The name Coomassie was adopted at the end of the 19th century as a trade name by the Blackley based dye manufacturer Levinstein Ltd, in marketing a range of acid wool dyes.[1] In 1896 during the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War, British forces had occupied the town of Coomassie (modern-day Kumasi in Ghana). In 1918 Levinstein Ltd became part of British Dyestuffs which in 1926 became part of Imperial Chemical Industries.[2] Although ICI still owns the Coomassie trademark, the company no longer manufactures the dyes.