Alphabe Thursday M is for Mauve

Mauve was originally  called Tyrian Purple by William Henry Perkin in 1856; at 18 he was a student at the Royal College of Chemistry. He, among others had been looking for a synthetic alternative to quinine, the Malaria remedy that was only found in the bark of a particular South American tree.  

After experimenting with hydrogen, oxygen and coal tar, Perkin noticed a black residue in the glasses. As he was about to discard it he noticed its strangely beautiful colour.  He decided to call his new discovery Tyrian Purple as an ancient dye used for the gowns worn only  by emperors of Rome and suggested luxury and elitism and a clever marketing ploy.  

However these scholarly historical references  may not have perhaps attracted buyers of high fashion so new dye was named after a pretty French flower.  Mauve from the French form Malva ‘mallow’ named after  the mallow flower.

It was after this when other chemists began experimenting with alternatives to natural colours