Coffee

Coffee trees

Description

A brown, aromatic liquid prepared from the aqueous extract of coffee beans (Coffea arabica). Coffee beans were first cultivated in southern Arabia in the 15th century. They spread to Indonesia in the 17th century. By the 18th century, coffee plants were also being grown in Central and South America. Coffee is used as a beverage and as a brown dye. On wool, it produces a dark yellow-tan color with a chrome mordant and a tan with an aluminum mordant. Both colors have fair light fastness. Coffee colors on cotton are not fast. Some restorers have used coffee to tint bleached papers or repair regions to a shade that corresponds to surrounding areas (Roberts and Etherington 1982).

Coffea arabica

Synonyms and Related Terms

Coffea arabica; caffè (It.); café (Fr., Port.); coffee beans

Additional Information

• M.Roberts, D.Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1982.
• See also [Uemera Dye Archive (Coffee)]

Additional Images

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  Coffee

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  Coffee

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  Arabian coffee tree Coffea arabica cultivars

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  Wool dyed with coffee
  Uemera Dye Archive

Sources Checked for Data in Record

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 211

• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: "coffee" [Accessed September 22, 2003].

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998