Patrick Weiler

Pierre,

You make it so simple that one wonders why this analysis has not been done before!
You have identified several critical steps in assuring the successful production of bright Salor red including the cochineal dye, proper uncontaminated mordant, tin-lined dye-pots and access to soft water for rinsing. The soft water effect may have been a coincidence of serendipitous location near the one flowing source, or the availability of rainwater.

One of your footnotes clearly explains a condition which has confounded many folks:
"at the end of the dyeing process, wool should ideally be rinsed thoroughly with lots of cold water to bring it back from pH 3-4 to a rather neutral pH and a stable shade. Failing to do so would impair the long-term stability of the wool fiber, and would also leave quite some unfixed dye on the wool surface. This unfixed dye not only has a somewhat different shade than the real thing, it could also cause the color to run later on."
I have long thought it would often be difficult in a land of very little water to find enough for thorough rinsing to eliminate future bleeding. I just did not know the chemistry behind it.

Patrick Weiler

Pierre Galafassi

Hi Patrick,

Visitors, including Alikhanov, de Blocqueville and O’Donovan (who knew the 19th century Turkmen very well) describe them as rather allergic to technology (except forging of Persian coins) and fully uninterested by commercial undertakings (except of course selling Persian slaves to Bokharan and Khivan dealers). It seemed unlikely that their little secret could be a complicated one or could be based on a complex supply chain.

Soft water is necessary for proper cochineal use during the mordanting- and dyeing phases. Both are hot operations (mostly performed near 100°C or at least over 60°C). For rinsing, which must be performed cold (below 30°C) the hardness of water does not play such an important role anymore.

Best regards
Pierre

Mike Mccullough

Cochineal in the presence of tin and an acid produces a brilliant crimson color and was the technique used to dye the British Redcoats.
The Spanish had been importing cochineal from the new world for hundreds of years and it was a very valuble commodity.
The Salor could have discovered the cochineal, tin, acid dye on there own.
as valuble and widespread a commodity as Spanish Cochineal from the new world was at the time, it probably was transported on the Silk Roads.
May i suggest a book by Amy Greenfield, "A Perfect Red"

Pierre Galafassi

Hi Mike,

I join you in suggesting the reading of "A perfect red". A page-turner surely. And well documented.

"Natural dyes" by Dominique Cardon, which is not a novel, makes for a delightful reading too and does not require a PHD to appreciate it. (Dr Cardon is an historian as well as a scientist and her book is full of highly interesting anecdotes. It is also (IMHO) the latest and most complete book about natural dyes.

Best
Pierre