Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World

Author(s): Simon Garfield

History

An artificial dye, mauve, was discovered by a 19th-century chemist called William Perkin while searching for a synthetic alternative to natural quinine. This book examines how the different worlds of fashion, industry, business, chemistry and medicine were transformed by a single colour.

General Information

  • : 9780571209170
  • : Faber and Faber
  • : Faber and Faber
  • : 0.19
  • : 01 September 2001
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Other Specifications

  • : Simon Garfield
  • : Paperback
  • : New edition
  • : 240
  • : Popular science; Pigments, dyestuffs & paint technology; Biography & autobiography; History of science; Economic history; Social & cultural history
  • : 8pp colour illustrations

More About The Product

'This remarkable book about how the colour was discovered opened my eyes... Garfield's study is far more than a social history of fashion. It is a book about science which also happens to be a miniature work of art.' Daily Telegraph

Simon Garfield was born in 1960. He is the author of Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Industry (1986). The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS (1994). are The Nation's Favourite: The True Adventures of Radio 1 (1998).