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Natural Dyeing: The 157 Natural Dye Recipes of Paul Gout

Updated: Oct 4, 2023

an old handwritten manuscript with blue fabric ples — The original manuscript by Paul Gout, 18th century Dyer

One day, a manuscript was found in France with 157 recipes for natural dyes. The stunning thing was, that a big part of these recipes were accompanied by samples of dyed wool.

The author unknown, it took a bit of sleuthing to discover that it was most probably Paul Gout who had the manuscript completed in 1763.

Paul Gout was the manager and master dyer of the Royal Manufacture of wool broadcloth in Bize, Languedoc. This important factory exported up to 2,750 pieces of wool cloth called 'Londrin's Seconds' per year, mainly to the ports of the Levant. This corresponds to more than 52 km of fabric, dyed in colorfast colors, fast to light and washing.

A little background on the 18th century French wool industry.

Natural dyeing menu — Frontispiece to Le Tenturier Parfait, 1708

In the 18th century, France was one of the major producers and exporters of dyed wool broadcloth, and its trade with the Levant region played a significant role in the country's economy.

The wool cloth was piece dyed, as opposed to dyeing in the fleece or yarn dyeing.

The Levant is a historical and geographical term that refers to a region in the eastern Mediterranean. It encompasses modern-day countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and parts of Turkey and Cyprus. The term "Levant" is derived from the French word "lever," meaning "to rise," as it refers to the area where the sun rises.

The 18th century witnessed a significant export of French wool to the Levant, fostering economic ties and cultural exchange between the regions. This trade contributed to the prosperity of the French wool industry and the growth of the Levant's textile sector, leaving a lasting impact on both regions during that era.

The demand for French wool in the Levant led to the growth of related industries and activities. Sheep were kept for wool in the French Pyrenees, overgrazing the area. The small hameaux in the region gave home to spinners and weavers, and dyeing took place in dye houses working according to strict Royal protocol.

The French wool trade with the Levant faced some challenges as well. Political conflicts and wars in Europe, like the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars, disrupted trade routes and affected the supply of wool to the Levant. Competition from other European wool producers, such as England and the Netherlands, also influenced the dynamics of the trade.

manufexering — This plate from a 1772 book called Gobelin Dyes shows an 18th-century dyers workshop.

A maimed manuscript

The manuscript itself looks like it has been through the works...it is missing pages, it's a bit torn and has some holes. But the samples of dyed Londrins Seconds look fresh like they were only recently dyed and the curly handwriting is neat and legible. Each sample is accompanied by a name that accurately describes the color like: 'Spiny Lobster", "Coffee" and "King's Blue", and then followed by instructions for mordanting and dyeing.

Fast forward today, June 2023 in Montpellier, I got a chance to see the manuscript myself, in person. We were in the studio of Natural Dyer Sandrine Rozier together with Author and Researcher Dominique Cardon (publisher of the book on the manuscript of Paul Gout, available for purchase HERE), for what was called a joint research workshop.

As an aside: I have closely followed the work of Dominique Cardon for the last few years, and I highly recommend you get a hold of any of the books she has published, as they contain such a wealth of historically and scientifically accurate information.

What struck me most is how thin these wool samples are, what absolute mastery of the spinners, weavers and fullers. Then, the colors...oh my...the rich saturation of them all...from deep vibrant reds, to blues, to sunny yellows, what mastery of natural materials and how obvious the huge amounts of work that happened in these dye houses, to create this vast array of color!

The goal of this master mind meeting (organized by this French organization https://www.vieilles-racines-et-jeunes-pousses.fr) was to reproduce as many of the dye recipes left to us by Paul Gout as possible and to compare the samples with the originals by doing a colorimetric analysis. Over period of five days.

The Colorimeter or CIELAB or CIE L*a*b* is a 3D color space that enables accurate measurement and comparison of all perceivable colors using three color values. In this color space, numerical differences between values roughly correspond to the amount of change humans see between colors. The LAB stands for L* for lightness and A and B for the four unique colors of human vision: red, green, blue and yellow.

Getting to work: reproducing.

So off to work we went and glorious it was. We used a replica of the same broadcloth used in the 18th century for precision sake, and only original ingredients, some of which we collected 'in situ' such as Trentanel and Redoul.

The the dyeing commenced....starting with the mordanting process of 20% Alum and 6% cream of tartar (for the reds we had other processes), the making of the blue ground for the mixed dyes, and creating the dye baths.