Turkey red also called Adrianople red (French: rouge d’Andrinople rouge turc,German: Türkischrot) is a dyeing method that was widely used to give cotton a distinctive brillia red colour The method was invented in the city Edirne of Ottoman Empire by Edirnekâri masters in the 16th century and was brought to Europe from Turkey in the 1740s
The dye was made using the root of the rubia (madder) plant, through a long and laborious process which originated in the historical Levant region and was further developed in India and China. In 1746, two industrialists in Izmir, Ottoman citizens named d'Haristoy and Goudard, who were masters of Turkey red dye, were persuaded to take the dye recipe to France, and thus this dye spread to Europe.
History
As the Industrial Revolution spread across Europe, chemists and manufacturers sought new red dyes that could be used for large-scale manufacture of textiles. One colour imported into Europe from Asia in the 18th and early 19th century was Turkey red, known in France as rouge d'Andrinople.
Turkey red used the root of the rubia (madder) plant as the colorant, but the process was long and complicated, involving multiple soakings of the fabrics in lye, castor oil, sheep's dung, and other ingredients.
Turkey red fabric was more expensive but resulted in a fine bright and lasting red, similar to carmine, perfectly suited to cotton, a fabric to which it had previously proven difficult to affix dye.
Turkey red achieved its popularity as a natural dye for several reasons, namely that it was colourfast – it did not fade in light or when washed, and did not transfer colour to other fabrics, proving that completed fabrics could be used in both clothing and furnishing.
Beginning in the 1740s, this bright red colour was used to dye and print cotton textiles in England, Scotland, the Netherlands and France. Turkey red fabric, while retailed in Europe, was widely created for the export market, traded from Europe to India, Africa, the Middle East and America, often to the detriment of the local economy, trade, and artisans. Designs were often appropriated and cheaply retailed. In 19th-century America, Turkey red was widely used in making traditional patchwork quilts.
In 2017 after a 3,5 years work The Turkish Cultural Association rediscovered the recipe for examining historical textiles under a microscope in 2017 after 3.5 years of effort.
Turkey red and Scotland
The Turkey red dyeing technique was introduced to Scotland by French chemist Pierre Jacques Papillon. Papillon, working with dyer George Macintosh and David Dale, founded in 1785 the first Turkey red dyeworks in Dalmarnock, Scotland.
Harnessing the business potential of the growing Turkey red market, numerous manufacturers also established their bleachfields, dyeworks and printworks in the Vale of Leven, as well as at several sites around Glasgow. At this time, the Vale of Leven, further up the river from Dalmarnock, was already the site of several bleachfields and printworks, and with ready supply of clean water from the river Leven, it was well suited to such production as Turkey red. The Vale of Leven became recognised as a centre of Turkey red production in the 1820s.
Manchester remained a key British competitor of the Turkey red industry in Scotland, and with expansion of production in India towards the end of the 19th century, the Scottish Turkey red trade was further challenged. However, the profitability of production in Scotland endured. Amalgamation of the industry-leading Archibald Orr Ewing and Co., John Orr Ewing and Co., and William Stirling and Sons established the United Turkey Red Company Ltd in 1898, which continued to produce and trade until 1961, marking the end of the Turkey red industry in the Vale of Leven.
Process
Edirne Red (or Turkish Red) is an interdisciplinary concept encompassing fields from agriculture to chemistry, textiles to fashion, and became one of the figures in the European textile market in the 18th and 19th centuries. This color, kept secret for years through a master-apprentice relationship, is a cotton/yarn dyeing technique used in dyeing cotton and silk fabrics, exhibiting resistance to washing and sunlight.
The process of dyeing cotton Turkey red, as it was practiced in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century, was created in particular in the cities of Edirne,Bursa,and İzmir Two dyers brought the method initially to Rouen, Lyons and Languedoc in France, afterwards spreading it throughout the rest of Europe.
1. Raw Materials and Preparation Stages
Main Dyeing Agent (Rubia tinctorum L. - Madder): The madder plant (Rubia tinctorum L.), which constitutes the basic raw material of the dye, is cleaned of soil, washed, sliced into 4-5 cm pieces, dried in the shade, then dried in an oven at 60-65 °C, and finally ground into powder in a mill.
Complementary Plants (Rockthorn): To obtain different shades of color (orange-yellow, khaki, and olive green), the buckthorn plant, whose Latin name is Rhamnus petiolaris Boiss, is included in the mixtures.
Oil Mordants: While rancid olive oil (huile tournante) was used in the past, later on, water-soluble oils derived from sulfated castor oil, known as "Turkish red oil," were preferred.
Mordants (Color Stabilizers): These are metal salts that ensure the dye is bound to the fibers. Alum (potassium-aluminum sulfate) is most commonly used. In addition, auxiliary substances such as tannin (obtained from gallnut powder), tin chloride, iron sulfate (bluestone), copper sulfate (bluestone), and potassium dichromate, as well as components like sodium carbonate, calcium carbonate, and glacial acetic acid, are involved in the process.
