… animals. In other words – from nature. Until the 1850’s, only natural dyes were used around the world.
The predominant dyes used in ancient times were:
Indigo – blue/purple from the leaves of dyer’s woad herb “isatis tinctoria”, and the indigo plant “indigofera tinctoria”;
Alizarin – red from the madder plant;
Kermes & cochineal – reds from scale insects;
Tyrian Purple – purple from glands of snails for only those in high office like kings and emperors because 1.4 grams of dye took 12,000 snails to make;
Weld, quercetin, oak, and carotenoids – yellows to reds from the leaves or in the case of cartenoids the compounds in green plants;
Logwood – initially red but transforms to charcoal, gray, or black and largely used for silk and leather
(photo: natural dyes on wool that were available during the Civil War)