Dictionarium polygraphicum. The method of dying browns.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
I. The method of dying BROWNs.
Take a sufficient quantity of water, put it into the copper, and put of red-wood ground and nut galls bruis'd, of each twenty ounces; boil them together, and enter twenty yards of broad-cloth, boiling it for two hours and a half, and keep cooling it with a cooler, for fear of spotting; then take it up and air it: then put in sixteen oun ces of copperas, and enter the cloth again, when it is almost ready to boil again, and handle it, letting it boil half an hour, and then cool it. If you would have the colour sadder, put in more copperas.

II. To dye a sad BROWN.
First, infuse the cloth or stuff to be dyed in a strong tincture of hermodactyls; then put saffron and ashes in a bag stratum super stratum, upon which put water two parts, mixed with vinegar one part; strain out the water and vinegar, being thoroughly hot, fifteen or sixteen times. In this lixiviate tincture of saffron, put the former matter to be dyed, letting it lie a night; then take it out, and without wring ing, hang it up to dry; repeat this working the second and third times.

III. To dye a BROWN tawny, or iron rust colour.
Make a strong decoction of walnut-tree leaves in fair water; then put in the matter you would have dyed, and boil it some hours with the leaves in the said liquor, and when it comes out, it will be exactly of a tawny brown colour.

IV. To make the colour call'd the London BROWN.
First dye twenty yards of cloth of a bright blue; then take stale, clear liquor made of wheat bran a sufficient quantity, a quarter of a pound of ground logwood, and of alum two pound and a half; mix and boil the cloth two hours and a half, and then cool it; afterwards take fresh liquor made of wheat bran and clear, to which put two pounds and a half of madder, and handle the cloth; let it have a quick fire to a boiling, then cool it; after which, take a sufficient quantity of fair water, half a pound of logwood, a quarter of a pound of brasil ground; then let them boil well, adding some urine; then enter the cloth, and handle it, and let it boil a quarter of an hour; cool it and wash it well.

V. To dye woollen a clove BROWN.
Boil three pounds of alum, and two pounds of tartar in a copper; then put in the stuff, boil it two hours; then take it out, and put in together five pound of madder, and a pint of wheat-bran, stirring the liquor three quarters of an hour, till it is boiling hot; then draw off the water, putting in fresh water, and put in a pound of galls and the cloth, which boil for an hour; then take it out again, and put three pounds of copperas into the kettle, and then put in the stuff again, and stir it about till it is sufficiently dyed; then rinse it.

VI. Another clove BROWN.
Heat some water with clear fine flour, and for every pound of stuff, put in two ounces of alum, one ounce of tartar in powder; boil them together, then put in the stuff, and stir it about for an hour; then cool and rinse it; then heat some fair water, and for every pound of stuff, take two ounces of brasile; boil it for half an hour, then put the rinsed stuff into it, and work it so long, till it is sufficiently tinged red; then take it out, and add to the dye an ounce of vitriol; dissolve it very well, then work the stuffs so long in it as you shall judge proper; then rinse it out.

VII. Another BROWN colour.
Take as much water as will cover twenty eight pounds of wool, yarn, flannel or cloth; put it into a copper, to which put nut-galls bruis'd small two pounds, red-wood ground half a pound; then put in the matter to be dyed, let all boil together for three hours; then take out the cloth and air it; then put into the same liquor four pounds of copperas, let it melt; then enter the wool, cloth, &c. again, and boil it to deepen the colour to what degree you would have it.

VIII. Another London BROWN.
To a sufficient quantity of water, put a pound of nut-galls bruis'd, red wood ground, madder and fustic of each half a pound; boil all together for an hour; then put in your cloth or other matter to be dyed, and let it boil an hour also; afterwards take it out and cool it; then put in two pounds of copperas, and when it is melted, put in the cloth again, and sadden it. This will dye twenty pound weight.

IX. Another kind of BROWN.
Put a pound of nut-galls bruis'd small, two pounds and a half of red wood bruis’d to a sufficient quantity of water; let them boil for two hours; enter twenty yards of broad cloth, and sadden it at your pleasure.

X. Another London BROWN.
To a pound and a half of red-wood ground, put a sufficient quantity of water, into which enter twenty yards of broad cloth; boil all together for an hour; take it forth and cool it, and put into the liquor wood-soot a sufficient quantity; and let the copper boil till the wood is dissolv’d; then put in the cloth, and boil it for an hour; take out the cloth and cool it; put in copperas a sufficient quantity; put in the cloth again, and sadden it as usual.

XI. Another BROWN colour.
Put two pounds of madder, and a pound and a half of nut galls bruis'd, and three quarters of a pound of fustick, into a sufficient quantity of water; let them boil, and then put in fifty pounds of wool, yarn, flannel or cloth; let it boil for two hours and a half; then cool it, and t in copperas two pounds, and boil to a sadness design'd.

XII. To dye a lasting and neat purple BROWN.
First dye cloth (for slight stuffs will not bear the price of this dye) a blue, either light or dark, according as you would have the colour; then boil it first either with galls and madder, or with galls only; and after that with copperas.
When it has been well boil'd with madder, or with copperas and madder, or with galls alone, if it be perfectly finish'd, it will not take any stain from wine, vinegar, or urine.
On the contrary, all colours dyed with wood; as for example, the red or the blue, in which brasile has been us'd, will take stains from the weakest acids, which will cause in them a very visible change.
Indeed yellow wood is a sort of exception to this general rule, for its dye does not change so soon.

XIII. To dye barley straw, &c. BROWN.
Take a sufficient quantity of lixivium, Indian wood ground, green shells of wallnuts, of each half a pound; let the straw steep four or five days in a gentle heat, and then take them out.

XIV. To dye or slain wood of a walnut tree BROWN.
Take the green shells of wallnuts, dry them in the sun, and boil them in nut oil; and rub the wood with this oil.