title: The purple coloration of four late 19th century silk dresses: A spectroscopic investigation.
abstract: Prior to the 19th century the use of purple dyes for textile coloration was expensive and usually limited to royalty. The discovery of several synthetic purple dyes during the 19th century made the production of purple textiles more affordable and thus more readily available. The identification of the source of the purple coloration is of historical interest. Small yarn samples from four late 19th century silk dresses were analyzed using a combination of thin layer chromatography and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. This combination of techniques enabled the analysis of the complex extraction products. While three of the dresses were found to be dyed using methyl violet, the fourth dress was found to be constructed from a warp yarn dyed with methyl violet in the presence of a tannic acid mordant, and a weft yarn dyed with mauve and a tin mordant.
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Manufacturing, PO Box 21, Belmont, VIC 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrea L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Woodhead
authors.affiliation: National Gallery of Victoria, 180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia.
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cosgrove
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Manufacturing, PO Box 21, Belmont, VIC 3216, Australia. Electronic address: Jeff.Church@csiro.au.
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Church
keywords: Infrared spectroscopy; Late 19th century silk dresses; Mordants; Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy; Synthetic purple dyes; Thin layer chromatography