Orchil and Tyrian Purple: Two Centuries of Bedfords from Leeds

A two-century-old archive relating to a Leeds dye manufacturer emerged a number of years ago from a Devon attic. Most items in the archive date from the mid-nineteenth century to the first quarter of the twentieth, a period of dye history when natural dyes overlapped with and were gradually replaced by synthetics. The archive contains material relevant to three generations of the Bedford family's manufacturing and research successes, as well as its close connections to the family of William Henry Perkin. A major portion of the archive's contents is connected to the trade in orchil, a purple-producing dye from a lichen on which the early fortunes of the company were based. A small envelope signed by Charles Samuel Bedford states that it contains "Tyrian Purple." After a historical and chemical investigation, we found that this dyestuff was indeed from mollusca, confirming that this vat-dyed textile sample is the most modern historic sample of Tyrian Purple yet found.