ABSTRACT
The red dyes of natural origin are of great importance in the history of early textiles and lake pigments. Their identification on ancient and historical textiles can be crucial to answer questions of dating, provenance, types of degradation, original colour and appearance of the artwork (Hofenk de Graaff 2004). The main colouring matters of the most important red natural dyes, such as lac dye, cochineal and madder, are based on a hydroxyanthraquinonic chromophore structure.
