Brown may be procured by boiling walnut shells to a strong solution, and of a more chestnut hue by boiling in a bath composed of a small handful each of sumach and alder bark, boiled in half a pint of water, with half a drachm of copperas.
To Dye Blue.
Boil your material in the solution of alum and tartar already described.
Then make a blue dye by dissolving the prepared indigo paste in water, the quantity of which must depend upon the color you wish to produce. Boil until you have the shade you desire.
The prepared indigo paste is made by dissolving indigo in oil of vitriol and water in a well stoppered bottle, but it is some trouble to prepare, and may be had already made at a dyer’s.
It requires a white ground to produce a good blue.
To Dye Purple or Violet.
First dye your materials blue and let them dry, according to the recipe already given. Then bruise a couple of table-spoonfuls of cochineal, which boil until the color is extracted; then put in the blue hackles, or other feathers, and simmer them over the fire until the purple is obtained.
Wash and dress as before directed.