Historical Reference

Kermes Dye

The kermes dyed Mantle of Roger II King of Sicily Known as the Coronation Mantle of The Holy Roman Empire Palermo, Royal workshop, Dated Hijri 528 (1133/34) Figured silk (kermes-dyed), gold and silk embroidery, pearls, gold with cloisonné enamel, precious stones H 146 cm, W 345 cm SK Inv. No. XIII 14 Picture and some details from Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

Photo: Fra' Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Detail of the Mantle

Kermes is mentioned as a source of a red insect dye. It is usually idendified with Cochineal and used to date a rug into a specific time period. This may sound logical in a way but we cannot assume that Kermes is Cochineal.

In the book of Genesis chapter 28 Tamar bears the twin sons of her father-in-law Judah:

²⁸And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, "This one came out first."

Scarlet in this case is Kermes and was recordred in the hebrew as ynX transliterated as Shaniy. this specific word for kermes is used 42 times in the Bible

Cochineal of Ararat: Porphyrophora Hamelii

Cochineal of Ararat.—In that part of Armenia which is now incorporated with the Russian empire, in the province of Erivan, and in the valleys of Araxes, a species of cochineal insect is found, which, according to M. Hamel, appears to be unknown to naturalists. It is met with principally in the villages of Schorly, Sarwanlar, Nedscely, Hassan, Abad, &c. M. Hamel, by giving a view of the different authorities who have mentioned it, shows that it enjoyed an important rank in commerce until the period when the American cochineal shut it out of the market. It is very distinct from the cochineal of Poland. A pound of Armenian cochineal contains only from 18 to 23 thousand insects, while that of Mexico contains 20 to 25 thousand, and that of Poland 100 to 130 thousand. It contains also more coloring matter in an equal weight than the Polish. It is found abundantly on the roots of the -AErolupus laevis (Trinius), a plant which grows abundantly in Erivan. Brandt proposes to call it Porphyrophora Hamelii. Records of Gen. Science.

The American Journal of Pharmacy, Published By Authority Of The Philadelphia College Of Pharmacy. Edited By Joseph Carson, M. D. Prof. Mat. Med. in Phil. Coll. Pharm. New Series—Volume Iii., Philadelphia: Printed By Merrihew and Gunn, No. 7 Carter's Alley. 1838.

Dyeing and Calico-Printing; By Robert Macfarlane

The principal varieties of kermes are the coccus quercus, the coccus polonicus. the coccus fragaria, and the coccus uva ursi. The coccus quercus insect lives in the south of Europe upon the kermes oak. The female has no wings, is of the size of a small pea, of a brownish-red color, and is covered with a whitish dust. From the middle of May to the middle of June the eggs are collected, and exposed to the vapor of vinegar, to prevent their incubation. A portion of eggs is left upon the tree for the maintenance of the brood. In the department of the Bouches-du-Rhone, one half of the kermes crop is dried. It amounts annually to about 80 quintals or cwts. and is warehoused at Avignon.

The kermes of Poland, or coccus polonicus, is found upon the roots of the scleranthus perennis and the scleranthus annuus, in sandy soils of that country and the Ukraine. This species has the same properties as the preceding; one pound of it, according to Wolfe, being capable of dyeing 10 pounds of wool; but Hermstaedt could not obtain a fine color, although he employed five times as much of it as of cochineal. The Turks, Armenians, and Cossacks, dye with kermes their morocco leather, cloth, silk, as well as the manes and tails of their horses. The kermes called coccus fragaria is found principally in Siberia, upon the root of the common strawberry. The coccus uva ursi is twice the size of the Polish kermes, and dyes with alum a fine red. It occurs in Russia. Kermes is found not only upon the lycopodium complanatum in the Ukraine, but upon a great many other plants.

Good kermes is plump, of a deep red color, of an agreeable smell, and a rough and pungent taste. Its coloring matter is soluble in water and alcohol:

• Acids ..... Yellowish brown.
• Alkalis ..... Violet or Crimson
• Alum Blood-red.
• Copperas and Tartar . . Lively gray.
• Sulphate of copper and Tartar . Olive green.
• Tartar and Salt of Tin . . Lively cinnamon yellow.
• Alum and Tartar. Lilac.Sulphate of zinc (white vitriol) and Tartar. Violet.
• Copperas ..... Blackens it.

Scarlet and crimson dyed with kermes, were called grain colors; and they are reckoned to be more durable than those of cochineal, as is proved by the brilliancy of the old Brussels tapestry. Hellot says that previous to dyeing in the kermes bath, he threw a handful of wool into it, in order to extract a blackish matter, which would have tarnished the color. The red caps for the Levant are dyed at Orleans with equal parts of kermes and madder; and occasionally with the addition of some Brazil-wood. Cochineal and lac-dye have now nearly superseded the use of kermes as a tinctorial substance.

On applying to these insects the processes employed by M. M. Pelletier and Caventon in the analysis of cochineal, M. Lassaigne obtained analogous results. It hence appears, that kermes has a chemical composition, very analogous to that of cochineal.

Kermes has been known in the East since the days of Moses: it has been employed from time immemorial in India to dye silk; and was used also by the ancient Greek and Roman dyers. Pliny speaks of it under the name of coccigranum, and says that there grew upon the oak in Africa, Sicily, &c., a small excrescence like a bud, called cusculium; that the Spaniards paid with these grams, half of their tribute to the Romans; that those produced in Sicily were the worst; that they served to dye purple; and that those from the neighborhood of Emerita in Lusitania (Portugal) were the best."
Dyeing and Calico-Printing; By Robert Macfarlane, of The Scientific American. New York: John Wiley, 56 Walker Street. 1860.

A 1911 account:

"KERMES, kgr'mez (Ar., Pers. qirmiz, qir- mizi, crimson, from Skt. krmija, produced by a worm, from krmi, worm -f- jna, to be born), or Scarlet Grain. One of the most ancient dye- stuffs on record, known in the time of Moses "as tola and to the Greeks as coccus. It was obtained from the dried bodies of female kermes insects (Lecanium ilicis, L.). Kermes has been largely supplanted by cochineal (q.v.), which has 10 to 12 times its coloring power, but is still used in some parts of the south of Europe and more extensively in India and Persia. The kermes insect is abundant in these regions, attaching itself to the leaves of the kermes oak (Quercvs coccifcra), a low, bushy shrub with evergreen, spinous leaves. In some parts of Spain the kermes oak grows in great profusion, as on the slopes of the Sierra Morena. The kermes insect attacks the young shoots of the shrub, the female affixing itself and remaining immovable till, after attaining its full size, about that of a pea, it deposits its eggs. Kermes is gathered towards the end of May, before the eggs are hatched. The insects are killed by exposure to the fumes of boiling vinegar and afterward dried in the sun or in an oven. The coloring matter is kermesic acid, C19,,H12O9,. It has been employed from time immemorial to dye cloth a brownish dark red. It may still be seen in the red draperies of the figures in old Flemish tapestries. Tradition states that the curtains of the Hebrew tabernacle were dyed with kermes."

From The New International Encyclopaedia edited by Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston Peck, Frank Moore Colby 1911

See my Guide to Dyes