The history of dyeing

The primitive way of applying decoration was to use natural products: leaves, flowers or sticks. These, neat without modification, would be stuck onto fabric with albumen or clotted blood. A second method was to rub crushed pigments into cloth – these proved to be fast to light but not fast to water or wear. The demand for really permanent fixing colours stimulated experiments. Crushed fruit and berries were boiled into the fabric but this did not produce a fast dye. Sun rays were used to bleach; fire and smoke gave scorching effects. Finally the natural dyes were discovered which actually coloured the fibres, not just coating them.

Dyeing is a very ancient art, first recorded during the Bronze Age in Europe (2500-800 BC). This first use of the blue dye, woad, beloved by the Ancient Britons, may have originated in Palestine where it was found growing wild. The most famous and highly prized colour down the ages was Tyrian purple, a dye obtained from certain shellfish. Its use persisted through the Middle Ages and because of the cost of collection, it was a mark of nobility.