspondence, including Observations on the purple fish by Bristol-based William Cole, who heard word of The Society has long been interested in the art of dyeing, setting up a ‘history of trades’ programme in its formative years with the aim of revolutionising industry through applied science. ![]() The vibrant mauveine purple was derived from coal tar and made its creator, chemist William Henry Perkin, a Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Medallist.ĭyeing equipment, from the papers of Theodore de Mayerne, 1639 ( RS.15413) It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that an artificial version, rivalling the intensity and durability of the one prized by the ancients, was successfully synthesised. The laborious manufacture of this dye, requiring tens of thousands of murex sea snails to supply enough pigment to colour a small swatch of fabric, meant it was worth more than its weight in gold. The colour has long been associated with authority and status because of the highly prized Tyrian purple. What will you be wearing for the Jubilee celebrations this year – a royal purple perhaps? She previously worked as Picture Researcher at Sotheby’s Picture Library including the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive. She is responsible for the care of the Society’s historical picture resources and the management and development of the Picture Library and online print shop. Katherine joined the Royal Society in 2015. ![]()
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