DYEING, as the word is commonly used, is the art of communicating colour of some considerable degree of perma nence to articles used in clothing ; the procesess for colouring other substances will be found under the articles of stain ing wood, bone, leather, and marble.
This art is probably of great antiquity, as we find accounts of coloured garments in the earliest records of history. The ancient Egyptians must have carried it to great perfection, as the method of pro ducing very brilliant colours of extreme durability was well known to them, nu merous specimens of such colours on various substances being still found on the walls of their early built temples, on the sides of their catacombs, and on the coverings of their mummies ; and it may be fairly inferred, from their producing such fine colours on these substances, that they must have known how to do so , on other substances, and in other man ners; besides which, Pliny expressly men tions, (Hist. Nat. Lib. 35. chap. 2.) that the Egyptians had a mode of dyeing, which from his description was very like that which we use for colouring printed linens, as the stuffs were immersed in vats, where they received various colours, probably after having been impregnated with different mordants.
Among the Greeks, dyeing was but lit tle practised ; but the Tyrians, who may be called their neighbours, were, at a very early period, acquainted with the method of producing the beautiful tint of purple, for which they were so long famous ; from the Tyrians the art pro ceeded to the Greeks, and from them to the Romans.
The ancients also obtained from the coccus, now known by the name of kermes, a colour, which was almost as highly esteemed as the purple, and which was sometimes mixed with it. Sec Coc cus.
There is reason to think it was not till the time of Alexander, that the Greeks attempted materially to improve the black, blue, yellow, and green dyes ; which it is probable they learned the means of effecting from the. natives of Asia, with which the conquest of Alex ander rendered them familiar, and among some of whom, particularly the Indians, the art of dying fine colours was known from the earliest antiquity. But as the
art of dyeing has not proceeded to us directly from the Indians, it is sufficient to note this circumstance, in tracing its progress in countries more adjacent to our own.
The qualities of the colours used by the ancients may be judged of by the substances employed in making them ; of which M. Biscoff, who has minutely ex amined the subject, enumerates the fol lowing ingredients, in addition to the coccus and purple shell fish : 1. Alum ; but this it is probable the an cients were unacquainted with in its pre sent state of purity.
2. Alkanet, which Suidas says was used by women as a paint.
3. The blood of birds, which was used among the Jews.
4. The fucus ; that of Crete was pre ferred, and was generally employed as a ground for valuable colours.
5. Broom.
6. The violet ; from which the Gauls prepared a colour that resembled one kind of purple.
7. Lotos medicago arborea, snail tre. foil ; the bark was used in dyeing skins, and the root in dyeing wool.
8. The bark of the walnut tree, and the peel of the shell.
9. Madder ; there is no certainty whe ther the ancients used the same species with us, or another root of the same tribe.
10. Woad ; but we do not know that the ancients used the same preparation of it which we do.
Our acquisitions of dyeing materials, especially since the discovery of America, give us such a decided superiority over the ancients in this respect, that we pro bably have no cause to regret the loss of their methods, even in the instance of their celebrated purple, which it may be questioned if we do not equal in beauty with a purple prepared from other much cheaper materials.
The kermes affords a colour which was almost as highly esteemed by the ancients as the purple, and we probably know how to employ the kermes to greater advan tage than they did, as we possess alum in a state of purity, which they knew not how to obtain, with which the stuff is prepared to receive a more durable and beautiful colour ; yet our dyers have al most entirely discontinued the use of it, because they can obtain from cochineal a colour beyond all comparison more beautiful.