Fifty-odd yarns, samplings from the striped and plain cloths of the
Chincha lots, were matched against the printed samples in Maerz and
Paul's _Dictionary of Color_.[8] We found yarns corresponding to
thirty-two samples representing five of the eight color groups. We
found no dyed yarns in these cloths for colors in the yellow-to-green,
the blue-to-red, and the purple-to-red groups. Only four yarns out of
three hundred and fifty matched in a previous study,[9] corresponded
to colors in the purple-to-red group and these four matched very dark
samples on plate 56. The available evidence indicates either that the
ancients had not developed dyestuffs to produce such hues as our
fuchsias, magentas, and heliotropes or that they did not favor these
colors.
Over a dozen yarns matched samples on plates 14 and 15 of the
orange-to-yellow groups; as many more matched the browns on plate 37.
Some of the yarns in this series are darker than any of the printed
samples on plate 39. The third largest series, approximately twenty,
match eight samples in the blue-green-to-blue group. The fewest number
represent the green-to-blue-green group. Yarns in four cloths are
similar to poplar and bottle greens.
Stripes are in one, two, or three colors (fig. 8). Most of the
one-color stripes (approximately 10) are blue (37F3, 37I5), one is an
orange-red (5K10), and one clay color (14F8). For the two-color
stripes we were able to distinguish blue (37F3), golden browns
(approximating 15A12), and orange reds (approximating 5K10). In only
one of the six two-color examples, however, were the two colors
sufficiently clear to match the printed samples. Specimen 16-1251
combines brown (15A12) and blue (38C3) stripes.
The three-color stripes in the 16-lot were similarly difficult to
match with the samples in the Dictionary. Yarns from the four
specimens matched samples as follows: