In message <[email protected]>, [email protected] writes
It would appear from the texts that the saffron was in the starch. But why they didn't simply dye the lace saffron, rather than it being part of the starch, I don't know. Also, why do you never see lace of that era in the other interesting colors supposedly infused into the starch?
the recipe-*maker* have a different root veg. in mind, yet called it a potato? Were they using a yellow turnip? a parsnip? a dandelion root? - the latter gives yellow, red or blue dye depending on the mordant, the dye-set, used.
If the lace was produced with undyed thread, and then needed to be dyed and starched, it would make sense to do both (perhaps after attaching it to the fabric forming the ruff) in one process, saving a lot of time - also, if the colour is likely to run, do you dye first and then risk losing it in the starching, or starch first and lose the stiffening in the dying?
I suspect that as the colours, as well as the starches, were made from vegetable matter, a wardrobe full of clothes in those days was a veritable supermarket for the local clothes moths!!! Also, I have in recent years (about 15 years ago) had black embroidery thread used in a cross-stitch design on a cushion cover totally disappear within five years. The dyes themselves may have rotted the threads.
I think we probably assume a lot from portraits where colour is concerned. True, they were shown in white ruffs - white was probably "Sunday best" and a symbol of purity - important for Elizabeth 1. But, chances were they liked colour for day to day wear as much as we do now - just the artists only saw them sit in Sunday best, and the stock of costumes available for the models who sat for the dreary bits were limiting as well in this respect. The same goes with dealers' pattern books - the samples were made in white, probably most of the lace was - but what was to stop someone saying "I'll have a dozen yards of that in blue, please" and for it either to be produced white and dyed blue, or made with blue thread to start with? The lace on the dress in Nottingham's costume collection which belonged to a relative of my husband's family, (his great-aunt by marriage's grandmother, if I remember correctly) - her wedding dress dating around 1860 - was brown, as was the dress. I think there was a shade difference between the two browns, though. (It was several years ago that MiL and I managed to go and see it).
Instead of thinking that because there is no evidence surviving, they didn't have colour, maybe we need to think, why should they have lived in a world of no colour, considering the money the noble families had at the time?
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