A New Way to Look at Mauve
COLOR STORY
Color is ever present. We hardly think of color as special,
let alone a luxury. But color is very special indeed.
Watch the evening news. During reports from Afghanistan,
notice the drab colors the men wear: neutral off-white, sand,
tan, and light brown. Red or blue, green, orange or purple
are nowhere to be seen. This is not merely a case of religious
modesty; the lack of brilliant color is a financial issue.
Color, historically, was a luxury: the stuff of the royal
and wealthy. The growth and popularity of specific colors,
and their mass availability, reveal fantastic stories of culture
and human ingenuity.
THIS MONTH'S FEATURE
MAUVE
Definition: a moderate purple, lilac or violet color; the
dyestuff that produces the mauve color
Today, our world is extraordinarily colorful due to the science
of artificial dyes. But where did it all begin? ...
An eighteen year-old English chemistry student named William
Perkin (1838-1907) invented mauve, the 19th century word that
describes a family of shades of purple, in 1856.
Perkin was trying to develop an artificial form of quinine,
to be used in the prevention and treatment of malaria, by
extracting elements from coal tar. The extraction possessed
a purple color, which he proceeded to develop as a dye.
Mauveine, as it was originally named, was the first commercially
successful artificial dye. (Other artificial dyes had been
developed but they were not permanent and usually washed off
in the laundry). Mauveine was colorfast, lightfast and standardized.
Today, many of us recoil in fear of mauve. As the "in"
color of the 1980s, its overuse may have ruined our appreciation
for it for some time.
But consider this: for centuries, the color purple was one
of the most powerful and important colors in the world. It
was the favorite color of the Roman Emperors and other European
royalty.
Purple was derived from the shell of a specific species of
Mediterranean mollusk. It took more than four thousand shells
to make enough dye to color fifty yards of cloth.
The invention of mauve made something so very rare and precious
available and affordable to the masses.
Perkins did more than invent a color; he started a chemical
revolution. Prior to 1856, chemists were an academic group
who felt that their findings had no commercial value. Perkins
showed the world that chemistry could lead to industrial success.
From his discoveries, many other industries were founded,
including pharmaceuticals and plastics. Leo Baekland, the
"father" of plastics who invented phenolic resin,
was deeply inspired by Perkins.
The next time you look at mauve, do not think of thin wale
corduroy jeans and eyeshadow worn to high school dances where
Duran Duran blared over the PA system. Instead, imagine a
drab world where the public could indulge and delight in a
brillant, rich color that had previously been unobtainable.
And think of Perkins, the father of modern chemistry.
FURTHER READING:
Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World
by Simon Garfield, published by W. W. Norton & Co., New
York, 2001.
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