- Joined
- Nov 26, 2016
- Location
- central NC
"The Embroidress" by Georg Friedrich Kersting
St. Patrick’s Day always has me searching my closest for something green to wear so I began to wonder how popular this color was with our Victorian friends. As it turns out, Scheele’s Green and Paris Green were the premier green pigments of the early 19th century. Their bright, rich color was very popular among fashion and interior designers. These colors were used on everything from curtains to candles.
Sadly, this pigment was made from a variety of compounds including copper arsenite. And yes copper arsenite contained arsenic. The factory workers, dyers, and artisans that produced arsenic-infused items frequently suffered from arsenic poisoning. Scheele’s Green was reported to have killed children who ate sweets colored with the dye and it was especially nasty when it was added to flocked wallpaper (a simple technique used to add texture to wallpaper) because it flaked into poisonous dust.
Throughout the 19th century, lurid tales of dresses dyed with the arsenic-infused Paris and Scheele’s Green poisoning people filled magazines and newspapers. However, the toxicity of dye made with emerald green was not initially recognized. It only became known when the recipe was published in 1822. Manufacturers then altered the recipe. They added other ingredients to slightly lighten the color and changed its name. Eventually, the use of this pigment was abandoned entirely when it became well known that people who wore clothes dyed with it tended to die. To this day the French avoid making green theater costumes.
This afternoon dress (circa 1865) is a “Poison Green” dress – one that has been dyed with an arsenic-containing chemical dye.
Source: The Pragmatic Costumer, June 2014