Anita Quye

• Head of Department at University of Glasgow

Historical and archaeological textiles are among the most crucial and vulnerable records of our social and cultural history. Analysis of organic colorants found in these materials is unquestionably one of the most powerful tools to understand historical developments, cultural exchanges, and progress in science and technology. Natural anthraquinones...

In this research, printed Turkey red calico from the 19th century is analysed using conservation-based techniques to identify the materials used in their manufacture. Turkey red production was a significant industry in Scotland, and the textiles found in archives and collections are a valuable part of Scottish heritage and material history. Turkey...

This bibliography lists and comments on publications on the process of dyeing Turkey red, its history, and chemistry.

This bibliography lists and comments on publications on the process of dyeing Turkey red, its history, and chemistry.

This work investigates historical and replica Turkey red textiles with diffuse reflectance infrared (DRIFT) spectroscopy to study the coordination complex between cellulose, fatty acids, and the aluminium ions that form the basis of the colour lake. Turkey red was produced in Scotland for around 150 years, and is held in many museum and archive col...

Colour has long held a special significance in Chinese culture, especially for textiles in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties, the period when imperial handicrafts reached their production peak. This paper makes the first attempt to compare systematically historical Chinese records of textile dyeing to understand its practice. The...

Turkey red (TR) textiles, bright red cotton produced through a complex multi-step process highly admired for its brilliancy and superior colourfastness, were major economic commodities in 19th c Scotland. A unique illustration of 19th c. dyeing technology and chemical complexity, the TR dyeing process has remained mysterious throughout. TR is built...

Heritage conservation science is a valuable technique for improving understanding and the preservation of historical objects. Material analysis of heritage textiles and related materials provides information about polymer and colorant degradation, and contributes to improved conservation and display practices. The re‐creation of materials following...

Dyes in History and Archaeology 36 26-28 October 2017 Hosted by the Royal School of Needlework Hampton Court Palace, London UK

The material degradation of an historical artifact through chemical breakdown may place the object at the end of its useful heritage “life” in terms of aesthetic value and appearance. But all is not lost in the ephemeral world of historical synthetic plastics. The chemical analyses of degraded cellulose nitrate artifacts have unlocked material clue...

The material degradation of an historical artifact through chemical breakdown may place the object at the end of its useful heritage “life” in terms of aesthetic value and appearance. But all is not lost in the ephemeral world of historical synthetic plastics. The chemical analyses of degraded cellulose nitrate artifacts have unlocked material clue...

This research makes the first attempt to apply Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to both Photodiode Array detection (PDA) and Electrospray Ionisation Mass Spectrometer (ESI-MS) to the chemical characterisation of common textile dyes in ancient China. Three different extraction methods, respectively involving dimethyl sulf...

The damaging effects of UV and short wavelength radiation have been known about for over half a century1. Although museums aim to remove the most damaging UV and short wavelength radiation from indoor exhibition lighting, dyed historical textiles can still fade or change colour. An important question for conservation science is whether the energy o...

Notice: The full paper will be submitted to DHA 33 & 34 for publication as confence proceedings in early 2016 and will probably be available in late 2016. Colour held special significance in ancient China, acting as an indispensable element of official decrees to distinguish ranks. The Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1912) saw the rapid...

Published in conference preprints. Full research results available in Jing Han's PhD thesis (2016). In ancient China, the colour of costume and textiles was as an important symbol of status and was paid much emphasis. During recent decades there has been increasingly research on historical Chinese costume and textiles to identify their dye sources...

(Published in conference preprints. Results about the botanical provenance of dye plants published in Economic Botany. Results about historical dye recipes have been submitted to Textile History and are currently under reivew.) There are growing interests in historic Chinese dyes and dyeing, but there have been few studies on dyeing in a particula...

Cellulose acetate artefacts from various museums have been analysed by micro-FTIR spectrometry and ion chromatography in an attempt to identify whether there are any common factors associated with their degradation. There was good correlation between the IR spectra, the concentration of ions extracted from an artefact and the visual degree of degra...

Cellulose nitrate is susceptible to hydrolysis as well as loss of plasticiser when left in a humid atmosphere. A comparison of the ageing behaviour of cellulose nitrate samples prepared from cotton linters was used to simulate the artefacts studied in a previous study. Certain artefacts were also subjected to accelerated ageing at 12%, 55% and 75%...

Cellulose nitrate was one of the first semi-synthetic plastics to be commercially exploited and as such many museums contain a large number of artefacts illustrating the versatility of this plastic for the creation of a wide variety of functional and aesthetic artefacts. Conservators find themselves faced with the challenge of preserving these agei...

