Unveiling the colour palette of Arraiolos carpets: Material study of carpets from the 17th to 19th century period by HPLC-DAD-MS and ICP-MS

Wool samples collected from thirteen Arraiolos carpets from the 17th-19th century belonging to the National Museum of Ancient Art (NMAA, Lisboa, Portugal) collection were analysed to identify the natural dyes and mordants employed in the traditional dyeing process, in a way to complement and improve actual knowledge on this rugs. Natural dyes were extracted from Arraiolos historical wool fibres using a mild extraction method, followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array and mass spectrometry detection (HPLC-DAD-MS) for compound identification. Colourimetry was used to measure colour parameters in all historical samples. Quantification of mordants in the historical fibres was carried out by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Weld, indigo, spurge flax, brazilwood, madder and cochineal were identified as dye sources in the fibres. Alum was the most commonly used mordant, but the presence of iron and zinc was also detected in some darker samples. The use of madder and cochineal is not referred in the available historical dyeing recipes. This study also proved that the actual visual perception of these carpets is strongly affected by the natural dyes photodegradation, which was mostly unaccounted for before.