"Of all the jewelry I have looked at, I have only found one example of what I can guess is gutta-percha," Romero says. "A lot of materials are misidentified as gutta-percha." ...

Gutta percha was introduced to Europe in 1842 by Dr. William Montgomerie, ... Chess pieces, mirror cases and jewelry were fabricated with it, and dentists found it useful for filling cavities.

Gutta-percha, a natural plastic extracted from trees in Southeast Asia, sparked a craze in Victorian England, leading to its use in everything from golf balls to ear trumpets.

The annual market for gutta-percha in the U.S. is estimated to be $30 million to $40 million, and most of it comes from Brazil, where tappers harvest sap from trees growing in the rain forest.

Does Cutting Up Plastic Rings Really ... but let’s not forget that for the previous 20,000 years our most durable building materials had been gutta-percha and bark—people were used to ...

Sometimes used interchangeably with “hard rubber,” gutta percha is actually a little different. It molds well and produces a marbled swirling black intermingled with veins of reddish-brown.

Gutta Percha in Dentistry. Share full article. Nov. 27, 1855. Credit... The New York Times Archives. See the article in its original context from November 27, 1855, Page 4 Buy Reprints.

Gutta percha was first introduced to the west by William Mongomerie in 1843. He demonstrated to the Royal Society of Arts in London, the materials’ ability to be heated and moulded. Properties of ...