Mauve - Mauveine, The First Aniline Dye

Mauveine, The First Aniline Dye

Mauve was first named in 1856. Chemist Sir William Henry Perkin, then eighteen, was attempting to create artificial quinine. An unexpected residue caught his eye, which turned out to be the first aniline dye – specifically, Perkin's mauve or mauveine, sometimes called aniline purple. Perkin was so successful in recommending his discovery to the dyestuffs industry that his biography by Simon Garfield is titled Mauve. As mauveine faded easily, our contemporary understanding of mauve is as a lighter, less saturated color than it was originally known.