Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2246

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 item(s)

Language:

French

Preferred Citation:

Thread dyeing sample booklet, not before 1873, Ms. Codex 2246, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

not before 1873

Form:

Codices (bound manuscripts) and Sample books

Abstract:

This volume contains 32 thread dye samples created and compiled by an unidentified creator, possibly for advertising purposes in France in the late 19th century.

This booklet contains a combination of natural, inorganic, and early synthetic dyes.

The first section of dyes in this volume are iron rust dyes. Iron has been used as a dye since as early as 3000 BC by the Swiss Lake Dwellers.

Chrome yellow and orange, which is another category in this volume, are pigments that come from a Siberian mineral called crocoite, a natural form of lead chromate first discovered in the eighteenth century. The mineral was analyzed by French chemist Nicolas Louis Vauquelin in the late 1790s who identified chromium as the source of the mineral's color. The pigments became more widespread with the discovery of chromium mineral deposits in Europe and the United States and Vauquelin's publishing of the preparation of the color in the Annales de Chimie IXX in 1809.

The category, "bleus au cyanoferrure" may include cyanoferrate blue, also known as Prussian blue. This pigment was developed in the early 18th century and is the first purely synthetic dye. It may have been created by paint maker Johann Jacob Diesbach in Berlin around 1706 and was first published by the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences in 1710.

"Cachou de Laval," a category of dyes in this item, is an early sulfur dye discovered by Groissant and Bretonniere in 1873 by fusing wood shavings and sawdust with sodium sulfide or sulfur with caustic soda. This dye never received significant commercial success.

Sources:

Bartoll, Jens. "The Early Use of Prussian Blue in Paintings." 9th International Conference on NDT of Art, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, 2008, www.ndt.net/article/art2008/papers/029bartoll.pdf.

"Chrome Yellow." Pigments through the Ages - History - Chrome Yellow, www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/history/cryellow.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Goswami, Parikshit, and Montu Basak. "Sulfur Dyes." Kirk‐Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 2014, doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1002/0471238961.1921120619051409.a01.pub2.

Kraft, Alexander. "ON THE DISCOVERY AND HISTORY OF PRUSSIAN BLUE." Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 2008, acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/v33-2/v33-2%20p61-67.pdf.

Roberts, Mike. "History of Iron in Dyeing." History of Iron in Dyeing | Wild Colours Natural Dyes, wildcolours.co.uk/html/iron_history.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

This volume contains 32 thread dye samples created and compiled by an unidentified creator, possibly for advertising purposes in France in the late 19th century.

The samples are arranged on a fold-out pamphlet with seven panels, each containing four or five thread samples.

The thread dye samples are arranged into ten categories: Rouilles au fer, gris ou sulfre de mercure, gris a l'oxyde de fer, jaunes au l'admiun, jaunes et oranges au chrome, bleus au cyanoferrure, bruns au manganese, cachou, rocou, and cachou de laval.

The samples contain a combination of natural, inorganic, and early synthetic dyes.