By Lenna DeMarco

 

There are many ways to determine when a quilt was made and color can often be a useful tool. Over-dyed greens and turkey reds are strong indicators of a mid-19th century quilt. Nile green is most definitely an indicator of the 1920-30s. Purples also changed with the decades and centuries. Creating a fast and vibrant purple from natural dyes is difficult. Early processes involved the overdye of red and blue. Protein fibers like wool and silk produced a stronger color than cellulose - cotton and linen. However, the purple was not a vibrant one, more of a dull lavender and not very fast.   With exposure to light and washings, it quickly faded to brown or pink. Looking at early, pre 1850 quilts we often find quite a bit of brown print fabric. While brown was a popular color in the first half of the 19th century, purple was also a favorite. Often what we assume is a brown print is really a faded, natural dye purple. Sunlight and washing have had their way. It's not always easy to determine if a brown fabric was formerly purple. Even fabric buried in the seams can lose its color.   Sometimes we just have to guess as to what was the original color.                   

  The first synthetic organic chemical dye was purple and was created quite by accident in 1856. A brilliant mauveine in color, this aniline dye is sometimes referred to as "Perkin Purple", named after William Henry Perkin. A chemist, Perkin was attempting to synthesize quinine and serendipitously created a bright, stable synthetic purple. It became one of the first synthetic dyes to be mass produced. For the 19th century quilt maker, this was quite a break through and widened her color palette.                                      

   Perkin's Mauve:  A letter from Perkin's son with a sample of dyed silk

(from a Wikipedia post by Henry Rzepa) 

 

By the 20th century synthetic dyes were producing a variety of color fast purples including shades of lavender, lilac and raspberry but it's not until 1925 that the pastel palette really takes off. The cheerful quilts of the 1920s and '30s adored lavender and often teamed it with other Easter egg colors like pink, yellow and mint greens. In the 1940s, purples tended toward deeper tones, including burgundy. By the 1950s the lively, lighter purples had reappeared. The last half of the 20th century provided quilters with an astounding range of colors and prints. While each decade generally has its favorite color scheme (think avocado, harvest gold and rust of the 1970s!!), a rainbow of colors is always available. Thanks to young girls who insist on swathing themselves and their rooms in pinks and purples, Mr. Perkin's discovery has proved it is definitely a color here to stay!