218 



DYEING. 



tive which these are applied to the stuff,, we conceive it 



Of t: o -!:,-!] 



ft*.!: v. !.:i-!i 



mffontal the 

 Tjrrian pur- 



r.l,-. 



Furpura 

 and bucci- 

 um. 



i * t 



more convenient, and not less systematic, to fol- 

 low some arrangement which has a reference to the 

 colours themselves, rather than to the colouring mat- 

 ter* from which they are procured. Wo shall accord- 

 ingly divide the colours, without any regard to the de- 

 compositions obtained by the prism, into simple and 

 'and : meaning by the latter, such as can, and 

 by the former, such * cannot. IK- produced by the in- 

 termixture of other colours. I'nder simple colours, we 

 hall include red, yellow, and blue ; and under com- 

 pound colours, the various modilie.it ions of these which 

 are obtained by mixture or superinduct'on. 



CHAP. II. 



Of Substantive Colouring Mailers. 



I. Of Animal Substantive Colouring Mailers. 



55. Dr Bancroft lias subdivided tin's class of colour- 

 ing matters into animal, vegetable, and mineral. The 

 principal dye belonging to the first head of arrange- 

 ment, is the celebrated Tyrian purple. The sub- 

 stance which yielded that beautiful colour, was a whitish 

 half-fluid matter, secreted by particular organs in cer- 

 tain univalvular shell fish, and retained by the animal 

 in an appropriate receptacle. The accounts which 

 have been transmitted to us by the ancients respecting 

 the shell-fish in question, are obscure and contradic- 

 tory. Those of Pliny are the most explicit and intel- 

 ligible, though they are sometimes inconsistent with 

 each other. He mentions the shell- fish which afforded 

 this dye, under the several names of conchylium, mu- 

 rex, purpura, and buccinum ; all of which are also used 

 by other Roman writers. This curious subject has been 

 so ably investigated by Dr Bancroft, that very little 

 further elucidation can be thrown upon it ; we shall 

 therefore avail ourselves of his researches, and com- 

 municate the substance of them as fully as is consistent 

 with the nature of our work. 



56. It appears that Fabius Columna, a Neapolitan 

 nobleman, was the earliest modem writer who wrote a 

 dissertation on the Purpura, which he published in 

 1616. After being at much pains to elucidate and re- 

 concile the different passages of ancient writers on this 

 subject, he came to the conclusion that there were two 

 kinds or genera of shell-fish used for procuring the 

 purple dye, viz. the purpura and buccinum ; that the 

 term conchylium signified generally all the species of 

 purpurae, and sometimes the purple colour itself ; and 

 that the term murex was also used in the same generic 

 <en-e. Pliny, indeed, expressly mentions, that all the 

 shell-fish yielding the puq>le and other lighter colours 

 of theconchylia, are in matter the same, and differ only 

 in temperament ; that they are of two kinds, one being 

 called bui-ciniiui, from its resemblance to the instrument 

 called the horn, and the other ]iiirpi:ru. The former he 

 describes as being round at the aperture, and having a 

 terratexl margin ; the latter as having a projecting pipe- 

 shaped beak, with a lateral winding cavity, through 

 which it puts forth its tongue. He mentions also that 

 the Ixxly of the shell of the purpura is muricated or 

 armed with seven rows of spires, which are wanting in 

 the buccinum. He adds, that the buecimim adheres to 

 rockj and large stones, whence alone it can be collect- 

 ed. 



57. The best purpune found on the coasts of Asia 

 were caught in the sea adjoining to Tyre ; on the Afri- 

 can coast, the best were those of Meninx and the Ge- 



tulian shores ; and the best on the coasts of F.uropo ft 



found at Laconica. Pliny inform* us that the ' ' 

 Tvrians took the finest out of the larger shells, in order ,j^" u '"- 

 to extract the purple more effectually, but obtained the S """"Y~ 

 colour from the smaller by grinding them in mills. He 

 adds, that when the purpunr were caught, the rcrcp- 

 taele which contained the dyeing liquor wa.^ taken out 

 and laid in salt for three days ; and that after a suffici- 

 ency of the matter had been collected, it was boiled 

 slowly in leaden vessels over a gentle fire, the work- 

 men skimming off from time to time the fleshy impu- 

 rities. This process lasted ten days, at'ti r which the 1U 

 quor was tried by dipping wool* into it, and it' the co- 

 lour produced by it was defective, the boiling was re- 

 newed. Pliny afterwards erroneously represents the 

 liquor of the buccinum as only yielding a fugitive colour, 

 and snys that it was usually mixed with more than half 

 as much of the liquor of the purpura, which of itself 

 gave a very dark purple; and that the mixture produ- 

 ced a beautiful amethyst colour, the latter giving per- 

 manency to the former, and being in return brightened 

 and enlivened by it. We learn on the same authority, 

 that the Tvrians produced their purple by first dyeing 

 the wool with the unprepared or greenish liquor of the 

 pelagium, (another name which he applies to the pur- 

 pura), and afterwards in the liquor of the buccinum, 

 and that the resulting colour was deemed most perfect 

 when it resembled that of coagulated blood. 



5S. It is farther stated by Pliny, that it not being Colour Ty. 

 thought sufficient to communicate the colour of the riamuliys. 

 amethyst to woo], it became customary to dye it again tiu. 

 with the Tyrian purple ; and that in reference to this 

 circumstance, the compound colour produced by this 

 refinement in luxury, was called Tyriamethystus. He 

 adds, that, not content with thus combining colours ob- 

 tained from the ocean, recourse was also had to those 

 produced on the land ; and that wool or cloth dyed 

 crimson from the coccus (kermes ) was afterwards made 

 to imbibe the Tyrian purple, in order that it might as- 

 sume the colour which was named /it/sgiiius, after a 

 flower so called. Other colouring matters were em- 

 ployed, sometimes to economize, and at other times 

 vary the effects of the liquors of the purpura and buc- 

 cinum. Among these, Pliny enumerates fucus mart- 

 nut or anchil, and the anckitsa tiiiaorin or alkanet, 

 both of which are still used as dyes. By these and other 

 means, the purple colour was made to assume a variety 

 of shades, some inclining more to the blue, and others 

 more to the crimson. 



59. Under the history of dyeing, we took notice of Methods of 

 the restrictions which had been imposed ujM>n the use dyeing a co- 

 of the Tyrian purple, and mentioned other circinnstan- !l '" r "-n- 

 ces which gradually led to the total neglect of that ce- Ty'rian 'pur- 

 lebrated dye; we shall now describe a little more mi- pj^ . 

 nutely the methods of communicating that colour, by tisedbyth* 

 means of shell-fish, which have been employed in mo- moderns, 

 dern times. In the year H>83, Mr William Cole of 

 liristol being at Minehead, he was there told of a per- 

 son living at a sea port in Ireland, who had made con- 

 siderable gain by mark ing with a delicate durable crimson 

 colour, the finelinen of ladies and gentlemen tent tohim for 

 that purpose, and that this colour was made by some li- 

 quid substance taken out of shell fish. Mr C'ole, being Kxperi- 

 a lover of natural history, and having his curiosity thus V, 16 " of 

 excited, went in quest of these shell fish ; and after try- 

 ing various kinds without success, he at length found 

 considerable quantities of a species of buccinum on the 

 sea coasts of Somersetshire, and the opposite coasts of 

 South Wales. After many ineffectual endeavours, he 



