Crimson Coloring

Crimson Coloring and Pigments

Bluish red crimson coloring is well known since earliest centuries. Already the Phoenicians had gained the knowledge about natural manufacturing of crimson paint for art supplies. They got their crimson coloring from the sap of spine snails (also known as crimson snails). It took great pains to get small amounts of crimson that was used to dye precious cloth and textiles in ancient times. Today, only very few traditional recipes of the hard procedure of the natural production for this red coloring are handed down.
 

To "manufacture" 1 gram of pure and real crimson coloring people needed about 8000 spine snails which could be found in East-Mediterranean areas.

These animals' color glandular produced a tiny amount of this bluish red paint.

This explains, why naturally gained pure crimson had been one of the most expensive and precious coloring in antiquity.

 
For this exclusivity crimson had always been an attribute of highest powers for numerous authorities and members of government and church. The "Emperor of Rome" as well as his most powerful officials were wearing crimson clothes as a symbol of the social rank in society. Until today the catholic church chooses the crimson coat as their representative clothing for cardinals.
 

The crimson color is chemically analyzed a bluish red derivative of indigo. In our days this artists material is synthetically manufactured. Chemically produced the coloring become a synthetic water-insoluble paint with very high qualities to dye textiles. It has got even more luminosity and shows longer durability than naturally gained crimson coloring.