Lime water 1117 parts Gall-nuts 1500 " Litharge 500 " Salammoniac 65 " Alum 128 " Verdigris 64 " Antimony 64 " Minium 32 " Iron filings 128 " Green copperas 384 "
All these substances except the gall-nuts, the copperas and half the lime water were boiled up in a cauldron; then the gall-nuts and the copperas were placed in a bucket and the contents of the cauldron poured in, and the rest of the lime water added. The mixture was stirred up, allowed to settle for an hour, and when cool, was ready to be applied by the brush method. For dyeing by the dip process, a similar mixture was used, only considerably diluted with water. A study of the formula discloses the fact that in it are combined killing and mordanting substances as well as dyeing materials. The lime water, in conjunction with the salammoniac serves as a killing agent, the verdigris, copperas and alum are mordants, while the litharge and the minium, both compounds of lead, could possibly act as mineral dyes, and the iron filings and the antimony took virtually no part at all in the dyeing, except, perhaps to act in a mechanical way.
The formulas for other shades were made up along similar lines, the chief constituent of vegetable nature being either gall-nuts, sumach, or both. A mixture for a chestnut brown, for example, contained gall-nuts, sumach, and the various other mineral constituents as in the black dye, litharge, alum, copperas, verdigris, salammoniac, antimony, and in addition, red lead and white lead. It is evident in both these instances that the shade obtained was as much the result of mineral dyeing as of vegetable dyeing.
The discovery of America introduced into Europe many new dye substances, chiefly wood extracts such as logwood and Brazilwood, but it was not until the nineteenth century that these materials found their way into the dye formulas of the fur dyer. Most of the processes used in the dyeing of furs were adaptations of methods employed in silk dyeing, the silk fibre being considered as most nearly approaching fur-hair in nature and characteristics. By devious and circuitous paths the formulas of the silk dyers reached the fur people, and so, in the middle of the nineteenth century, dye mixtures containing the various dyewoods as well as the tannin-containing substances were in general use for the dyeing of furs. The following is a typical recipe of that time for the production of black on furs like wolf, skunk, raccoon, etc.: