Chinese hillside, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, February 2016

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Hex colour reference: CD4A4A

A colourful note: The first recorded use of mahogany, named after the wood of the same name,  as a colour term in English was in 1737, and of mahogany red was in 1843.  This shade featured here is definitely of the red variety, known in Crayola world as just mahogany.

During the Second World War, Crayola had difficulties obtaining sufficient quantities of some colours and their range dissipated.  In 1949, supplies were at good levels again and they launched a new box of 48 colours, many with new names, though not necessarily actually new shades.  The colour historian,  Ed Welter, has compared all of the crayons and believes that the only truly new colour in that box was mahogany.

Now, the Crayola website tells us that mahogany didn’t become one of their shades until 1991, so I wonder if it changed to its red shade in that year.  A massive amount of googling has given me no answer on this.  Though did discover another little gem fact: the current mahogany had a temporary new name  in the “State Crayon Collection” which ran from 2004 to 2006: it was known as Tennessee Tennesienna.

Copyright Debbie Smyth, 23 February 2016