basic fuchsinesynthetic dyeFrançois-Emmanuel VerguinDiscovery of fuchsineDark greenLongoni & al 2023Cesaratto & al 2016Fuchsine of concentrated G-acid

dyeingTeinturier T2 1860Red fuchsine on wool

Dépierre 1891Fuchsine on cotton

"Ponceau" red fuchsine on cotton

Wurtz 1876Purple fuchsine on silk

Teinturier T2 1861Teinturier T3 1862printingTeinturier T1 1860

Fuchsine, the first French synthetic dye discovered by François-Emmanuel Verguin in 1858, is a triarylmethane dye. In its solid state, Fuchsine appears as green crystallized rods which, depending on the nature of the fiber and the pH of the dye bath, can be used to obtain many pinkish hues. From a chemical point of view, a distinction must be made between basic and acidic forms: acid Fuchsine is a sulfonated derivative obtained from basic Fuchsines, which are most often a mixture of four homologues : pararosaniline, rosaniline and its various salts such as hydrochloride, acetate, oxalate, sulfate, etc, Magenta II and New Fuchsine. Numerous textile samples from the technical press and chemical treatises of the second half of the 19th century confirmed its use on a wide variety of materials for dyeing wool, cotton, silk, straw and parchment. But beyond these applications, printing has also been attested with this eye-catching dye.

Musée des Arts et MétiersRenard FrèresFuchsine Renard

Acid fuchsine on wool & cotton

Heinrich CaroAcid Azo-fuchsine 273

Azofuchsine 6B Bayer

Azofuchsine 6B

BayerLanafuchsine 6B concentrate

Lanafuchsine 6B

Manufacture Lyonnaise des Matières ColorantesCompagnie française des matières colorantes de Saint-Clair du Rhône1862 International ExhibitionExposition Universelle of 1867Hofmann & al 1867Chevalier 1862-64

This wide variety of compounds is illustrated in the historical dyes collection from the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, which contains over than 10 different dyes named after Fuchsine, including the very first from the Renard Frères or Acid Fuchsine, discovered by Heinrich Caro in 1877. As Fuchsine was a commercial success, the term continued to be used until the beginning of the 20^th century to design later derivative dyes. The latter do not systematically belong to the same dye class than Fuchsine, but to azo dyes as in the case of Azofuchsine, marketed by Bayer in 1900, or Lanafuchsine 6B by the Manufacture Lyonnaise des Matières Colorantes marketed in 1902. It is certain that those new materials haven’t totally replaced the original triarymethane Fuchsines, as with the case of Fuchsine N.J.L. from la Compagnie française des matières colorantes de Saint-Clair du Rhône, which was founded in 1916. The commercial success of the first Fuchsine was immediate, as reported in the International Exhibition’s jury reports in 1862 and 1867 and its use as a trade name until the beginning of the 20th century testifies how firmly this major historical dye was anchored in the consumer trends at the time.