Dyeing with a Coffee Cup? Challenging Recipes from a 19th-Century Dyer’s Handbook

A small dyer’s handbook in Dr. Georg Kremer’s archive presents unexpected challenges. The handwritten recipes can be dated back to the early 19th century. The author must have been an experienced dyer, who wrote down detailed instructions for dyeing or printing on cotton, wool and silk. More than 80 dyed textile samples were sewn or glued into the book. A colourful palette is achieved with natural dyes such as indigo, cochineal, madder, alkanna, annatto, turmeric and quercitron. Furthermore, inorganic pigments like Prussian blue and chrome yellow were used. Unfortunately, the text is characterized by regional accent and inconsistent spelling. Language analysis was able to assign the origin of the author to the Vogtland, a region in Germany that covers parts of Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony. The spelling or misspelling of the words may leave readers with a smile, but also make it difficult to figure out ingredients, chemicals or dyes. The measurement units given in the recipes are problematic. Additionally, vessels of vague volumes such as hand buckets or coffee cups are used. In this study, the content of the notebook is evaluated, and initial reproductions are carried out to find out how useful these recipes are for further research.