Sylkology

Sylkology is the study of the origin of Sylko colour names.

Gobelin is named after a famous French family of dyers and tapestry makers from the 15th and 16th Century.

Rose du Barri - The name of the beautiful pink shade comes from a colour used on Sevres porcelain in the 18th century.

Biskra is the name of a city in Algeria - the colour is reminiscent of baked sand.

Buckingham Lilac and St James Rose are from a 1930s series of colours named after royal palaces to mark the Coronation of George VI.


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The Sylko Label Change Mystery

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 You can always tell the older wooden Sylko reels with their white and gold labels. These obviously pre-date the blue and white ones that are better known, because there are no colour names, only numbers and they are less modern in design. The big question for me is when did the changeover take place? When did the colours start to be given names on their labels? I would guess that it took place sometime in the mid-late 1920s. My reasoning is that I have an old style reel with a colour number D229 - this is the highest number that I own with labelling of this type. I also have an advertisement from 1930, stating that at that point in time, there were 280 shades. It is easier to date 1930s shades (see the post on the Colour Council) and at that point around 10 new shades a year were being introduced.  IF that rate was the same in the 1920s, then D229 was introduced in around 1925. But that if is everything. What we need is company documentation. And that still doesn't pinpoint e...
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15 Colours Sylko

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