2. Production Process and Stages
Turkish red production process consists of two main stages, mordanting and dyeing, and a total of 10 main steps:
A. Mordanting Stage:
The cotton yarn is soaked in Turkish red oil for 2 hours.
It is rinsed with water, squeezed, and left to dry in the open air for 3 days.
First mordanting: Soaked in a mixture of 6% tannin at 40-55 °C for 12 hours.
The yarn is removed from the mordant bath and left to dry.
Second mordanting: Soaked in a mixture of 100% alum, 9% sodium carbonate, 3% calcium carbonate, and 7% glacial acetic acid at 55 °C for 12 hours.
The yarn is removed from the mordant bath and left to dry.
B. Dyeing Stage:
The mordanted cotton yarn is heated to 75°C in a solution consisting of 200% madder dye, 4% tannin, 1.4% calcium carbonate, and 1% Turkish red oil, and left at this temperature for 1 hour.
The yarn is removed from the dye bath; rinsed with water, squeezed, and left to dry.
The dyed and dried yarn is soaked for 1-2 hours in a mixture of 3% soap, 0.85% sodium carbonate, tin, and 0.65% chloride.
The yarn is removed from the washing bath, rinsed with water, and left to dry.
3. Chemical Structure
The color persistence and durability of Edirne red stems from a molecular structure established between the cellulose fibers and the chemical components:
Complex Structure: Turkish red dye is a lake structure composed of a calcium-alizarin-aluminum (Ca-alizarin-Al) complex.
Aluminum Soaps and Coordination: In the next step, added aluminum ions form bonds with the carboxyl groups of fatty acids, precipitating aluminum soaps (metal carboxylate complexes). These bonds have a "pseudo-bridged" unidentate or bidentate chelation/bridging coordination geometry with a value of approximately 120cm-1. This chemical network increases the color's resistance to washing, rubbing, and light.Turkey Red is also a manufacturing technique and a process.
To obtain Turkish red,there are two basic stages: mordanting and dyeing.
MORDANTING
Cotton yarn is soaked in Turkey red oil for 2 hours.
It is thoroughly rinsed with water, wrung out, and left to dry in the open air for 3 days.
First mordanting: It is soaked with 6% tannin at 40–55 °C for 12 hours.
The yarn is removed from the mordant bath and left to dry.
Second mordanting: It is soaked in a mixture of 100% alum, 9% sodium carbonate, 3% calcium carbonate, and 7% glacial acetic acid at 55 °C for 12 hours.
The yarn is removed from the mordant bath and left to dry.
DYEING
The mordanted cotton yarn and a liquid consisting of 200% madder root, 4% tannin, 1.4% calcium carbonate, and 1% Turkey red oil are slowly heated to 75 °C and kept at this temperature for one hour.
The yarn is removed from the dye bath, thoroughly rinsed with water, wrung out, and left to dry.
The dyed and dried yarn is soaked in a mixture of 3% soap, 0.85% sodium carbonate, tin, and 0.65% chloride for 1–2 hours.
The yarn is removed from the washing bath, rinsed with water, and left to dry.
The method was described in a text by a Manchester dyer in 1786 as such:
12Wertz, Julie H.; Tang, P. L.; Quye, Anita; France, David (2018). "Characterisation of oil and aluminium complex on replica and historical 19th c. Turkey red textiles by non-destructive diffuse reflectance FTIR spectroscopy". Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy. 204: 267–275. doi:10.1016/j.saa.2018.05.109.
12Yüce, İsmail; Becenen, Nilgün (2023). "Dyeing of Silk in Edirne Red Color with Madder". Uludağ Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Dergisi. 28 (3): 761–774. doi:10.17482/uumfd.1318831.
123Darning Scotland's Textile Heritage, University of Glasgow (2019). Follow the Threads: An Introduction to the Textile Collections at the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections. Scotland: University of Glasgow and National Lottery Heritage Fun Collecting Cultures programme. pp.6–9.
↑Akman, Orkun; Gönenç Güler, Emel (2021). "Edirne Kırmızısı'nın Edirne İline Kent Kimliği Kazandırmasındaki Rolü". Trakya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (in Turkish). 23 (2): 941–962. doi:10.26468/trakyasobed.996317. (citing Jacque, 1995, pp. 80–81)
↑Gökçe, T. (2018), Osmanlı Dönemi Batı Anadolu Boyahaneleri ve Üretim Endüstrisinin Araştırılması, TÜBİTAK Prje No:114K291.
↑Tanrıkulu, M. (2024). "Türk Kırmızısı ve Turkuazın Türk Renk Kültüründeki Yeri ve Önemi" [The Place and Importance of Turkish Red and Turquoise in Turkish Color Culture]. Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi (in Turkish) (21): 332–353. doi:10.46250/kulturder.1469310.
Color coordinates