Berlin work was traditionally executed in many colours, to produce intricate, almost 3D effects. Berlin wool work was stimulated by the discovery and development of aniline dyes from the 1830s, which meant that a much wider range of bright colours could be produced and used for embroidery.

Aniline is an organic compound that is derived from coal and oil. The history of aniline is complicated, as it was identified by various scientists and given a variety of different names, all within a relatively short period of time. Aniline was first isolated from indigo by Otto Unverdorben, who called it Crystallin, in 1826. Not long afterwards, in 1834, Friedlieb Runge isolated a substance from coal tar that he called kyanol or cyanol. The substance turned a bright blue colour when treated with chloride of lime. Runge’s discovery was followed in 1840 by Carl Julius Fritzsche (1808-1871), who treated indigo with caustic potash and obtained an oil that he called aniline. It was later recognised that all of these substances were the same and they became known under the general heading, aniline.

Berlin work chart, from the 1840s - 1850s, with a design of a bouquet of flowers, including roses, violets, bluebells and columbines (TRC 2018.1565). For more information, click on the illustration.

The most important discovery in the early history of aniline took place in 1856 when the British scientist, Sir William Henry Perkin (1838-1907), identified in coal-tar benzene a related product that he called mauveine, which produced purple. Perkin then went on to identify a process to consistently produce the first synthetic dyes. Shortly afterwards the French scientist, Antoine Béchamp, developed a new method of producing a range of aniline dyes on an industrial scale. These dyes literally changed the nature of colour production (techniques, economics, social structures) within the textile industry throughout the world. In particular, production of aniline dyes led to the creation of a massive dye industry in Germany under the name of BASF (Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik), which supplied aniline dyes to many countries around the world.