Teindre au bleu de Prusse, une aventure française

Au milieu du XVIIIe siècle, le chimiste Macquer découvre que le bleu de Prusse, pigment récemment inventé, peut servir de colorant et teindre en bleu soie et laine. Mais il n’arrive pas à provoquer l’intérêt des teinturiers. Trente ans après, le projet est repris par Le Pileur d’Apligny, qui n’arrive pas à de meilleurs résultats. Il faut attendre encore trente années et le Blocus continental pour que cette innovation soit jugée stratégique et digne de remplacer l’indigo qui n’arrive plus des colonies. La teinture au bleu de Prusse entre dans sa phase industrielle avec les Raymond père et fils. Elle remporte un grand succès par la beauté des bleus obtenus, et tient ce marché durant une cinquantaine d’année. Son déclin est lié à l’apparition des colorants de synthèse dérivés de l’aniline.

While Prussian blue did indeed begin its European career as a pigment, it was as a dye that it spread in France during the 19th Century. As early as the 18th century, various French chemists (Macquer, Le Pileur d’Apligny) had foreseen and proved that Prussian blue could be used as a dye. This discovery did not interest French dyers, who at that time used indigo from the French Antilles which was very cheap. It wasn’t until the break in international trade due to the Continental System (1806) that the French government urgently began to seek a replacement blue. J.-M. Raymond perfected the Prussian blue dyeing of silk (Raymond blue) in 1811 and his son, P. Raymond, that of wool cloth in 1822. The shades obtained were so highly prized that these dyes would be retained after the Empire’s fall, when France would again import indigo, English this time, from the Carolinas. The fashion in France for Prussian blue dyeing was then the cause for the development of an industry for the production of cyanides and yellow potash prussiate, the major part of which was used for dyeing. Manufacturing processes evolved but this flourishing situation was brutally brought to an end in the 1860s by the appearance of the first blue aniline dyes.

Teinture bleu de Prusse Macquer bleu Raymond indigo

Dyeing Prussian blue Macquer Raymond blue indigo