By the 18th century, indigo blue was one of the most ubiquitous colors. All kinds of working clothes were solid blue, or blue and white checks or stripes. I grant that the very dark blues may have been a tad more expensive, though, as they had to be dipped several times. And yes, indigo is fast. What year was your "Sweeny Todd" set in? I thought it was late 19th century, and any time after about 1870, one could have had a brilliant purple (by then dyed with aniline dyes) for not too much money. Ann Wass In a message dated 2/1/2011 6:20:28 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, michaeljdeib...@gmail.com writes:
Sorry I ant include exact dates as I'm at work and it's a hassle to look it up on my phone! Indigo dyes were around for a long time. However, they were made from extracts of plants. This process was extremely costly for the plants themselves, it took multiple baths in the he in order to reach that deep rich color that was desires. Because of this expense, only the upper class, nobility and the clergy were able to afford garments in these colors. I also believe that that dye was by colorfast. In the 1760's, the first synthetic dyes were discovered, though it took tip about the turn of the century till the process was refined. Because it wa now synthetic, the lower classes could finally afford garments in this color range. Again, while I cannot pinpoint my sources by memory, I had looked into this last spring while costuming the musical Sweeny Todd where the director wanted a vibrant purple waistcoat for Pirrelli's character. Because of the year it was set, there was no way He could have afforded that color but unfortunately my research went unheaded. Michael Deibert OAS AAS LLS Sent from my iPhone On Feb 1, 2011, at 18:04, Marie Stewart <maric...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi folks. > I must, respectfully, disagree with Ann on a point about the color Prussian > Blue Prussian Blue is defined as absorbing wavelengths about around 680 nm, > causing it to appear in visible light as approximately 700 THz. Which is a > lovely strong blue leaning towards the violet end of the spectrum, not to > the green/yellow end. > (Methods of Chemical Analysis, 1998) > > I will agree with her that I misspoke when I said it was and aniline dye, > its a cyanometalate. I would have been more accurate to say that Prussian > blue was one of the first chemically synthesized dyes. Thanks for the > redirect on that one. > > (navel gazing: We know that the dye was in the painters sphere in the early > 1700s (18th century), but when did it move to the dyers sphere? Was it in > the mid-1700s, thanks to Macquer's experiments with reduction, thereby > giving an easily transportable salt? Or was it used popularly, or rarely > before that. I'm going to go have to go research this. Fascinating > topic. > > As a nifty side note, and a easy visual reference (although I got it from > Wikipedia, so take it with a big grain of NaCl) the midnight blue crayon > was once colored with and called Prussian blue. > > Mari > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
