The bright yellow suspenders of this gown are quite different from the saturated yet duller shade of the shawl worn in the previous gown or the gentleman's trousers on the next mount. It's lemony color might indicate the dye source to be quercitron (citron means lemon in French), a new vegetable dye patented in 1799 by Edward Bancroft, a scientist and double agent hired as a spy by both the British government and Benjamin Franklin before the Revolutionary War.(1)

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(1) "Edward Bancroft Scientist/Spy," Who2?, http://www.who2.com/edwardbancroft.html (accessced February 24, 2005).