The History of Purple

what adjectives would you use to describe purple for many people royal luxurious and extravagant are some words that they associate with this splendid color due to its rarity in nature as well as the historically high cost of manufacturing purple dyes the color purple was the most valued in antiquity of all the colors of the spectrum how then did this beautiful color go from being so exclusive to being found everywhere to the point where there are stores today that specialize in selling only purple objects from kitchen utensils to electronic gadgets and from toilet plungers to diapers today we take a look at the history of purple to answer this question there are not many natural purple dyes but among them the most famous by far is Tyrian purple named after the city tyre located in what is now Lebanon in this Phoenician city that eventually became famous for this purple dye the process of its extraction from certain sea snails and its production into highly coveted purple fabrics was perfected and industrialised according to legend as told by the Greek writer Julius Pollux while Hercules was walking on the beach along the shores of Tyre with the name of tyro whom he was courting his dog bit a murex sea snail and its mouth turned purple tyro desired address of the same color and so the industrialized manufacturer of Tyrian purple was born this discovery happened in 1570 BC and because the Phoenicians were seafaring people with a trade based economy the cloth that they dyed purple came to be traded with other civilizations like the Egyptians Greeks Etruscans and later the Romans it was in fact one of their primary exports so much so that it is suggested that the name Phoenicia itself means land of the purple stemming from the greek root word Venus meaning a reddish purple or crimson Tyrian purple was highly prized in antiquity because its color did not easily fade but instead became brighter with exposure to sunlight Tyrian purple was not only highly prized but also very expensive due to its manufacturing process that was extremely difficult costly in resources and labor-intensive Tyrian purple was worth its weight in gold the dye is made by extracting secretions from several species of murex sea snails by poking or crushing them eight to ten thousand of the snails had to be crushed boiled and fermented to produce one gram of Tyrian purple due to it being so prized and expensive it subsequently became associated with the upper classes and soon became a status symbol in several civilizations most notably it is with the founding of the Kingdom of Rome by Romulus and his adoption of Tyrion purple as the color of the king that this colors association with power wealth and position became truly solidified Tyrian purple was so highly valued in Rome that it became an indicator of one's rank in society the toga which was the national dress of the Roman citizen at the time would indicate one's class only people of the highest social standing such as magistrates consuls and the Emperor were allowed to wear purple and even then the amount of purple allowed on the toga depended on the person's rank elsewhere in the world the color purple was also forming these associations with royalty rank and power despite the dyes being created from different sources than the murex nails of Tyrian purple this association of purple with royalty and power continued to be seen in medieval England where King Henry's sanctuary laws of 1533 restrict the wearing of gold and purple silk to members of the royal family these sanctuary laws were further tightened and detailed by Queen Elizabeth the first further restricting the usage of purple to the royal family by the end of the 18th century some tree laws were lifted but purple dyes remained rare and expensive and out of reach of most of the population how then did it come to be so widely available today well for this we have yet another serendipitous discovery to thank in the 1850s the British Empire was pushing into Africa their colonization efforts however were impeded by malaria scientists had recently discovered that Queen eeen a chemical derived from the bark of sinkhole uh trees could treat malaria but synchrony trees came mostly from South America and scientists were looking for an easier way to produce the drug and that is why in 1856 William Henry Perkin an eighteen year old student in the Royal College of chemistry was trying to synthesize Kinane in the lab after repeated failed attempts Perkin was left with thick black goo in his test tube cleaning up his failed experiment he noticed that left behind a vivid purple color he also found that the color transferred to cloth with remarkable brilliance Perkin named his synthetic dye moving after the French word move meaning purple the color was already in fashion at the time and to make the most of his discovery Perkin abandoned his studies and set up a factory to produce the dye industrially unwittingly Birkin had created the first synthetic dye in history and gave rise to the brand new industry of synthetic organic chemicals which revolutionized the world of fashion purple as a fashionable color was solidified when it was worn by trendsetters like Empress eugénie wife of Napoleon the third in 1857 and by Queen Victoria who wore a gown dyed with morphine in 1862 in 1906 Perkin was knighted sir William Henry Perkin and was awarded the first Perkin medal established to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his discovery of Mubeen today the Perkin medal is widely acknowledged as the highest honor in u.s. industrial chemistry in the twentieth century although much more available purple continued to retain its historic connection with royalty George the sixth wore purple in his official portrait and purple was also prominent in all features of the coronation of Elizabeth ii in 1953 throughout the 20th century purple continued to be a popular color and due to its commercial availability and the discovery of more synthetic dyes more and more objects start to be dyed in some shade of purple to the point that almost everything today can be found in this beautiful color from bedsheets to toilet seats on 23rd March 2018 google showed a google doodle commemorating perkins 180th birthday that same year Pantone named a specific shade of purple which they called ultraviolet as the color of the year in 2020 vogue sets purple to be the trendy color of the year once again and it truly seems that purple isn't set to lose its popularity anytime soon

Channel: Hakim Luqman

Views: 2,116

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Purple, Tyrian Purple, Mauveine, Sir William Henry Perkin, Violet, History of Purple, William Henry Perkin, History of Tyrian Purple

Id: QRLL6_CnU4I

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2020