The tree trunk is the bole. That is the whole trunk of any tree without it’s branches – it’s core, that once cut becomes a log. It’s the bole of the tree that has value – in use to provide the raw material for structure, flooring, and joinery whether that’s a roof structure, a panelled wall or turning a fruit bowl – and therefore financially, so that the straightest and tallest, or the thickest or the one with most burrs will have the highest monetary value. The word bole may be used of a trunk before or after cutting to discuss it’s use – for planking, or turning, or whatever. When the trees are cut down, felled, and stripped, and especially when en masse, the process is logging.
2. The clay from the Levant and from Armenia which is naturally reddish brown in colour and the traditional material, mixed with rabbit skin glue, as the gesso to support gilding. Use for all authentic works and for restoration. Available from www.cornelissen.com
3. Also used loosely to describe any reddish brown pigment/ colour that is applied beneath real or pretend gilding.
4. Bole is probably from the latin ‘bolus’ or dirt, due to the soil origins.
5. As a colour it is most similar to what we often call Venetian red, ( on the browny side of the scale and towards pink ) and has often been referred to as terra rose – which is essentially the red ochre that occurs throughout the mediterranean and has long been used as a favourite pigment to colour exterior wall paint.
- The Levant is a place of exotic overtones, and rich culture where the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Western Asia meet. Often called ” the land where the sun rises ” ( Japan is known as ” the land where the sun sets” ) As an approximate area – the countries along the shores of the eastern mediterranean – an area bounded by the Taurus mountains of Turkey in the north, the mediterranean sea to the west, the Arabian desert to the south and Mesoptamia in the east – broadly covering Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Armenia and Greece