The History of Colors and Purple

THE HISTORY OF COLORS
Color is important in art, beauty, and fashion. It certainly is paramount in the beauty of glass beads and jewelry. So I am now beginning a series of entries on the history of various colors. Before we start, lets talk about what color is. Colors are the way we perceive light. Black is the absence of light. All of visible light together is white. The 3 basic colors that make up white light are red, yellow, and blue. The other colors are combinations of those 3 basic colors. As for color in glass beads, the ancient Egyptians made colored glass by mixing various metals and minerals with the glass. The art spread to Phoenicia and Mesopotamia. Colored glass became popular in Europe during the Middle Ages because of its use in making stain glass windows in churches. The art of making colored glass became particularly developed in Venice. Colored glass remains popular today in glass beads and beaded jewelry.
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So, let's start with the color purple.
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THE HISTORY OF PURPLE
The color purple is a mixture of blue and red. The earliest purple dyes came from Phoenicia about 4000 years ago and were extracted from certain shell fish. The purple dyes were very expensive because it took many shell fish to make a small amount of dye. Therefore purple became the color of royalty in various empires including ancient Egypt, then Persia, and then Rome among others. During the Middle Ages it was used in the cloaks of the highest clergy in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. An English chemist named William Perkins in 1856 developed a method for making synthetic purple dye from coal tar. Then purple became relatively inexpensive and therefore available to common people.
You can find purple lampwork glass beads handcrafted by the Beadshaper at http://www.beadshaper.com/gallery
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Jewelry in King Arthur's time

JEWELRY IN KING ARTHUR'S TIME
King Arthur was king of England in the early Middle Ages. Jewelry in his time was used not only for beauty but also for religious, status, and other cultural purposes. Silver was mined in Europe. Gold was usually obtained by melting down old Roman coins. Precious stones were generally imported from the East. Amber came from the Baltic Sea area. Pearls came from local oysters.
It was a time when the Roman Empire had recently collapsed and jewelry craft tried to imitate the art of ancient Rome. It was also a time when there was much conversion from the ancient Pagan religions of Europe to Christianity, and jewelry and other arts often employed religious symbols.

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The photo depicted here is of a modern handcrafted lampwork glass pendant named for the Lady of the Lake, a mysterious beautiful character in the King Arthur legends who in the story gave the sword, Excalibur, to King Arthur, proving him to be the rightful King of Britain. It is made by the Beadshaper and can be found at the Beadshaper's Gallery under Pendants.