IN PURSUIT OF A HUE: THE RED OF EDİRNE

A hue that became world-renowned, and turned out to be the subject of spy stories. A hue that had everyone trail behind it from tradesmen to explorers.

There is a saying among folk, “Let it be a few dimes more but be red.” This does not only connote the fondness for this color, it also seems to hold the secret as to why it is of such value. Volunteering to pay a few dimes more is knowing that red is a labor of love, compassion, sweat and blood.

Throughout history those rare things that were hard to come by, that required labor, and were high-in-demand have always been valuable. And red, specifically the Edirne Red is one such thing. This color not only made a name for itself in Anatolia but also around the world and has had many people of different vocations, ranging from tradesmen to explorers, missionaries to artisans trail behind it.

Natural dyes

There are many things to be said about colors. Forming not only the basis of our knowledge of color, nature has also provided us with a great source to produce all sorts of colors. Before the invention of the first synthetic dye by the chemist Perkin in 1856, natural dyes were employed in the production of textiles. Considering that these dyes were produced from plants, animals, and minerals and had a natural distribution depending on the geographical features of the region, they were rich in some places and scarce in others.

When it came to the trade through the Silk Road, Marco Polo’s journey to the Far East and Vasco da Gama’s Indian campaign changed the lay of the land. The direct trade between Europe and Asia was paved, and Europeans were introduced to the dazzling textiles and dyes of the East along with many other goods. With the opening up of marine courses, adventures for a more colorful world were embarked upon.

Edirne Red (Turkish Red)

The interest in colorful textiles opened the floodgates for competition among countries

and led many wanderers, missionaries, tradesmen, and adventurers to exert great effort towards that aim. Specifically, Edirne Red was quite an elusive lover. Extending from the East to the West in all its glory, Anatolia is the hidden witness to this adventure. It is possible to find traces in all its cities of this unattainable lover.

Known as “Edirne Red” (also Turkish Red, Eng. Turkey

Red, Fr. Rouge de Turc, Rouge d’Andrinople), this shade is a pigment derived from the roots of an ancient dying plant referred to as Rubia tinctorium L. in Latin (Eng. Madder, Fr. Garance, Ger. Krapp). The labor intensive, complicated production of this color made it difficult to discover the right recipe and expedited competition. This led it to its unique reputation as a historical color, whereby those who solved the secret of Edirne Red were awarded. In fact, the effort spend in this regard played a great role in the development of chemistry and industry in Europe.

It is said that in the 15th century there were two alum mines in Anatolia, one in Istanbul and the other in

Izmir, and that the Turks developed dye plant breeding in the Balkans and then with a process known as the “Edirne Red” (the process actually was used to produce the minium rather than the color itself) they started to dye fabrics for themselves. It is believed that the calicos produced in the Ottoman Empire drew attention with their beautiful red color and that this technique made it to Europe in the middle of the 18th century. Even though it is known that madder was produced, used, and traded by many civilizations since antiquity, with the rise in demand in cotton fabrics following the

16th and 17th centuries and the acceleration of the textile trade from the East to the West, Edirne Red started gaining popularity. The first endeavors

to produce it in Europe were undertaken in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

In those days, the Near East was always the location where Europeans synthesized the technical information and the experience gathered from the East. Considering that Edirne was a gate to Europe, it took on an important role in relaying the know-how and experience of Anatolia. The dyers who yearned to produce with this method in Manchester and

Lyon in the 18th century tried to add masters who knew Edirne Red to their ranks. Again, in the same period, France also imported red fabrics from Anatolia and sent undyed fabrics to the Levant for dying -not being content with that they also brought Turkish and Greek dyers from the East to France.

The Europeans continued to research the Edirne Red dying method as they continued to trade the dyed goods; however, they were not able to succeed in getting good results. Despite all individual efforts, development was staggered and they spent a lot of effort trying to produce dyes with this method until the first half of the 18th century. Returning to France after staying in the Levant for a long time, wanderers and entrepreneurs took dye makers from Edirne and Izmir, and the Armenian mordant masters to the Turkish Red dye workshops they set up around Lyon. Finally, in the 1740s, in France, it was produced with success and named “Edirne

Red” (rouge d’Andrinople). In the years to come, it was turned into a commercially applicable method. Considering that it was a sought after color, many dye makers in Europe claimed they were able to produce the original Edirne Red, which led to many arrangements and issuance of regulations.

Alongside its bright, dazzling, tempting beauty, one of the reasons why this color was so in demand was that it was seen as a savior that would put an end to Spain’s red paint monopoly. With colonies on the American continent, Spain held a monopoly over red dye trade produced from cochineal insects, a method they learned from the native tribes.

Dye recipe transfer and the end of a beauty

In an environment where competition was so intense, it was inevitable that secret transfers of information would occur. In the competition between France and England, the process of dying was used to transfer the recipe of Edirne Red.

For that, writing and patterns were drawn on cotton fabrics with an alum solution colorized by counterfeit red. The writing and drawing disappeared when the fabric was soaked in vinegar and became legible again when the fabric was dyed with madder at its final destination. In this way the production of this color became a secret and a technique was developed to keep the secret hidden. And whilst the British paid exorbitant amounts to the French who would be able to relay the secret of this technique, they awarded their own citizens who would be able to produce this bright red color. With the concurrent transfer of the technical and production procedures, Europeans succeeded in the development of the 19th-century cotton industry.

With the Industrial Revolution serializing production, the demand for more and standardized goods increased and this led to a decrease in the use of natural dyes. Having developed thanks to natural dye making, chemistry synthesized organic materials to produce synthetic ones and started to do away with the area it owed its existence to. In 1826, two French chemists isolated alizarin and purpurin colorants in madder, and in 1869 alizarin was produced synthetically for the first time. Whilst madder and its counterparts were on the market until the end of the 19th century, in the coming years synthetic dyes, which were three times more cost efficient, gradually led to the total withdrawal of natural dyes from the market.

Not lending its secrets easily, the bright, vivid, provocative lover that slips out of your hands just as you think you found it, the one for whom music is faced Edirne Red has taken its place in the Anatolian heritage, keeping the stories where it plays the role of the protagonist in its bosom -yet it has many more stories to tell to those who will lend it an ear…