Drysalters were dealers in a range of chemical products, including glue, varnish, dye and colourings. They might supply salt or chemicals for preserving food and sometimes also sold pickles, dried meat or related items. The name drysalter or dry-salter was in use in the United Kingdom by the early 18th century^[1] when some drysalters concentrated on ingredients for producing dyes, and it was still current in the first part of the 20th century.

Drysaltery is closely linked to the occupation of salter which in the Middle Ages simply meant someone who traded in salt. By the end of the 14th century there was a guild of salters in London. Later salter was also used to refer to people employed in a salt works, or in salting fish or meat, as well as to drysalters. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The Worshipful Company of Salters is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom. ...

In 1726 Daniel Defoe described a tradesman involved in the "buying of cochineal, indigo, galls, shumach, logwood, fustick, madder, and the like" as both dry-salter and salter. The Salters' Livery Company tells us that "some of the members who were salt traders were also 'Drysalters' and dealt in flax, hemp, logwood, cochineal, potashes and chemical preparations." Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... Binomial name Dactylopius coccus Costa, 1835 Synonyms Coccus cacti Linnaeus, 1758 Pseudococcus cacti Burmeister, 1839 Cochineal is an expensive crimson or carmine dye derived from the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), a scale insect in the suborder Homoptera, native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico. ... Indigo dye indigo molecule Indigo dye is an important dyestuff with a distinctive blue color (see indigo). ... Kalanchoë infected with crown-gall using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Binomial name Haematoxylum campechianum The Logwood tree (Haematoxylum campechianum) was once an important source of red dye. ... Fustic could be two different yellow dyes Old Fustic Young Fustic Category: ... Species See text. ... Livery Companies are trade associations based in the City of London. ... Binomial name Linum usitatissimum Linnaeus. ... This is one of several related articles about cannabis. ... Potash Potash (or carbonate of potash) is an impure form of potassium carbonate (K2CO3) mixed with other potassium salts. ...

Being a drysalter might be combined with manufacturing - paint, for example - or with trading as a chemist/druggist or ironmonger/hardware merchant.^[2]

Footnote

Wet-salter could refer to a fish curer or to someone tanning leather by wet salting hides. In polymer chemistry and Process Engineering, curing refers to the toughening or hardening of a polymer material by cross-linking of polymer chains, brought about by chemical additives, ultraviolet radiation or heat. ... Tanning is the process of making leather from skin. ...

References

• Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, Chapter IV (London 1726)
• Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
• The Salters' Company
• Scotsman archives

1. ^ OED
2. ^ Scotsman

External links

• Drysalter's wholesale price list 1889
• Drysalter's Shop in the 1930s