This week we'll travel the world discovering toponyms ["place names"] as Anu recovers from jet-lag.

The AWAD for today is "hackney". Please scroll down.

The AWAD for Day 1 is "gamboge":

In Cambodia there is found a tree,
Garcinia, with a sap which runs free:
Bright yellow, trace of red.
Therefore it is said
Gamboge is the color we see.

Gamboge is most commonly extracted by tapping from the tree Garcinia hanburyi.. The trees must be ten years old before they are taped. The resin is extracted by making spiral incisions in the bark and by breaking off the leaves and shoots of the tree and letting the milky yellow resinous gum drip out. The resulting latex that exudes out is collected in hollow bamboo. When the latex is congealed, the bamboo is broken away and large rods of raw gamboge remain. (Fitzhugh)

History of Use By Artists

This pigment can be found in places like one of Rembrandt's paintings in the Staatliche Kuntstsammlungen in Dresden. Fragments of gamboge were also found in the paintboxes of John Mallord William Turner and Townsend. An interesting discovery of gamboge was found on an Armenian gospel done about 1300. If this identification is confirmed, it would prove gamboge's presence is Asia Minor in that time. (Fitzhugh)

http://snipurl.com/da2i