I remember reading about Jane Austin when looking for a day out in Sussex.

I then read an article that said she may well have died from poisoning. The theory was that she made her own ink and it could have been the culprit. No one really knows.

https://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/collection

The old link to this page has now gone but the recipe was:

To Make Ink

4oz. blue gauls, 2 oz. of green Copperas, 1 oz of half of gum arabic, break the gauls, the gum & Copperas must be beaten in a Mortar & put into a pint of strong stale beer; with a pint of small Beer, put in a little refined Sugar, it must stand in a chimney Corner fourteen days & shaken two or three times a day

Ok science bit. Im rusty so may not be 100%.

Gum to bind, sugar to harden and preserve small beer = clean water fermented and aliki….oh fixative.

Makes perfect sense.

I wouldn’t drink it.

https://www.themorgan.org/blog/jane-austens-writing-technical-perspective

Josephine de Beauharnais – Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife – and her Malmaison wallpaper.

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/chateau-malmaison-napoleon-josephine-bonaparte

It was a beautiful green. Well to be more precise arsenic green.

Here is a revealing article on the horrors of green dye.

This Week’s Post: Free From Arsenic

I worked with aniline dyes for a while I warned everyone they would fade. There was something about the colour and the fact that you dissolved them in a spirit base which evaporated as you applied them. Smelt great but they fade with time and exposure to light. After 30yrs I have white chairs.

I found the dyes in Bodie and Middleton the theatre suppliers in Dury lane. Now part of Russel and Chapple .

https://www.russellandchapple.co.uk/index.php/about

Fab for theatre very intense colour that reflects well under light for a short period of time and dyes anything.

Obviously care must be taken. Remember Jane remember Josephine.

This lady has made it her mission, I have used and loved her recipes.