Fustic
Cotinus coggygria
(aka: Rhus cotinus)
Historical References
Also known as: Fustet, young fustic
According to Cardon (2007), Fustic was one of the main yellow dyes of silk and wool in Mediterranean Europe in the Middle Ages.
Fustic is one of the yellow dyes prescribed by Rosetti (1548).
"94. To make yellow over white
Take out some fustet and cut it as minutely as you can and make it boil until it drops by half. And you will take "corniola" [dyer's broom] and as you put in that weed, pu in the fustet and put in roch alum, and gum arabic according to the quantity ou wish to make. Thus made said water will make a yellow colour very fine and beautiful"
- Edelstein and Borghetty translation
There are no quantities in this dye recipe. As I can only find the fustic as an extract I've never really worried about the dropping the water amount!
Young fustic should not be confused with "old fustic" which is plant from the North American midwest.
I've been unable to buy fustic as a dye stuff, but I have bought the extract through Dharma Trading.
When mordanted with alum, this one is a golden yellow on wool and silk. Linen is only a pale yellow.
It is relatively light fast, although the shade may change. It became a browner shade when exposed to sunlight.
When mordanted with iron, the colour on silk and wool is a weak and uninteresting green. The colour on linen seems to be more due to the mordant than the dye.