During the past four and a half years this group has been involved in a programme of development and testing of methods for the study of organic residues in archaeological ceramics. The analytical approach used is based on solvent extraction of powdered potsherds to release lipids absorbed in the ceramic fabric, with gas chromatography (GC) and com...

Flavonoids are amongst the most commonly used natural yellow colourants in paintings, as lakes, and in historical textiles as mordant dyes. In this paper, evidence from isotopically labelled substrates is used to propose negative ion electrospray collision induced decomposition mechanisms of flavones, flavonols and an isoflavone. These mechanisms i...

The stereotype of 'traditional' Highland dress is the kilted male figure. The National Museums Scotland (NMS) and other museums have long included a category 'Arisaids' in their collections; research reveals that this was a female version of 'traditional' Highland dress, a finely-made and high status garment which was going out of fashion in the ei...

The identity of a minor flavonoid component observed in extracts of textile samples dyed with weld (Reseda luteola L.) is confirmed as chrysoeriol (3′-O-methylluteolin) by HPLC-PDA analysis. HPLC-PDA, HPLC-MS and NMR techniques have been used to show that the unknown dcII component found in extracts of textiles dyed with Mexican cochineal (Dactylop...

Textiles excavated from Scottish sites belonging now to the collections of the National Museums of Scotland, including seventeenth century textiles from peat bogs in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, were selected for analysis by high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (PDA HPLC) to detect whether any dyes remained...

The electrospray ionisation mass spectra of the neoflavanoids brazilin and hematoxylin are reported in both their reduced (1 and 2, respectively) and their oxidised forms (3 and 4, respectively). In the reduced forms, breakdown pathways under collision induced decomposition (CID) conditions produce fragments characteristic of rings A and C; in thei...

The sources and structures of dyes used to colour Western historical textiles are described in this tutorial review. Most blue and purple colours were derived from indigo--obtained either from woad or from the indigo plant--though some other sources (e.g. shellfish and lichens) were used. Reds were often anthraquinone derivatives obtained from plan...

The chemical analyses of "bog butters" recovered from peat bogs of Scotland were performed with the aim of determining their origins. Detailed compositional information was obtained from "bog butter" lipids using high temperature gas chromatography (HTGC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results indicate the degree to which "bog butters" have...

The history of dyeing is complex, even when analysed over a short period of time and in a comparatively small country such as Scotland. There are hundreds of dyes, natural and manufactured; most require the use of further chemicals as mordants to fix the colour; dyes interact with different vegetable and animal fibres in different ways; the clothes...

Dragon's blood is a deep red resin which has been used for centuries by many cultures and much prized for it's rarity, depth of colour and alchemical associations. The original source of dragon's blood resin is believed to be Dracaena cinnabari from Socotra in Africa, but since mediaeval times there have been several alternatives from different geo...

The geometry of the title compound, 2-methoxy-1-(2,4,6-trihydroxyphenyl)ethanone, C9H10O5·H2O, is determined by the presence of an intramolecular hydrogen bond; the geometry of the benzene ring is distorted by a flanking carbonyl group.

Cellulose acetate artefacts in museum collections cover a period from the early 1900's to the present day. Conservators have observed that certain of these objects are showing signs of warping, crazing, cracking, discolouration and shrinkage accompanied by a strong smell of acetic acid. Previous studies on cellulose nitrate artefacts show a correla...

In a previous study new compounds were detected from light aged natural yellow (flavonoid) dyes on alum mordanted wool. We have now developed a novel technique - negative ion electrospray ionisation quadrupole ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (ESI QIT MS) - for futher study and identification of characteristic flavonoid photodegradation products i...

Preventing the degradation of materials in museums has always been a challenge. Now plastics in 20th century museum artefacts are presenting a new set of problems.

Several resins generically known as ‘dragon’s blood’ from different botanical and geographical sources were characterised non-destructively using Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy. Genuine ‘dragon’s blood’ resin (Dracaena spp.) as found on Socotra Island was the probable source in antiquity. The spectra of recently collected Socotran resins from...

Laboratory experiments were performed using replica ceramic jars to simulate ancient pottery vessel use. The aim of the study was to investigate the behaviour of lipids, specifically, epicuticular leaf wax components during the processing of foodstuffs in unglazed ceramic vessels to determine if the pattern of lipid accumulation in a vessel can be...

This paper discusses a project which is examining the degradation of cellulose nitrate artefacts. Several analytical techniques including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and ion chromatography have been used to investigate the degradation processes occurring and the various factors influencing the rate of degradation. Accelerated age...