Dyeing Cloth in the 16th & 17th Century Dyeing Cloth in the 16th & 17th Century Author Tyler Born Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England EncyclopediaEMEE

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Tyler Born, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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Why Were Dyers Important?

Dyers were skilled artisans involved in the production of clothing, responsible for coloring or staining various types of textiles, including wool, silk, and linen. During the 16th and 17th century, luxurious fabrics were some of the most valuable items that someone of high status (or an actor playing someone of high status) could own or wear. S.P. Cerasano’s analysis notes that actor Edward Alleyn records the colors of cloth in the descriptions (scarlett, purpell, and yelow), the kinds of fabrics employed (damask, velvett, silk, and cloth of gould), and even some decorations (gould butens and spanngles) to remind us of the expense of the apparel.

Laws in early modern England regulated who could wear particular colors; commoners were not allowed to wear the colors purple and crimson, as well as luxury fabrics like velvet, satin, and taffeta. Luxury threads could be made of gold or silver, and they were also limited to high-status individuals. High-end dyes were used for material often worn by members of clergy in the Church of England. Black was the most difficult color to obtain by dyeing, but it was also the most desirable in terms of status, hence the many portraits of individuals wearing black in the period.

Dyeing with Color

The types of dyes produced during this era were natural. All textile dye colors were derived from plants, minerals, or even insects. In the 16th century, the most sought-after colors (other than black) were shades of red, followed by bright green, and sapphire blue.

Red was the most popular color to dye clothing and the most expensive to produce. Madder, a plant native to Europe, was used for an affordable red dye, producing a rich ruby or maroon color. It was eventually replaced with cochineal, produced through crushing up Latin American insects. Clothes dyed with cochineal had deeper and more durable red color.

To Dye Wool Black

Black dyed clothes became a status symbol because of the difficulty of keeping black dye pigmented. Black dye washes out of cloth easily and degrades quickly compared to other colours. Because of this, many historical recipe books contain recipes for black dye, ranging from inexpensive household procedure to ones that could only be done by skilled workers for wealthy buyers.

Gervase Markham published The English Huswife in 1615 and included the following recipe for a black dye: First then to dye wool black, you shall take two pound of galls a growth on oak trees that are high in tannins that help fix dye on fabric and bruise them, then take half so much of the best green copperas ferrous sulfate, and boil them both together in two gallons of running water; then shall you put your wool therein and boil it; so done, take it forth and dry it.

Dyeing Controversies

Skill was required to accurately determine how much dye was needed in the overall process, with the weight of the fibre proving a key detail to how much dye was used. The weight of thread fibres proved a controversial issue, as some dyers added deceitful mixtures to increase its weight (British History Online), which led to Royal intervention to incite fines in London for those who tried to sell poor-quality dyed goods. This sentiment ties in with the first Royal Charter for dyers introduced by King Henry VI in 1471.

In England, women were barred from performing on stage until the 1660s. The acceptance of women on stage also coincided with their admittance into textile and dyeing guilds, a recognized form of training similar to modern-day labour unions.

Role of Immigrants in a Dyeing Industry

Scholar Natasha Korda notes that refugees played a key role in revitalizing the clothing industry in England following a depression in the 16th century. Religious persecution of Protestants was common in countries surrounding England, so many of them fled to England. The influx of skilled labour in the cloth trades was a result of England’s acceptance of refugees.

Their contributions included: New methods for throwing silk cleaning, twisting, and preparing the fibers for dyeing and weaving Figured patterns & weaving and embroidery improvements An ability to produce luxury-grade materials

Key Print Sources Cardon, Dominique. The Dyer’s Handbook: Memoirs on Dyeing. Oxbow Books, 2016. pp. 26–40. Korda, Natasha. Labors Lost: Women’s Work and the Early Modern English Stage. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Key Online Sources Cerasano, S.P. An Inventory of Theatrical Apparel (c.1601–2) MS 1, Article 30. The Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project. https://henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/essays/an-inventory-of-theatrical-apparel-c-16012/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2023. Dyers and dyeing. Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia 1579–1664. Eds. W. H. Overall, and H. C. Overall. London: EJ Francis, 1878, pp. 118–123. British History Online. Web. 18 Mar. 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/index-remembrancia/1579-1664/pp118-123. The Dyers’ Company. The Dyers’ Company and dyeing. 2022. https://www.dyerscompany.co.uk/dyeing/dyers-and-dyeing/. The Dyers’ Company. Royal Charter. 2022. https://www.dyerscompany.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Royal-Charter.jpeg. Hohti, Paula. Exploring Historical Blacks: The Burgundian Black Collaboratory. European Research Council, 2019. https://refashioningrenaissance.eu/exploring-historical-blacks-the-burgundian-black-collaboratory/. Phipps, Elena. Cochineal Red: The Art History of a Color. Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 67, no. 3, 2010, pp. 2–29. https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications/cochineal-red-the-art-history-of-a-color. Watt, Melinda. Renaissance Velvet Textiles. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2011. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/renaissance-velvet-textiles.