This etching by Christoph Weigel, printed in 1711, demonstrates the technology used to dye large amounts of yarn in the 18th century. The two men stand on blocks while they work, and wear aprons. The large skeins are stirred in the vat, and then hung from hooks on a bar above the vat to drip dry. The three vats are either a mordant bath and a dye bath, or individual separate dye baths. Yarn hangs from a stand to the left, waiting to be dyed. Large sieves used to retrieve the skeins once dyed rest on the middle of the vat.
