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Examples

  • In the 16th century Brazilwood was the commodity touted to save the country—until stocks ran out.

    Riding Brazil's River of Doubt Holly Finn 2012

  • It could be an amusing party trick to turn blue-colored solutions purple or red and back again, and the variability could be an advantage — it is the basis of some textile printing techniques — but it was a drawback on objects in use. reference Brazilwood could produce wonderful red colors on cloth, but they were susceptible to spotting from acidic substances, even weak vinegar solutions.

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe 2006

  • The nearly coral Brazilwood makes a cuddly set of newborn baby booties and a hat.

    Yearn-Worthy Yarns: New! Rowan’s PureLife 2008

  • Also called the “Brazilwood Manifesto,” because it champions the use of native material and turns against artifice, this manifesto takes its name from the cannibalistic Tupi Indians of Brazil who disposed gastronomically of an unloved Bishop.

    [Jose] Oswald de [Souza] Andrade greenintegerblog 2008

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  • "To satisfy the patrician desire for these colors, dyers turned to costly substances such as brazilwood, the common name for a group of dense tropical hardwoods found in the East. Brazilewood yielded deep crimson and purple dyes, which usually faded with disappointing rapidity to a dowdy pinkish brown. For this reason, 'disceytfull brasell' was often castigated as 'fauls colour'; it also had a tendency to stiffen cloth. But the rarity of good dyestuffs ensured that brazilwood remained valuable. When new varieties were found in South America, the entire region was triumphantly christened Brazil."

    Amy Butler Greenfield, A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire (New York: Harper Collins, 2005), 28-29.

    October 4, 2017