History of color

 
The use of color for many years was limited to dyes that could be distilled from living organisms. Some of the names that we associate with particular colors are actually the names of the plants from which the colors were derived. Indigo produced a lovely blue and the madder plant an exceptionally deep rose. 
  After the Age of Enlightenment, the twin fields of chemistry and science began to add new and varied colors for the fashion conscience. For those who have only been exposed to historic costume through actual relics of a bygone age, the vibrancy of the colors when new is surprising. Garments that are now 100 to 200 years old are very muted in appearance since the dyes utilized did not have color fastness of modern dyes.
 

  The very first synthetic dye was Prussian blue. Like many great discoveries, it owes its development to accident. A Berlin color maker was actually trying to produce a new shade of red for oil painters. And imagine his surprise; when his solution turned purple before finally solidifying into a shade of blue. The resulting Prussian blue dye was used from at least 1723, mainly on the natural fabrics silk and cotton.
 Other developments in science led to the prism; and it was experiments in refracting sunlight through a prism, that allowed scientists to discern all the colors of the rainbow. This color spectrum is what we now see on a color wheel and is used as the basis for our current theories of color.
  The art of dying was so important that it was actually listed as a separate branch of chemistry. A lot was achieved through trial an error, and the results were not always understood on a chemical level. Remember this was the age of apprenticeships rather than formal schools of study; and hence dying remained more of an art than a science. 

                             
  In the 1770’s, two new yellow dyes were developed  picric acid and quercitron. As the previous sources of yellow were either hideously expensive like saffron or produced a more muted, less radiant yellow, like turmeric; the new yellows took the fashion world by storm.
  
  





Toward the end of the Regency, the compounds of different dyes were beginning to be isolated and this paved the way in the Victorian age for the new dyes such as mauveine, murexide, and French purple. Thanks to these new dyes a fashionable lady could now adorn herself in lovely shades of mauve, violet, and blue. 
   
  In addition 1859 saw the introduction of magenta, shortly followed by aniline blue and aniline violet. In 1868 synthetic alizarin dye was introduced to the market to great acclaim and resulted in the sudden death of madder production in many areas of the world. This bright red became a staple in the Victorian color palette. The ladies of the period rejoiced and small fortunes were made in the dye industry.
   The next great discoveries in this field were the production of various green dyes.

This was the age in which synthetic dyes became more predictable and their manufacture and development was based more in science than in luck or art. Germany became a leading force in the dye industry. Color after color after color was being introduced to a readily appreciative audience.