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Perkin’s and Caro’s Mauveine in Queen Victoria’s Lilac Postage Stamps: A Chemical Analysis
Author(s) -
Conceição Oliveira Maria da,
Dias Ana,
Douglas Peter,
Seixas de Melo J. Sérgio
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201303232
Subject(s) - postage stamps , queen (butterfly) , icon , art , sample (material) , art history , chemistry , computer science , biology , chromatography , hymenoptera , botany , programming language
Mauveine, a chemical icon, is no longer commercially available. If nowadays one wanted to have a sample of the original Perkin, or Caro, mauveine, and see its colour, where would one find it? The answer is on UK Victorian 6d postage stamps from 1867–1880. This was found from a comparison with historical samples of mauveine, from both William Perkin and a Heinrich Caro sample (here analysed for the first time). These have distinctly different compositions and this was used to identify the origin of mauveine in the postage stamps, with evidence found for mauveine made by both Perkin’s and Caro’s synthesis.