DYES 251 



These words occur in Ezekiel's Lamentation for Tyre, 

 written about 588 years before the birth of Christ, and, 

 together with very many other references to colours by ancient 

 writers, testify to the antiquity of the art of dyeing. 



Of all the ancient dyes, the Tyrian purple was the most 

 famous ; it was adopted as the badge of royalty, and camels 

 laden with it crossed the burning deserts of Asia to convey 

 it to distant kings, while nearer home the costly treasure 

 was carried in ships to the shores of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. 



It is believed to have been discovered by an inhabitant 

 of Tyre 1,500 years B.C., and the Roman writer Pliny tells us 

 how the dye was prepared. It was derived from a species of 

 murex, a kind of whelk. A single drop of fluid was obtained 

 from a sac in the throat of each animal, and this after a com- 

 plicated process yielded the coveted dye. 



Two other very ancient dyes are Indigo and Madder. From 

 time immemorial the art of dyeing has been practised in India, 

 and Persia, and China, and from these countries the dyes 

 were brought by Arab merchants to Phoenicia and Egypt. 

 Some of the mummy -cloths of the ancient Egyptians are 

 embroidered with blue and red threads, and it has been 

 ascertained that these dyes were obtained from the indigo 

 and madder plants. 



From Phoenicia and Egypt the art of dyeing spread to 

 Greece and Rome, but we know little about the use of colour 

 by the Greeks and Romans ; and during the time of the 

 barbarian invasions, from the fifth century onwards, men had 

 little leisure to think about beautifying their surroundings, 

 and the art of dyeing almost disappeared. 



In the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, matters 

 improved. The Venetians grew rich by the importation of 

 eastern merchandise from Egypt, and in Venice and Florence 

 the art of dyeing revived. It was a Venetian who later on 

 in 1429 published the first European book on dyeing, and the 

 Florentines by their trade in coloured cloths grew so rich 



