Pink Ivory (Berchemia zeyheri), also called Red Ivory, umNini or umGoloty, is a very rare African wood used to make luxury products (for example billiard cues and knives). The Pink Ivory tree grows predominantly in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. The wood is extremely hard, with a density of 990 g/dm³.
Pink Ivory is the royal tree of the Zulus because only the royal family were allowed to possess the wood. A legend was started in order to increase the value of the wood when sold overseas. The "legend" claimed that anyone else other than the Zulu royal family possessing the wood (including foreigners) was said to be punished with death.
Famous quotes containing the words pink and/or ivory:
“Then, bringing me the joy we feel when wee see a work by our favorite painter which differs from any other that we know, or if we are led before a painting of which we have until then only seen a pencil sketch, if a musical piece heard only on the piano appears before us clothed in the colors of the orchestra, my grandfather called me the [hawthorn] hedge at Tansonville, saying, “You who are so fond of hawthorns, look at this pink thorn, isn’t it lovely?””
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The only refuge left to us was the poet’s ivory tower, which we climbed, ever higher, to isolate ourselves from the mob.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)