What Is That Color?

Before the late 1800's, antique rugs were hand woven and hand dyed using vegetable dyes.  Some artisans who hand loom or hand tie knotted rugs still use vegetable dyes to dye the fibers of the rugs, but chemical dyes create a more even coloring and offer a wide variety of color options that are more difficult to achieve with vegetable dye baths.  Though many individuals often associate chemicals with negative connotations, the chemical dye baths used to color modern area rugs are no more harmful than most of the vegetable dye baths that have been used throughout the centuries.  Modern chemical dyes are often even more safe for the natural fibers that make up the rug than some vegetable dyes.  The vegetable dye bath sometimes used in rural areas to make hand woven and hand dyed antique Persian rugs was often a very corrosive substance that ate away at the natural wool fibers that it colored, thus significantly shortening the lifespan of the rugs.

While chemical dyeing had become quite standard over time since first introduced in the late 1800's, Turkish rug makers revitalized the use of vegetable dyes during the 1960's.  The use of natural materials to create vibrant colors for rugs was quickly rejuvenated, and spread throughout the region through the late 20th century.  Now both synthetic dyes and natural dyes are widely used, often at the same time by many rug artisans.  Though the Turkish government did attempt to cease the use of synthetic dyes in the 19th century, the regulations were not to much avail.  When the use of natural dyes reemerged, both types of dyes remained in heavy use.  There does not seem to be an industry standard as to which type of dye is necessarily superior and creates a superior product.  This is likely at least partially due to the fact that the hand-made rug industry is in many ways, still a cottage industry, practiced by individuals and collectives in remote villages throughout the Persian region.

The items used to make natural dye baths have changed over the years as different plants and insects have been found to yield different dyeing results.  Traditionally, the bright reds and orangey reds in most antique Persian rugs are not made from vegetable dyes at all.  Instead, the reds and oranges found in so many antique rugs are created by boiling insect carapaces.  Reds are also commonly derived by powdering the root of the madder plant, then turning it into a dye bath by mixing it in water.

It can be difficult for the untrained eye to determine whether an antique rug is dyed with synthetic or natural dyes, or possibly a combination of both.  If a rug predates the late 19th century, then it is certainly colored with vegetable dyes, as synthetic dyes did not come into existence until then.  The majority of rugs made between the late 1800's and the 1960's used chemical dyes.  Newer rugs run the gambit-- even those hand tied in rural areas might be colored using synthetic dyes.