Tyrian Purple
Composition and Properties of Tyrian Purple
This pigment is one of the oldest and also most valued and most expensive natural colorants. Chris Cooksey writes in his review article (1):“The topic of Tyrian purple abounds with superlatives. It is the oldest, most well-known, most expensive, most prestigious and most vivid dye or pigment. Tyrian purple comes from marine molluscs of the Muricidae family and the colour precursors are contained in the hypobranchial gland. Currently, the Muricidae are divided into three subfamilies: Muricidae (the murexes), Ocenebrinae (the predatory sea snails, Nucella and Ocenebra) and Rapaninae (rockshells) and they are to be found across the globe from Central America to Japan, but famously and best known in the Mediterranean. The name is derived from the city of Tyre, now in Lebanon, but since the distribution of purple producing snails is world-wide, a more appropriate descriptor would be shellfish purple. Shellfish purple is composed of a mixture of indigo dyes: indigo, monobromoindigo and dibromoindigo with smaller amounts of the corresponding indirubins. It is the bromoindigos which are exclusively the signature components, there being no other source.”The structure is similar to indigo with the sole difference of the two bromine atoms attached to the six-membered rings. It has been used almost exclusively for dyeing textiles and not as a pigment for painting. It is very lightfast and stable.
Names of Tyrian Purple
Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purpleNV 1, CI 75800From Latin Tyrius “of Tyre,” (Latin Tyrus), island-city in the Levant, from Greek Tyros, from Hebrew/Phoenician tzor, literally “rock, rocky place.” From Online Etymology Dictionary
Preparation of Tyrian Purple
The best known historical description of the dyeing procedure can be found in Pliny’s the Elder “Natural history” (1):“The most favourable season for taking these fish is after the rising of the Dog-star (= Sirius), or else before spring; for when they have once discharged their waxy secretion, their juices have no consistency: this, however, is a fact unknown in the dyers’ workshops, although it is a point of primary importance. After it is taken, the vein is extracted, which we have previously spoken of, to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius about to every hundred pounds of juice. It is sufficient to leave them to steep for a period of three days, and no more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there is in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin, and every hundred amphoræ ought to be boiled down to five hundred pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat; for which purpose the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel, which communicates with the furnace; while thus boiling, the liquor is skimmed from time to time, and with it the flesh, which necessarily adheres to the veins. About the tenth day, generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquified state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial; but until such time as the colour is found to satisfy the wishes of those preparing it, the liquor is still kept on the boil.”She also developed a procedure for the production of the powdered pigment suitable for painting and is using it in her art.
History of Use
Chris Cooksey writes in his review article (1):“The origins of the industry could have been in Qatar in the Persian Gulf about 2000 BC and there is good evidence, mounds of shells and remains of dye baths, on the Mediterranean island of Crete, dated ca 1800 BC. North of Crete in the southern Aegean Sea lies the island of Thera, now known as Santorini. Life there came to an abrupt stop because of earthquakes followed by a volcanic eruption, à la Pompeii, in 1650 – 1600 BC, according to data from Greenland ice-cores. Consequently, any artefacts found there can be confidently dated earlier.”Examples of use
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Textile arts are those arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization, and the methods and materials used to make them have expanded enormously, while the functions of textiles have remained the same. The history of textile arts is also the history of international trade. Tyrian purple dye was an important trade good in the ancient Mediterranean. The Silk Road brought Chinese silk to India, Africa, and Europe. Tastes for imported luxury fabrics led to sumptuary laws during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The industrial revolution was a revolution of textiles technology: the cotton gin, the spinning jenny, and the power loom mechanized production and led to the Luddite rebellion.
Source: Textile arts
