Perkin's and Caro's Mauveine in Queen Victoria's Lilac Postage Stamps: A Chemical Analysis. Issue 7 (23rd January 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Conceição Oliveira, Maria da; Dias, Ana; Douglas, Peter; Seixas de Melo, J. Sérgio
• Is Part Of: Chemistry. Volume 20:Issue 7(2014)
• Page Start: 1808
• Page End: 1812
• Publication Date: 2014-01-23
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/chem.201303232
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0947-6539

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Mauveine, a chemical icon, is no longer commercially available. If nowadays one wanted to have a sample of the original Perkin, or Caro, mauveine, and see its colour, where would one find it? The answer is on UK Victorian 6d postage stamps from 1867–1880. This was found from a comparison with historical samples of mauveine, from both William Perkin and a Heinrich Caro sample (here analysed for the first time). These have distinctly different compositions and this was used to identify the origin of mauveine in the postage stamps, with evidence found for mauveine made by both Perkin's and Caro's synthesis.</p> </abstract>