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How to get 1.4 grams of dye out of 12,000 snails.

Ancient purple comes from a gland in sea snails such as Bolinus brandaris. You either milk the animals or crush them; the secretion ripens for days and only turns colour in light. Twelve thousand snails yield about 1.4 grams of pure dye. At Colophon purple was worth its weight in silver.

Useful: A price is often explained not by rarity but by the labour per gram.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

AntikeFarbeHandwerk

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