Coventry blue was a blue cloth woven and dyed with

woad ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...

. The permanence of the colour led to the phrase "as true as Coventry blue" or "true blue". Bride-laces were

wedding favour A party favor is a small gift given to the guests at a party as a gesture of thanks for their attendance, a memento of the occasion, or simply as an aid to frivolity. Occasions It is traditional in some Western cultures for the guests at b ...

s traditionally made as sprigs of

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was known by the scientific name ''Rosma ...

tied with blue

ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mater ...

which were worn by wedding guests. Coventry blue ribbons were commonly used for these until festivities were suppressed by the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. P ...

s during the

Interregnum (1649–1660) The interregnum in the British Isles began with the execution of Charles I in January 1649 (and from September 1651 in Scotland) and ended in May 1660 when his son Charles II was restored to the thrones of the three realms, although he had been ...

. The exact recipe for Coventry blue was then lost as a result of the disruption and decline in trade.

References

Shades of blue Plant dyes Coventry {{textile-stub

See also

References