03/03/2024
🤓 Colour history geeks I've got a great one for you today!
Few colours have such a rich and long history as Tyrian Purple. Records suggest the first use of the colour was by Julius Caesar in 48BC when he introduced a new toga to mark the birth of his son.
The dye was produced by combining the secretions from two species of shellfish native to the Mediterranean . Accounts of how colourless snail slime was transformed into the dye of legends are vague, contradictory and sometimes obviously mistaken – Aristotle said the mucous glands came from the throat of a "purple fish"🤢. To complicate matters further, the dyeing industry was highly secretive – each manufacturer had their own recipe, and these complex, multi-step formulas were closely guarded.
With the enormous costs and secrecy involved in its manufacture, Tyrian Purple was incredibly expensive 💰. So much so that contemporary sources state that it was literally worth its weight in gold. And as a result was associated exclusively with power and royalty 👑.
It was only last year that a Tunisian dye specialist cracked the mystery 🙌. After decades of pungent experiments in his workshop, the man (Mohammed Ghassen Nouira) reinvented the dye powder from Roman years. Now, he has been invited to display his pigments and dyed products at exhibitions all over the world including the British Museum in London.
Fascinating stuff!
