Also known as royal purple, An ancient highly prized purple-red DYE used by the ancient Hebrews, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines… and extracted from molluscs such as the Murex. It was notable in that instead of fading over time, it became brighter and more intense with AGEING. Being valuable, it has historically been associated with high status, hence the expression to be ‘born in the purple’. It is now a synthetic dye.
