Monday, November 3, 2008

The Recipe for Puke!


I am so thrilled! I found the recipe for Puke!

Oh, you think I am insane? Well, only a little. You see, Puke was a color used during Elizabethan times. The first Elizabeth, mind you.

Now I've been hunting and hunting for a good, period definition of Puke. It is *not* Puce - that term was invented around 1775. Puke seems to have been a dark, russet black or gray. I haven't found a clear description, but I did find a dye recipe, and I am elated!

The reason I've been hunting for Puke and Puce, Musk and Murrey, and many other colors, is that I am in the final stages of compiling a dictionary of colors in history, called:

Elephant's Breath and London Smoke:

Historical Color Names, Definitions, and Uses.

It will be published by Five Rivers in the spring, so I'd best get back to work and get it finished!

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