Queen Victoria’s highly influential mauve dress
Worn at her daughter’s wedding 1858
The difference between these colours is not much, or quite a lot depending on your perspective. Violet is the most distinct. It is pure, spectral and has a unique wavelength. Purple is a combination of red and blue, not a single wavelength. Mauve is also unique, and possibly the most interesting. It is manmade. Sir William Henry Perkin was born in 1838. At 15 he entered the Royal College of Chemistry, now the Imperial College London. At the start he had a noble plan, to benefit medical care across the world with the synthesis of artifical quinine. Natural quinine was scarce and expensive, with vast amounts needed to treat the surge of malaria. His path to quinine started with aniline, better known as coal tar. Perkin observed that aniline extracted with alcohol produced an intense purple compound, that he called mauveine. It proved to be a highly effective wash and lightfast dye for clothing. By 18 Perkin had a patent for the first ever synthetic dye and was a multimillionaire. He never got around to making synthetic quinine. #purplehaze #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 