Colouring Textiles: A History of Natural Dyestuffs in Industrial Europe

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Colouring Textiles is an attempt to provide a cross-cultural comparative approach to the art of dyeing and printing with natural dyestuffs in the 18th and 19th centuries. Divided into thematic chapters, it uncovers data from the vast historical heritage of natural dyestuffs from a range of European cities, to present historiographic insights for the understanding of this technology. Through a sort of anatomic dissection, the book explores the study and cultivation of dye-plants in botanical gardens and plantations, and the tacit values hidden in dyeing workshops, factories, laboratories, or national and international exhibitions. It metaphorically submits the natural dyestuffs of the 18th and 19th centuries to a series of systematic historical tests, and traces back the circulation of those sources of colours through colonial spaces, dye works, cross-cultural networks, schools of artistic design, and science-based industries for the making of synthetic colorants. Colouring Textiles contributes to a better understanding of the role of natural dyestuffs in the processes of industrialization in Western Europe.